Takedown pictures

Pictures are worth a thousand words.  These way outdo the battle scars from step 1.  The total length is about 4 inches.  There was some scar tissue left over from the ileostomy that had to be removed to ensure the closure would heal properly.  There was some adhesion from the bowels behind as well, which caused for further removal.  It is healing well and no longer bleeding profusely, but still is a joy to pack!

I removed the pictures from the blog and just linked to the Picasa album. Now there is no fear to read this! See the pictures here.

[Editted in response to comment question from "Membership Required":]
For takedown, the only action should be to remove the temporary ileostomy. This is done by cutting the stoma from the surrounding skin tissue, cutting the stoma section out of the small bowel, and then stitching the small bowel back together. Once the loop section has been removed, the bowel is tucked back into the abdomen.

As you see from the pictures, there is a single stitch in the skin. My wound was just under 4" wide and about 3/4" across. This was packed for a few weeks while it slowly healed from the inside out. It closed after about 3 weeks, but is still scabbing and healing. I'm not sure what the resulting scar will look like, but, realistically, it's not really a concern for me.

My stoma was only 3/4" in diameter, but the resulting wound was due to scar tissue from the initial surgery, as well as adhesions from the bowel just beneath the stoma. The extra was removed to get to healthy tissue to ensure the wound would heal nicely, which so far, it has.