Bunch of questions, appreciate feedback.

I chew Devrom for odor..3 in the am and 3 in the pm. I order from Devrom.com or from edgepark. I take more than my insurance will allow, so I order the chewable tablets from Devrom and the capsules from edgepark since they don't carry chewables. Both work the same, but I can't always swallow pills or tablets. It's a mental thing or something.

I just tell people now. I wear a bag and it farts sometimes at the worst times. My coworkers all know since we have meetings in a small room and my stoma sounds his trumpet quite often.

I wear a nu-hope hernia belt and not the 1". The 1" feels like I have a rope around my waist. I can't stand it. The nu-hope rolls though and that also gets on my freaking nerves. Ugh.

Just keep trying different things and you will find your favorites.

I used to wear the belt with my loop ileostomy. The belt is a little stretchy so it should be snug all the way around. If it fits properly, it distributes the weight of the ostomy bag around your whole body so that there's less force of gravity pulling down on the wafer. As a result it's less likely to pull away from your skin and result in leaks. I don't know if it's as much of a concern with a colostomy, but my loop ileostomy was prone to a lot of blockages, which can resolve with force (in other words, output comes SHOOTING out, and once basically ripped my wafer off my body). Once I started wearing the belt, that never happened again.

In case you have't come to this realization yourself yet -- you can muffle the sounds of gas from a stoma pretty significantly just by putting your hand against your belly (over your shirt and everything). If you press softly you might even feel the air bubbles going pop-pop against your hand and the noise will be reduced. It won't help if something starts out of nowhere, but if you know your stoma is active you can muffle the noise pretty well.

Hi Sunny! Happy Easter to you also, I hope you and your family had a great day. I'll throw in my 2 cents with answers to your questions....hope it helps some.


1. There are different types of ostomy belts. The one you described is meant to work the way Pluot described. There are also some with a sort of hard cover that goes over the bag area to also help protect the stoma and muffle sounds. The Nu-Hope belts are made to help prevent or support hernias, while also adding support to the wafer area to help it stay put and support the weight of the bag. I wear my Nu Hope belt when I know I'll be doing more strenuous physical activity and want the hernia prevention benefit. There are also wraps that are stretchy material that cover the entire bag to keep it snug against your body. Instead of spending the money for one of those, I bought a tube top and it works very well.

2. When I empty the bag I sit pretty far forward on the toilet so that most of the output lands in the part of the bowl that doesn't have water...hence no splash. Sometimes this means having to flush an extra time. There is also the option of kneeling in front of the toilet and emptying that way

3. As far as telling your group, I think it could be a good idea to take a minute at the start of the next meeting to tell them that you recently had a surgery that resulted in you now having a colostomy. Explain that you wanted to mention it because it could make noise, or cause you to have to leave unexpectedly, and you didn't want to be a distraction of worry anyone. And if you are ok telling more details, just say that you would be happy to talk more to anyone who was interested after the meeting. I am very open about my illness, surgeries and new anatomy/ostomy. I found that people are very understanding and interested...and having people know feels better than hiding and wondering if they see/hear/notice/think, etc.... I hope that all made sense!

4. I find filters on bags to be completely useless. I have always been told that the more liquid the output, the less effective the filters are. Once in a blue moon one will work for me for a day or so, but usually they don't work at all....which really sucks. Hopefully you can get your output to thicken up, and that should help the filters be more effective.

5. I don't think I can help much with the odor question. Yes, sometimes my output is pretty stinky, but I never use the bathroom anywhere but my house, work, or somewhere out in public...so I don't worry much about it. I was given a spray at the hospital right after surgery that works VERY well though. It is made by Carrington and is called CarraScent Rain Fresh Scented Odor Eliminator. It does a great job of neutralizing the odor instead of just "covering" it up.