My 1 year old son is fed through a tube 3 x day and before each feed you need to pull out some of his stomach contents and test its pH to be sure that the tube has not moved to his bronchial system. It sounds worse than the reality. Interesting others' experiences are similar.
Before I had a stoma I found them terrifying, even disgusting.
The reality is totally different. It's easy to manage and at times I forget I've got it.
I wish I'd heard from someone before my op, to reassure me, so I was delighted to go on BBC News last night to talk about it.