Posted 4/22/2016 10:42 AM (GMT 0)
I have had an ileostomy since March 2015. My outputs are now relatively stabilised, with 5 – 6 bag empties per day. Clearly I have short bowel syndrome, with a tendency to watery outputs and flow-through of main meals starting within an hour. I take 24 loperamide and 8 codeine phosphate daily. (I also take 20mg omeprazole daily.) I separate food/fluids, eat smaller, low residue meals, the last never later than 18.00. I don’t drink more than 1.5 litres daily, a lot of that being 50/50 Powerade/alkaline water. My daily treat is a strong black Americano (350 mls) and I find that I can drink 250 mls of red wine without ill effects.
I am fortunate in having ‘quiet’ mornings – little output after the first-thing empty, through to about 13.00/14.00. I also usually do not output a big volume overnight.
I change the bag (Dansac NovaLife Midi open Soft Convex) every three days. I use a Silvex seal and Silex flange extenders – both of these products help a lot in avoiding leaks. Leaks have been a problem from time to time, previously I think because of changing flesh/skin ‘topography’ - I lost a lot of weight as a result of my op and have struggled to put any back on since. However, I found that the main cause of leaks was disruption of the adhesive seal of the flange as a result of the bag becoming massively inflated by wind. I partially solved this problem by adopting Ostomart EZ vents and setting a series of alarms so that overnight I could wake and vent the bag before over-inflation occurred.
I have now found a full solution! At night I leave the EZ vent open and put a polythene bag over my stoma bag, tucking the open end over the top of the stoma bag and fastening the poly bag either side with clips to a stoma bag belt. With the vent open, gas can escape continuously and thus there’s no bag inflation. The poly bag catches any output seepage out of the vent opening. Note that the poly bag would not deal with significant amounts of output – this solution works for me because the bag does not get anywhere near filled up to near the vent opening.
Hope this might be helpful for anyone newer to an ileostomy and/or having trouble with wind-induced leaks.