Maximize Comfort and Sleep with High Capacity Pouching

So what you see here are the components of my pouching. The picture on the left shows everything including the smaller pouch I wear during the day and the larger pouch I wear at night.

The picture on the right shows my complete night rig. The pouch itself can hold almost a full liter of fluid and the reservoir at the end can hold almost 2 liters.

I used to have to get up almost every hour until about 4 AM when my bowels were finally empty. With this rig I only get up twice or three times; usually because I have to empty my bladder.

With this rig I've gone from having 3 accidents a week at night to just one. The most likely accident as of late has been that I step on the hose when standing up and it gets unplugged. Fortunately we're talking much, much smaller accidents.

It's a whole new world being able to sleep so much. Additionally, I don't have to starve or deny myself water at night.

Dave

Hi Dave. I'm glad you're gaining control of your output. Looks like you have a night drainage bag. I used them all the time for at least the first 2 years post ileo. Being able to get some sleep makes a big difference. I'm now using a one-piece Coloplast bag with a spout dispenser as my "all the time" bag that I replace after 3 days. I still sleep on a hospital bed pad (you never know). It looks like you may have some barrier rings in the picture. Are they Coloplast rings? If so, do you like them? I'm currently using the Adapt cerarings.

Tickster... thanks for posting that. I've been referring to such a thing in a number of posts without having actually seen it. Reminds me of a beer bong in college... no, that's gross. But WOW... that rig holds a LOT of juice!!

So when you lay down, do you hang the big bag and tube over the side of the bed... or just alongside of you? What brand of stuff is that? Sorry for all the Q's... but it looks VERY interesting. If I could hold that much fluid, I could probably go to bed around midnight or 1:00 am instead of 5:30 am. I might even be able to get into REM sleep and dream again. Now wouldn't THAT be the shit??

I was toying with the idea of making inflatable underwear, meaning the whole thing would be able to hold output until I emptied it. But I haven't found a way around the sudden increase in pressure when you sit down. Pretty cool, bro...

Later,

Bob

Hey Bob. The night drainage bag has to hang anywhere below your butt or it won't drain. I used to hang mine in between the top mattress and the box spring.

Thanks T. That's what I was figuring... needs to drain downward. Interesting though. Just hope your partner doesn't yell "FIRE" in the middle of the night!

:0)

Bob

Good job, Dave.  Thanks for sharing.  It helps when we ostomates use our mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic and general physics skills to reduce problems.  Of course it helps even more when we share our needs and successes.

Mike

I do lay the drainage bag on the floor and let gravity do its thing. The parts are all Coloplast:

Barrier CT16921 5/8 to 1 9/16 Cut to Fit (CTF) blue

Pouch (small) CT11482 blue

Pouch (high output) CT18631 blue

Seal CT12036 thin 3/4" starter hole

BED drainage bag CT14010

I'm kinda gassy so I also get the aftermarket EZVents which I apply to the large and small pouches.

As I said in earlier posts, the folks at Coloplast sent me a week+ worth of supplies to try out. They included some things I hadn't seen before that are "sometimes" buys.

I've been using them for about a month and a half now and really the only true issue is the rare occurrence when the hose unplugs. I'm thinking that a little paper tape to give just a little more support is all it really needs.

So every morning I swap out the small pouch for the big one and the bag. I rinse them out and let them dry. At night, I reverse the process rinsing out the small pouch.

Dave