Irrigating?

dreamer06

Regular Member

Joined : Jun 2008

Posts : 222

Posted 4/25/2012 8:34 PM (GMT 0)

I am getting really sick of my pouch and am actually going to the surgeon soon to see about a reversal. Though I have crowns and have had a lot of abcesses from it so i'm not sure I'm really a candidate for it. I want to look into all of my options and I noticed that irrigating might be one. I was wondering if anyone here irrigates and what it intails exactly? Do you get to wear a smaller bag and not go during the day... I guess the concept seems a little weird to me. Thats why I need some info on irrigating if you have it.

blueglass

Veteran Member

Joined : Dec 2010

Posts : 3332

Posted 4/25/2012 8:54 PM (GMT 0)

Do you have an ileostomy or a colostomy? In order to irrigate you have to have a lot of your colon left. I have an ileo so can't do it myself, but I have read about it. Basically you give yourself a kind of enema every day or two and clean out your colon, and then the rest of the time you just have to wear a little patch over the stoma.

Probably if you have Crohn's you don't have enough colon left for irrigating.... I was disappointed when I understood it better and realized I could never do it.

Here is a good article: http://www.ostomy.org/ostomy_info/pubs/Phoenix_Irrigation.pdf

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