As providence would have it, my husband has also needed a bag of sorts (he's had a few bladder cancer procedures recently, requiring him to wear a catheter bag for several days in a row each time).
To see the two of us wandering around the house in our bathrobes, kissing each other goodnight - while bumping bags - has been a great source of mirth and merriment around here.
On a more serious ...

About 3 months after my ileostomy and ureter repair surgery, I had to start working again and could not do anything strenuous. So, I took on a job working the midnight shift in retail (no customers), bathroom accessible any time I needed, light duty work (mostly). With that said, I'd been there over a year and took on a high volume, high stress position, thinking about higher pay and such. We ...

Hi everyone,

I'm almost four months post-ileostomy surgery, and I'm looking to start rebuilding my core strength. I haven't been able to exercise for years, so I'm starting from scratch and want to be really careful.

One of my biggest concerns is overdoing it and increasing my risk of a hernia. I know core strength is important, but I'm not sure what exercises are safe to begin with. ...

New member/colostomy recipient (5/25/21) here. Hi!
My doc said that my remaining 4" of rectum would collect mucus. Shortly after I got home from the hospital, a blob of mucus landed in the toilet, but only that once.
Frequently, I have a powerful urge to eliminate normally from the rectum, but no means to do so. It feels like I'm going to soil my drawers, but nothing ever happens. Is this norm ...

Tomorrow at 8 a.m., I am having the ileostomy reversed. I had to come in and say thank you to everyone who has helped here along the way. I had some pretty low points on this journey, and this community was so supportive and helpful. I appreciate everyone who has chimed in with advice and words of encouragement.

Trial and error has led me to a system of emptying and cleaning my pouch that makes everything feel better. I saw another post about using warm water in the pouch after emptying to wash it out. I will say it takes several times of doing this (put water in, holding the pouch up, swish it around, then empty) to get it clean. I do this until the water runs clear when coming out. I also use a deod ...

Greetings..

Having spoken to Kas we both have decided to purge our inventory of unused, mostly expired, donated from others, osty supplies.

She and I will be listing our inventory for you to decide if you'd like some spare supplies for those " oh shizt" moments u run out or can't stop leaking.

It pays to have extra supplies.

There should be no issue with expired supplies. Some...not ...

I recently did a 10-day trek in Nepal and have had my ileostomy for a year. I learned a few things that I wanted to share with the group.
Make sure you have a stoma guard to protect your stoma! I had one but did not attach it to my bag because it's a pain to empty. After a few days of hiking 10+ miles a day, I did my first bag change and my stoma was 4 times its normal size and had a mushroom ...

Hi,
First post on here so, please be gentle. I was wondering, has anyone found a way of keeping that darn bag out of the way when they are having one of their most intimate moments? I've used techniques such as holding it under a t-shirt, etc... What do you do? It just plain can get in the way sometimes...
Thanks in advance.

Tomorrow marks one year since I had emergency surgery due to a perforation in my colon and got my colostomy. For several months, I was angry, resentful, overwhelmed, bitter, and depressed. I didn't think I would ever be able to cope with my new normal. I blamed myself. I don't remember how I found this group, but I am so grateful I did. You all helped to ease my loneliness and gave me support ...

Sooooo, I've been dealing with this for a while and trying all sorts of things. The latest has been the Eakins circle thingie; I forget what it's called. I tried the marathon stuff, and it didn't really help and also created a very uneven surface by coating the injured skin and not coating the uninjured skin. It also did sting for me. I tried the flow assist thing, and that helped some, but mo ...