After the swelling has gone all the way down (six weeks post-op), you should be able to eat whatever you want with an ostomy. Just introduce things slowly at first, so if you do encounter trouble or effects you don't like (such as too much gas) you know who the "culprit" is. As long as you don't go overboard and totally gorge yourself on potentially troublesome foods like nuts or popcorn, you should be fine. I would be wary of mushrooms, though; for some reason I've heard they can be especially risky.
You would know if you had diarrhea because it would be a lot runnier than your normal output and a lot more of it, meaning things are moving through too fast for fluids to get properly absorbed.
Signs of a blockage:
- Little to no output.
- What little does come out is liquid.
- Abdominal bloating.
- Abdominal pain.
- Belly tender to the touch.
- Probable nausea.
Blockages are incredibly painful and can last from a few hours up to a couple of days.
What to do about
it:
- Whatever you do DON'T EAT.
- Moving and walking around.
- Changing positions, bringing knees to chest.
- Belly massage.
- Heating pad on tummy.
- Hot bath.
- Anything that might relax your muscles/abs (medical cannabis?).
- Patience.
If it doesn't get better over the course of half a day or so, call your WOC nurse. If you can't get through to your nurse, and it still is not getting better, go to the emergency room. However, I've heard that ER people don't necessarily know what they're doing when it comes to our specific situations, so proceed with caution...
In fact, you should print out the card at the following link and have it handy to bring with in case you ever need to go to the ER:www.ostomy.org/ostomy_info/pubs/blockage_card.pdf.