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Feelings About Your Stoma

It's natural to have mixed emotions about your stoma

It's not unusual to feel upset, horrified, or just completely numb after learning that you need to have stoma surgery – it's major surgery that has a real impact on your bodily functions.

After your surgery, you may feel several emotions – relief that you no longer have stomach and bowel symptoms, resentful that you'll have to adapt your life to having a pouch, frightened or angry that you need a stoma and perhaps insecure about your new body. All of these feelings are completely natural.

It can help to talk about your feelings

Share your concerns with those close to you, members of support groups who understand your feelings and your Stoma Care Nurse – and, with time, you'll start to regain your confidence. Don't forget that thousands of people have stomas and, for many, having a stoma actually improves their quality of life.

If you'd like to read about how other people have adjusted to life with a stoma and what they've gone through, our blog is full of ostomate experiences, covering all sorts of topics from going on holiday and fashion to diet and relationships. You may find reading these helpful.