Daily Colostomy Irrigation Challenges and Solutions

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Jeanniepatz
Sep 07, 2022 11:13 pm

My husband has had a colostomy for several years. He has transitioned to daily irrigation. Originally, things were fine, but for the past year, he has needed 'help' getting things to move 'on demand' after inserting the water. He has found that taking prune juice an hour or so before he irrigates works well, but now his body is needing more and more - he's up to about 12 oz of prune juice every day before he irrigates. I hate to think he needs to drink that every day for the rest of his life. Does anybody do anything different to get things moving prior to daily irrigation?

darick
Sep 07, 2022 11:39 pm

I irrigate every other weekday (Mon/Wed/Fri). I usually do it first thing in the morning. I find drinking a glass of water beforehand helps, so the colon doesn't absorb a bunch of the water to rehydrate. I put in around 1000ml of lukewarm water; if it's too cold, it shocks the system and doesn't work as well. After it's all in, I start massaging my abdomen to help things move around, and take some full breaths to have the diaphragm also move things around.

iMacG5

When I found this web site, I didn't think its name had anything to do with actually meeting an ostomate but I later learned there were some folks who did meet and develop relationships. How good is that? That wasn't my intention. I definitely didn't want anyone to meet me. I felt broken and wasn't prepared to express those feelings. I thought it was a place where ostomates wrote about themselves, posed questions, shared thoughts, told jokes and, sometimes, just vented. I thought of it as a community of folks with similar interests and various degrees of experience. Mostly I found some of the most caring, selfless, wise and understanding people I ever imagined. I was so impressed with some of the writings; not because of their literary value but the way in which they addressed such a very complex environment. I read hundreds of exchanges and admired the way folks cared for each other. I became hopeful with my own situation and looked forward to the next day's offerings. Certainly some contributors stood out with their experience or particular skills in addressing some things but it seemed like a total effort with synergistic results. I felt blessed to have found this site. I still do.
Mike

darick
Sep 07, 2022 11:40 pm

Also, have him check out the UOAA forums under the Irrigation subsection, more helpful tips and tricks in there. https://www.uoaa.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=12