plastic surgery

[xctm1]

Need some advice. I've had an ileostomy for about 15 yrs. I'm 72 and have Medicare and Tricare for Life as insurance. My problem is that I've changed my lifestyle and lost about 40 lbs in the last year and my stoma is now kind of hanging down 'cos it used to be sticking out of my 48" belly which is now 42". I haven't had any issues with it being cramped and stopping up but I think that's a definite possibility in the future (I intend to lose another 30 lbs). I spoke to my PCP about getting a belly tuck to remove some of the extra skin and she said that most, if not all, plastic surgeons wouldn't touch it because Medicare won't pay for "beauty work". Has anyone had any similar surgery and how did their plastic surgeon bill for it? Thanks..

[susan f]

I have heard of cases where the plastic surgeon got involved because of problems with wear time, leakage, and quality of life for a person with really bad scarring from multiple surgeries who had wear time issues. The plastics guy worked with the Colorectal surgeon (CRS) on that case because in general, no one is going to do anything around a stoma without a CRS.

A good WOCN would be the person to talk to, I think, as this would not be a "beauty issue" but a "quality of life" issue.

I had a scar that ran along the top of my stoma and was creating wear time issues. Or at least, I had wear time issues and they always seemed to be in that spot. I also had a stricture and fistulating CD right behind the stoma as well. I did have the stoma revised and the scar was "smoothed out" by a CRS, who also removed the diseased ileum. Insurance paid for it (Cigna at that time).