When you eat, the food travels down a long narrow tube called the esophagus, into your stomach. The food is reduced to smaller pieces and your digestive juices will change it into a more liquid form.
This liquid moves out of the stomach and into the ileum (small intestine), where digestion is completed. Your body absorbs the nutrients it needs for energy, growth and building new cells.
When all nutrients have been absorbed, the rest move into the large intestine, called the colon, where your body absorbs more liquid to make the waste more solid. The muscles in your colon wall then push any stool forward into your rectum, where it passes out of your body through your anus.
How will a colostomy or an ileostomy affect the digestive system?
When a colostomy or an ileostomy is formed on your abdomen, it alters the usual way you go to the toilet to pass stool. Instead of passing through your anus, your stool will pass through the ostomy. The passing of stool is usually controlled by a special muscle in the anus.
However, the main difference for you with an ostomy, is that you no longer control when you need to pass stool. You also do not have control over when you pass gas.
How a urostomy affects the urinary tract
Urine is made by your kidneys and travels down two tubes (the ureters) to your bladder. Urine is continuously produced and is stored in your bladder. When you get the urge to urinate, urine then passes out of your body through the urethra.
When a urostomy is made it alters the usual way you pass urine. A passage is made for urine to pass from your kidneys to the outside of your abdomen, ending in a small spout. This is called an ostomy. Instead of coming out through your urethra, your urine will pass through the ostomy.
The passing of urine is usually controlled by a special muscle in the urethra. However, the main difference for you when you have an ostomy is that you are no longer able to control when you need to pass urine.
