The hernia belt

THE HERNIA BELT.



The hernia that I acquired

is not the sort to be admired.

It is not gained by lifting weights

but is well known to ostomates.



For after laparoptomy

it sits behind my ostomy.

This makes it harder to control

and it sometimes blocks the hole.



This blow the hand of fate has dealt

does not respond to hernia belt.

I’ve tried them large and then some small

but nothing seems to work at all.



There’s many belts, both thin and thick

each one will claim to do the trick.

But the problem seems involved

and doesn’t want to be resolved.



So far those that I have tried

have not left me satisfied.

Mostly all the belts I wore

seemed to make my skin more sore.



Both to the left and to the right

but not around the stoma site.

They would curl and they would crease

some would make me look obese.



Surely it should not be so hard

to make a belt and stoma guard.

Why should this simple thing perplex

I cannot see that it’s complex.



I think that I will have to find

some motivation in my mind.

To discard belts off-the-shelf

and make my own, just for myself.



B. Withers 2012

Nicely put. Good luck in the design.

Great poem once again and true to reality. Thank you for sharing, Bill. Take care, Ambies.

Hello Squeaky Ambies. Thank you for your much appreciated comments.I have of course already made several prototypes and have finally produced one that more or less suits my purpose. Fortunately I have a very good stoma nurse who (when I explained what I was designing and what I needed) took me into her storeroom and raided her supplies to get the materials which were suitable for what I had in mind. The end result would not win any prizes for 'looks' but it is practical and it does work for me. Best wishes Bill

I am glad that you made a belt that is working for you. It was very nice that your nurse was able to help you also. I hope that you have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

The poem is so true... I'm looking for something that would work for me. I not only have a hernia but a prolapse too. Hernia belt doesn't work for me :(

Thank you sqeaky and happy thanksgiving (whatever that is!) to you as well.WINNIE- I would be interested to hear how the prolapse affects you. I have assumed that the 'blockage' that completely bungs up my hole is a muscle associated with peristalsis. This affected my attempts to irrigate in the 'normal' way as the cone would not go past the blockage. However, I have adapted a pressure-spray to force the water past the blockage and allow access for the cone. Once the water is in it does its job as it did before except for one slight difference. There is a delay of about an hour after the main evacuation before a last spurt of liquid substance is evacuated. I don't mind this as I irrigate at night time and the sleeve copes well with this small amount. I find the advantages of irrigation far outweigh the disadvantages of the bag system. This has been working well for about six months.See also my 'review' on the Braun Medical electronic irrigator which does much the same thing except it doesn't have enough water or pressure for my needs.As for the hernia belt that I have made for myself. It was based on the shape and location of the hernia and how I could hold it into a comfortable position without slippage or hurting other parts of my anatomy. Hence it took a lot of experimenting before I got a shape and design that suited. I am convinced that these things ought to be tailor-made to suit each individual rather than mass produced to try to fit everyone. The people I deal with in wheelchairs all have adaptations especially made for their personal needs. There really should be no reason why people with hernia and other problems should not be able to access specialist engineers that would design stuff that would be fit for purpose. Best wishesBill

Hello Bill and to all who take the time to read this. My hernia belt is made by Nu Hope. It has a flap piece that's supposed to give support to the prolapse (not). Also, I wear a one-piece appliance so it's not practical. My prolapse hangs out about an inch and a half out. It's wide and most of the time makes it hard to irrigate. By the time my stoma cooperates with me (prolapse goes to a normal size), most of the water has leaked out. I'm able to get a decent output. I also suffer from constipation. There are times when my hernia site bulges and the prolapse becomes painful that I have to take off the bag, use some wipes or a towel to cover the site just in case (since I irrigate, I don't worry about output). I have to lay down and wait for the stoma site to settle down. I agree a hernia belt should be tailor-made. I can't use the hernia belt with my jeans; it's too wide and thick, and my jeans don't fit. I'm not buying a bigger size jeans. Going to check out the site you mentioned. Regards, Aileen

Hello winnie. The leaking out of water was the reason I opted to make/adapt my own pressurised container - this holds about 3.5 litres so it allows for plenty of leakage and still allows me to get enough water in to do the job. However, I have an idea to resolve this particular problem and at present am trying to get hold of some ready-made parts to experiment with. If I come up with a reasonable solution I'll let you know.I would say that in the early days of experimenting to find a hernia belt to suit, I tried the metal top of a jamjar with the flat face squashing the stoma and the hernia. This did not seem to cause any problems with the hernia or the stoma despite the fact that it did not have a hole for the stoma to poke through. However, it did pose problems when I bent down as the large round disc shape meant it pushed into the top of my leg and/or my ribcage which moved it out of place. subsequent designs have overcome this problem. Best wishes Bill

Thank you, Bill. I'm looking for your review post on Braun Medical. Can't find it online. Any idea where I need to look??

Hello winnie, You can find the Braun review in the blogs section at the very bottom of page 5 of 62. Unfortunately they do not seem to have a way of going straight to a particular page on this site so you need to scroll back by pressing 'next' page. It indicates which page you are on at the top left hand side of each page.Best wishesBill