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Today you should be extremely hopeful about being allowed to return home. As long as your Stoma Nurse is happy you can change your appliance confidently (regardless of the length of time, so don't think you'll be kept in because you are not the Speedy Gonzales of Colostomists!) you'll be allowed home. Remember the surgeon effectively discharged you on day three, such is the wonders of the key-hole technique.

When the Stoma Nurse arrives she will ask you to change your appliance. As I said you will not be fast as this is, after all, your first full solo flight as it were. The nurse will not expect you to remember every single detail in order and will prompt you along the way. As you get more and more practice you'll be able to get a complete clean and change down to ten minutes.

The nurse will probably have a rough idea on whether she is willing to discharge you or not today based on the confidence you showed yesterday when you took your first few tentative steps at cleaning a stoma.

Hearing the news that you can go home will be wonderful. You'll want to phone your relatives and dance around the ward telling everyone else. While you'll be able to phone home you will not feel much like dancing as you'll still be sore and stiff!

You'll patiently wait for your ride home - you'll not be allowed off the ward unless you are getting taken home. Public transport after surgery is a major no-no. This will be one of the questions you'll be asked by the nurse when you first arrive on the ward on day one, how you plan to get home.