Experience of a temporary loop colostomy

Temporary loop colostomy at relatively short notice at the Chelsea & Westminster under an excellent team of surgeons, still had time for a pre-op meeting with the stoma clinic nursing team and I found all three of them to be fantastic. Gave me full awareness of what was going to happen. They were ready for me as soon as I awoke from the operation, visited me regularly in recovery on the ward and gave me all the coaching I needed to carry on at home. Gave me a good amount of supplies to get started, I was soon back in the clinic as an outpatient and the account and first order was made with Coloplast, and after that I was well able to get an online order made and my GP would approve it. The stoma clinic nursing team were the main monitors of my healing and recovery after surgery with frequent appointments initially, spaced out further after recovery to monitor stoma function generally. Where there was a problem was when I started to prolapse and, in the outpatient clinic, the nurses ordered the appropriate stoma belt for me online like the stoma supplies but my GP repeatedly failed to approve the prescription for this - a support belt - allowing my prolapse to worsen. But the stoma otherwise was well managed, I took to it quickly as “a new normal”, I was even able to work offshore for weeks with sufficient supplies, and eventually it was reversed 15 months after it was installed. The only discomfort was prolapse. I very rarely leaked.