Thanks everyone for your advice. I don't think I bumped it but it is
possible that it is from my skin. I have been having constant skin
breakdown since last fall and I have noticed a couple of times that the
stoma seems to be bleeding at the bottom. The problem is that my stoma is
so big that it's hard to tell where it's coming from. There isn't a lot of
bleeding, though, so I guess I'll just hang in until I get to see my gastro
on the 16th.

I was in to see my surgeon last week but didn't even think to mention to him
that I had occasionally noticed some bleeding. I had gone in to talk to him
about getting my loop ileostomy made permanent but he has other ideas.
Apparently, it was designed in a way that it can be easily reversed and this
is what he want to do first.

The whole idea scares me but I think that's because I'm afraid of the
unknown. I don't know what my bowel movements will be like, how often I'll
have them and how long it will take for my colon to get used to being used
again. The surgeon says it could be 3 months or longer. I am going to make
another appointment to see him after I have talked to my gastro because I
have some things I want to discuss with him before I make a decision. The
one good thing is that he isn't putting any pressure on me at all to decide
what I'm going to do. He also promised me that if it didn't work or if I
felt that my quality of life was worse, then he wouldn't hesitate to make it
permanent.

It's a big decision to make and right now I'm sitting right in the middle of
the fence. I would love to get rid of the ostomy, even though it has never
really given me any problems in the last 2 1/2 years, but I'm terrified
about what the future will hold for me if I do get it reversed. If I was 20
or 30 years younger, there wouldn't be any doubt in my mind as to what I
would do. I'd have it reversed. But I'm no spring chicken anymore and the
thought of possibly having to have more surgery when I'm 65 or more really
scares me.

Pat