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question for oldtimers

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Ostomies
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Posted 12/21/2010 8:09 PM (GMT 0)
Question for those that have had an ostomy for 20 or 30 years. What equipment (pouches, seals, etc)  did you have to work with years ago when you first started with your ostomy? I would guess that we have better equipment now.

 

just curious

 

Dan

Posted 12/21/2010 10:44 PM (GMT 0)
Well, I'm not an old timer...yet, but a friend of mine had his ileo for 60+ years and that was one of my first questions for him!!! He recently passed away but not due to a digestive disease and had a long and happy life with his ileo.

They looked like hot water bottles and he had two. The one he was wearing and the one he had washed and hung in the bathroom to dry. For adhesive...this is scary...it was a rubber cement. Coated both skin and appliance, waited until tacky, and applied.

You can actually still purchase those 'pouches' if you log on to www.UOAA.org one of the suppliers listed sells that style!
Posted 12/22/2010 1:02 AM (GMT 0)
     Interesting...but who the heck would want one?  LOL!  We've come a LONG way baby!
Posted 12/22/2010 4:05 AM (GMT 0)
For some pics of old ostomy appliances have a look at www.ostomates.org/vintage/index.html A friend of mine took these at an ostomy meeting he went to and let me put them up on my site.

They're a lot older than 20 - 30 years though. 20 - 30 years ago we had plastic appliances but not quite as flexible as they are today. I used to use a stomahesive wafer 30 years ago too. It was more like 40 - 50 years ago where the rubber appliances were in use. Imagine having to wear some of the stuff pictured!
Posted 12/22/2010 5:20 AM (GMT 0)
its crazy what they used to have, when i started thinking about getting a bag i pictured a hot water bottle in my head!
i read an account of some of the earliest ostomies ever, from like hundreds and hundreds of years ago, even in ancient greece, and one told of a woman who had to wear a band of cloth with thick cotton over the hole.
Posted 12/22/2010 6:23 AM (GMT 0)
Yep, I heard stories from way back when of people having to sleep with their stoma over a hole in their mattress, underneath which was a bucket to catch their stoma output.
Posted 12/22/2010 10:20 PM (GMT 0)
Interesting stuff.

Shaz032 Thanks for the pics

Dan
Posted 12/26/2010 9:28 PM (GMT 0)
The first ileostomy appliance I had (1969) was one of those rubber ones but needed to use surgical cement (not rubber cement). Removal required solvent. Had two pouches - one to rinse out and dry on a hanger, while I wore the other. I think I got a new set every 4 or 5 years - they were expensive and custom made. There was also a karaya ring that invariably melted and a heavy duty elastic belt and waterproof tape involved. Wear time of 2 days, 3 if I was lucky. This is the system I used until 1975. Amazing that I had any skin left. The new pouches (I use a one piece Sensura) are amazing - wear time of a week (I could go longer but that would be icky).
Posted 12/26/2010 11:49 PM (GMT 0)
lp~ that surely sounds worse than how it was described to me...He must have sugar coated it!!
Posted 12/27/2010 5:02 PM (GMT 0)
lp
Thanks. Makes us "newcomers" feel fortunate with what we have to work with.

Dan
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