How do you clean up after emptying?

AnnC said...
My procedure is similar to NCOT's. I use Hollister bags with the velcro closure. My output is more like toothpaste, water will not swish it out. I do try to clean the inside of the draining outlet as best I can, otherwise the residue tends to squeeze out when I'm folding the outlet up to fasten it. I use a couple of squares of toilet paper wrapped around a clothespin (a tip posted here quite a while ago), and wipe out as much as I can. I do have a squirt bottle I use to dampen the toilet paper clean the outside of the outlet, especially those annoying plastic flaps at the end of the Hollister bags.

I've decided not to worry about the inside of the bag itself. I did try to clean one once, ran water through for about 20 minutes, got a lot out, but still far from clean. In any event, when I put it back on, it's not going to be clean for long. As for the stoma, I don't worry about it, it is, after all, the inside of my colon, has spent its life covered with poo.

Ann

I use very similar process, but had never considered clothespin. I just used my finger tip wrapped with 4 segments of t.p. Sounds gross i know, but have never had any seeping through with good t.p. The cheap stuff you need more.

As for the flaps on the end of the hollister bags. I cut the flaps of mine off flush with the hard plastic folds, because I agree those things are a useless pain.

I could bore you guys with my routine but I won't. Sitting versus standing or kneeling might make a difference. Spraying water into the bag versus pouring water in changes things. Colostomy or ileostomy? Deodorant? Venting? Hernia? Odor? Wet or dry TP?
Mine is a colostomy and I change the whole thing every 7 or 8 days and "wash out" the bag each time I empty. Never had a leak or a skin problem near the stoma. Boy, I wish I hadn't written that.
Michael A

NiceCupOfTea said...
I found out after a while that there's absolutely no point in cleaning the inside of the bag, whether you're emptying it or whether you're changing it - either way, there will be no smell if you do it right.

So, what am I doing wrong? I follow the same routine as most do here, cleaning with TP after emptying, and I feel like I smell myself all the time! Fresh bag or not!

Hey Susans and Kate, NCOT is probably right but our definition of "right" might be just a little different from perfect. I know we don't wash out our rectums after a BM but plastic bags with velcro or other seals might need different attention. I rinse my bag out after emptying; not spotlessly, just about five ounces of really warm water swished around for a few seconds then dumped. For the very end of the pouch I use TP like everyone else but I dip the paper in some cheap mouthwash and wipe clean about 2 inches of the inside and outside of the opening. I dry that with clean TP and close it up. I guess I'm lucky I never had a real leak and only had an odor once due to a manufacturing defect that Convatec quickly admitted and appropriately rectified. I don't want crap on my hands any more than anyone else and I almost never do. I also don't think I'm a neurotic clean freak. My stoma could sit in poop forever and probaly smiles. The last two or three inches of the bag, however need to be really clean for me. Maybe I am more than a little nuts but it's workd for about three years.
I hope you could be as satisfied as I am.
Respectfully,
Michael A

Katehugs713 said...

NiceCupOfTea said...
I found out after a while that there's absolutely no point in cleaning the inside of the bag, whether you're emptying it or whether you're changing it - either way, there will be no smell if you do it right.

So, what am I doing wrong? I follow the same routine as most do here, cleaning with TP after emptying, and I feel like I smell myself all the time! Fresh bag or not!

Well, there'll be a smell when you open the bag or when there is a leak (I sometimes detected a leak through smell first of all). That's unavoidable. The rest of the time there should be no smell. I never went to anything like the effort mickeyz does, and I'm still confident there was zero odour 99.9% of the time, namely because the few times there was a faint whiff I noticed it. In such cases, it was either the result of a minute leak or of the tab having gotten too grubby/soiled.

If your bag is spotlessly clean and hermetically sealed, then I suspect you're just imagining a smell when there isn't one really. My sister-in-law went through a phase of thinking she smelled (no bag in her case), but she is a clean freak and of course she didn't smell. It was psychological in her case.

PS: I would also put the used bag inside a small disposal bag (supplied by the company who delivered my supplies), tie it up, and bung it into the bathroom bin for a few days before it got chucked out with the main trash. Obviously, I'd empty the bag first before binning it, and for a while I also rinsed it out. I stopped the rinsing when I realised it was unnecessary: the disposal bags contained any smell fully. There was literally none I could detect, and I'm fairly sensitive to smell.

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 10/9/2015 4:14:40 AM (GMT-6)