Blocked Stoma -

He groaned. “My wife brought me… nuts. A handful of almonds. I thought… healthy.”

As she walked back to the on-call room, she thought of all the simple, terrifying things that could go wrong in a body rearranged by surgery. A stoma was a second chance at life—but it demanded respect. And sometimes, all it took was one almond to remind you. blocked stoma

Mr. Hendricks was a quiet man in his sixties, three days post-colectomy for colon cancer. When she entered, he was curled on his side, face pale and beaded with sweat. His colostomy bag, attached to the stoma on his lower right abdomen, was empty—bone dry. But his belly was distended, tight as a drum. He groaned

Almonds, Emily thought. Classic culprit. Their fibrous, undigestible skins could clump together like cement in the narrow lumen of a stoma. I thought… healthy

Mr. Hendricks let out a sob of relief. “Oh… oh, that’s better.”