New to Everything

First off, welcome to the forum! :)

To answer your questions:

Yes, it is normal to have a bit of irritation and stinging around the stoma. It is not desirable, but it is quite difficult to avoid. The biggest thing that will affect this is if any of your output is able to touch the skin around the stoma. Because output is high in digestive juices, if it comes in contact with your skin, it will try to digest your skin as well. So make sure when you change your bag that there is absolutely no exposed skin between your stoma and the hole of your flange/wafer. You want as close of a seal as you can around your stoma. There are many different strategies for this that you can start a whole other thread on if you like, and you will get tons of advice.

Yes, the flange is quite sticky, especially if your bag changes are more frequent. One trick I've found at least for the adhesive tape is to use an alcohol prep swab, like the kind nurses use before they poke you with any type of needle. (I think you can pick them up at any pharmacy.) If you gently pull on the tape with one hand and use the swab to sort of "wipe" your skin off of the tape with the other hand, this will relieve a lot of the pain and irritation of taking off the tape. However, it doesn't really work with the hard/firm part of the flange... that you kind of just have to pull off. I've started getting a slight red ring around my stoma from this action. Maybe someone else will have advice for that part of it.

And it is perfectly safe to shower or even take a bath both with or without your bag. Most people like to take advantage of the chance to shower "fully naked" (with no bag or flange) when they do their bag change. No water will go into your stoma hole. I was told by my docs to let soap and water run over the stoma but not to directly wash or spray it, I think just to avoid any possible irritation. Some people who use two-piece systems also pop their bags off while leaving the flange on every time they shower, and then they press the bag back on afterwards... just out of personal preference as a way to freshen up. Others leave their entier bags on during showers and just let them dry off afterwards, no need to change it. It's really all about whatever you're comfortable with.

If you want to see a step-by-step of how I do my bag changes, visit my blog post about it:
ronnielee-fightingforit.blogspot.com/2012/10/bag-change-time.html

Let us know if you have any more questions, and good luck!!!

The stinging sensation is normal. It can mean a leak is coming, but it also sometimes just happens. Especially if you have just changed your bag.

If its really hard to pull the bag off, you are changing too often. By the time I take mine off it pretty much just falls off.

You can shower however you like, as long as all your wounds are closed up. I keep my bag on, I just tape it up so it doesn't flop around while I'm shaving. I also use sureseals so its easy to dry.

Yeah, these forums are a godsend. I truly feel for those who went through this kind of stuff before the internet was available!!

One thing that's helpful in taking off the wafer -- think of slowly pulling your skin away from the wafer.... not tearing off the wafer. That will make less irritation, and it may be easier to get off. If you do use some kind of adhesive remover, be sure to wash it off well with soap, or it will start removing your next wafer.

Agree that it's awful that you didn't get more help from the hospital.