The other day I met Coltrane’s evil twin for the first time.  He’s much bigger than Coltrane and he caused me a lot of pain.  I remember him every time I feel guilty for being totally overkill with my diet and not wanting to expand my food horizons. Who would have thought almond meal/flour pancakes would be a problem? The pieces were small enough to come out individually, but apparently I ate too much and they chunked together and got stuck.  Not my favorite way to spend Christmas Eve but I am so grateful it was only a partial blockage and that it passed enough in time for me to still spend time with my family although I was kind of a cranky pants and super sore.

Ever wonder what it’s like to have a blockage?   It hurts. It feels like you’re bloated and like you’re trying to push something out but it won’t come out. It wasn’t constant pain, more like waves of pain and cramping.  The peristalsis kept trying to happen but was struggling to get stuff out so it was freaking me out that Coltrane was going to recede back into my abdomen.  Because it was just a partial blockage, I still had little bits of liquid coming out periodically and little bits of the almond meal made their way through.   I massaged around my stoma, sat with a heat pack, drank hot tea, and a mixture of olive oil and honey and over the course of a few hours it finally passed.  On the plus side, I turned on the 49er game to try to distract myself and saw an unforgettable 4th quarter.

Click here for more information about ostomy blockages and what to do to help them pass.

This post was originally written in December 2013.