When your child gets out of ostomy surgery, they will need you to support them. How can you help though? Well, read on to learn how to help with their needs. With this, you will probably learn that once they get out of surgery, they’ll probably be sleepy, and they may also have a pain pump to help with the pain after surgery.
This only allows for a certain amount of pain killer at a time so that it doesn’t cause dangers to the body, and you should check their vitals to ensure that they’re taken care of. When they’re done, they probably are going to want to learn a little bit about the stoma that was created, or what this means for them, and it’s important that you do educate them a little bit on this.
After a little bit, the doctors along with the nurses may ask for the child to walk around to help “wake up” the intestines. Usually, anesthesia causes the gastrointestinal tract to kind of fall asleep and it can be a bit of a problem over time. If they don’t get woken up, ileus can happen, and it can be hard to really get the bowels to work again.
When your child notices that there is stoma output, at first they may not get it, but the nurses and their assistants will help to empty out the pouch. They’ll feel the first couple of times, but usually, they encourage both you and the child themselves to be more independent on this.
They usually will want to have the child empty I out into a container to measure so that they can check the stoma output. During all of this, the surgeons will also discuss the progress of recovery as well. You also will have a nurse come on in to teach the child how they can change their ostomy pouch, and usually, they’ll help the child get set up with suppliers so that you can get them their ostomy supplies easily.
Once the stoma starts to output a little bit, they’ll only be allowed to have a little bit of residue in their diet, or liquids as well, in order to help with reintroducing this. The nurses along with the surgeons will want to make sure that the child does eat and drink a little bit at this point so that blockages don’t happen.
Once the pain is properly managed and they can empty out the pouch and also eat easily, and when the doctor feels it’s time for them to be sent home, they’ll do this. Usually, the child does need to see a doctor a bit after surgery, and an appointment may be set afterward for the child to be checked in upon, but with this, there are definitely a lot of benefits to be had with this, and a lo of course, of different methods and other aspects for you to consider.
If you’re not sure about whether or not you’ll be able to help your child, talk to the ostomy nurse or the surgeon to find out what it’ll take for you to be able to help your child with all of this and to help get them the most care that you can. A lot of people don’t’ realize that there is a lot that goes into this, and it can be a bit step in a different direction, so making sure that you as a parent know-how in the world to help their kid can not only make the experience better, it can help your child as well.
