Sometimes when you wake up in the morning your stoma will start gurgling and being really noisy. Sometimes it'll pass and sometimes it decides that no today, I'm going to be really annoying and make it known to the whole world that you have a stoma today. It's normally on these days that you've got a busy day too.
It is totally normal for your stoma to make noises...it's the ostomates version of farting I guess except you have 0 control over it. Luckily, after reading many many things on how to prevent this from happening, I feel like 9 times out of 10 I can now avoid being embarrassed by my stoma making a whole lot of noise.
Let me take you back to last Friday. I had a two hour lecture starting at half nine and from the moment I emptied my bag, I knew today was going to be a "noisy" day. Ant the stoma started making a lot of noise and not only that it was quite loud. It took me by surprise a bit because luckily since starting uni he's quite quiet (however as soon as I go home, it's another story!) so it's safe to say I panicked a little bit on what to do. Do not fear, dear reader, as over the past few months I've been reading a lot on how to beat the stoma gurgle so I thought I'd share with you a few things which have worked for me...
1. Have something to eat before you drink in the morning I think the science behind this is that the food absorbs some of the wind, I'm not sure. I know though that this is quite hard though because, if you're like me, you're often very thirsty in the morning. Because of this, I'll have just a glass or so of water then have a breakfast biscuit or something if I'm not having my breakfast straight away!
2. Eat something which helps with wind yoghurt really helps me if I'm really windy as does peppermint tea. Also, not talking which eating can help, not drinking too much whilst drinking and avoiding fizzy drinks can help too.
3. If in doubt, place your hand/scarf/cushion over your stoma This is what I resulted too on Friday. For two hours I just sat with my hand over my stoma and it mutes the sound of your stoma...sometimes it feels a bit weird but it avoids the gurgling from bouncing around the lecture hall
Let me know in the comments below how you prevent your stoma from being loud when you really need it to be quiet!
Rik and I enjoyed this
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