Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
Did you have a colostomy? My best friend's dad did when he & I were kids. It creeped me out then. Still does. It seemed kind of extreme to keep him alive another few months.
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In my observations (not a surgeon), permanent colostomies are typically placed when disease processes have gone undetected too long, some problem has gotten out of hand and/or there simply isn't enough plumbing left to avoid one (maybe some other reasons too). Occasionally, delaying resection/diversion results in (a really painful/ugly) death in hours or a couple days.
A few months can be a fair bit of time to get things in order for better or worse. Also, there are lots of people that incorporate various sorts of stomas into an otherwise normal life and life expectancy. It's not a perfect situation but there are some really resilient people out there.