Beginning week six since surgery

I am feeling quite well. The "bag" is not too comfortable and I am having skin problems. The output from the small intestine is quite acidic and has really irritated some surrounding tissue. However we are changing the "appliance" more often, I am trying to lie still for an hour or so with the stoma and surrounding skin exposed to the air so it will help dry the site up, and we have stopped using paste to help seal the appliance as Terry, my wife, feels perhaps the paste is irritating my skin.

Kristi, Ned & Buddy left today to return to Indiana. I went upstairs with Terry and took a nap. I slept about and hour and a half which is quite long for me. I realized that while Kris was here I was staying up in the afternoon and was becoming very tired at night so I guess I still tire. Other than that I've been lifting some heavier objects and doing a few chores but not too much. Terry continues to do most of the work, but I am contributing more and more each day, I hope!

I am ready to have this bag off and the small intestine reattached. However there are a number of advantages I've noticed since I have the iliostomy:

1. To some degree I control when I empty the bag. I do have to empty it several times a night which has me up in the middle of the night, but during the day I can choose my time.
2. I do not have the sense of "urgency" to go to the bathroom I had prior to surgery. I was constantly walking around with this pushing feeling like I had to go, but rarely could.
3. My stomach does not seem to become so upset with different foods. I can't feel it become upset, although once or twice I have felt it do what I call clench when some type of food hit it.
4. I am not bloated and unable to pass gas as before surgery.
5. I do not have the abdominal pain and the pain in the anal area that I had when I became bloated.

Other than that the bag is inconvenient. It slaps against my leg when I walk, it isn't irritating but just feels odd. I certainly don't like the looks of it when I'm naked, but then I'm not body wonderful anyway. The bag changing and emptying can be messy and cause some problems, but Terry, God Bless  her doesn't let me get down about that. She gets in there and helps even though I'm sure she is turned off by the whole issue.

So pluses and minuses, in the long run if I have a colonostomy I'll handle it and be grateful for the opportunity to extend my life further into old age.