How did you decide on your appliance?

mine is what the ET told me to use, and it has worked so far. what an exciting story, lol.

i was given by the hospital's stoma nurse hollister's appliance. but it didn't work for me, the wafer didn't hold for more than 2 days 3 tops. then i asked coloplast to send me samples. i tried it and it worked great. their wafer holds for a whole week, so i sticked to it, never tried anything further. i tried paste of hollister's, coloplast and convatec - convatec has the best paste, but the addapt rings are even better.

Hospital introduced us to the Hollister New Image 2 piece. The pouch had the clip and we switched to the lock and roll velcro closure one that he likes much better. Dealing with a skin irritation and tried the all pectin wafer but he didn't care for that. Currently using the powder and will see how that helps if it does.

Not sure if the adhesive portion of the wafer is giving him the sensitivity or not as the all pectin didn't seem to make much of a difference.

We have samples from Convatech moldable type and haven't tried that yet. Guess we are still in an exploratory stage.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I guess it's just a matter of seeing what they suggest I start off with and then trying different stuff if that doesn't seem to work like I want it to or I have problems. I think I am somewhat interested in a two piece where I can rotate the bag from vertical to horizontal position for use with something like the Stealth Belt for running, etc. It's funny though because at the same time I realize I have no clue what that will feel like or if I'll like it at all.

Such a weird process.

I am early in the process of figuring out what I like (about three weeks post surgery). It's still overwhelming, but I am figuring out what's important to me. The nurse at the hospital started me on a convatec two piece with the moldable seal. I liked the moldable aspect, but I found that version hard to clean -- I needed to use a squeeze bottle of water, and it was hard to do in the hospital. The nurse then gave me a coloplast two piece, and I liked that better largely because it's much easier to clean. Then someone I met gave me a coloplast one piece, and I liked that better because it's lighter, but I'm not sure how that works when I'm more "back in action" and maybe will want to use different sized pouches. I just had edgepark send me some samples, which they are tailoring based on what I like so far.

I am gradually figuring out what's important to me, and I liked the coloplast one piece ones enough to order a box of them. You'll figure it out too ..... try two, see what you care about in the differences, start figuring out opinions etc....

The one thing I would recommend is to get some M9 drops in advance. The nurse didn't have samples of them. I haven't been able to sit on the toilet (with my surgical complications), so my face is closer than I'd like when I empty, and until I got the drops, the smell on changing was really bothering me..... the nurse didn't have samples of these, and they work a lot better than the other things I tried.

I guess I sound like a neat freak, really am not..... but not getting smelly poop all over my hands turns out to be a priority for me.......

The drops come in an 8 ounce bottle.....I was thinking I'd just put some in something smaller, but I'm sure others here who are further along have solutions.....

i use the mouth spray stuff too, only i spray it on the toilet seat then wipe it off, cause that way the alochol in there kills the toilet germs too!
Although, the other day, some friends were over and i had the little thing of breath spray out of my purse, and one of them asked why that was in there, well they know but i just didn't feel like an explantion kind of thing, so i said, i just spray it on dirty seats, it fits in my purse.
So the guy says, but then your butt will smell minty, won't people notice?
and i said, well so far noone has sniffed my butt in public so i don't really worry!
He's not too bright, lol.

I tried everything before settling on the Coloplast Sensura Flex with the adhesive coupling. I was given super basic cut to fit convatec in the hospital and was kinda mortified at the thought of the clear bags and chunky clip that I had to sit somewhere that it would fall into the toliet. I knew nothing going into it everything since my surgery was an emergency. My colon perforated and 4 hours later I was in surgery. so i tried the convatec at home, found this section of healing well (was on UC board before that) and was like whoa there's all kinds of things out there! So i went sample crazy! In fact I had so many samples that I didn't order any supplies until i was 6 weeks post op. I tried a few different hollister and like those better than convatec so then i scraped convatec from my list of possible permanent picks. Then I tried marlen and coloplast. Marlen was a no go and coloplast was my new love. I tried some different types with them before finding and settling on the Sensura. for me the adhesive coupling and the clean-ability of the bag were the clenchers. My stoma is way above my belt line and click rings showed through all of my shirts, so when I found this I felt so much more comfortable. the end folds up so nice and neat, and is super easy to open and close and clean. the filter kinda sucks and gets clogged really fast, but they all kind do that so i live with it.

I also use a small eakin stretched around for light convexity and sure seals. I wear no belts because they are uncomfortable, and once again you can tell if i'm wearing one because of where it is situation on me. I had a small bout of leaks a month ago because i lost some weight and then regained it but other than the my system is golden. I'm just hoping its still golden when i get my loop ileo in a few days :/

I've recently ordered loads of samples as have been using the same bags for 18 years and thought would have a look at latest developments. I currently use convatec natura two peice system as hate the velcro built in clips and prefer having separate one, much easier to clean and don't need to fold the bag up half a dozen times which means you don't lose volume. Also like a two piece so can change bag and leave wafer in place and the wafer has a two part adhesive system to give better seal and leakage protection.

Well recently got new wafers from convatec. They have a mouldable inner piece inside the wafer ring. A bit like a sure seal or eakin seal. You roll it back against inself then put bag on as normal and it then gently seals around stoma. Have to say very comforatable, no need for paste or seal rings as it does it all in one. Have always used paste as have high output and more liquid so need extra protection on the skin around stoma. Oh and this wafers don't need cutting, they just take your normal wafer size and ask for approx size (just smaller than) of stoma and round hole is cut in wafer so it is a snug fit.

I like the coloplast products...right now it is the sensure click system but with my stoma being so high up have had probs with it popping off if i bump it the right way.I am in the process of getting samples of the coloplast sensure flex hopefully I wont have any pop off problems with that. I like the coloplast wafers as they do not cause any skin probs for me so I will stick to coloplast. Trixiemom