Discovering Ostomy Irrigation and Stoma Caps

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've been on here. It's good to see some familiar names and faces. I hope you're all doing really well. I miss you guys.

I wanted to come on and mention something I read yesterday that I had never heard about when I had my colostomy and ileostomy: the ostomy irrigation and ostomy cap. I think it's geared towards colostomies from what I gathered. But apparently, there's something called irrigation that involves putting a small cone-like piece with a tube connected to a bag of warm water into the stoma and flushing it. Then, after some time, usually 15 minutes to an hour, it flushes in liquid form out through the bag. I guess it starts the peristalsis and gets things moving. I think it's meant to help with the predictability of output. Then there's the stoma cap, which is literally like a cap that snaps onto the wafer. It doesn't allow for room for output, so it's made for those who do the irrigation and have that down to a science. It's usually used for swimming and such, but I read some who have mastered the irrigation wear it all the time. There's also mini bags. These two products are much more discreet than the regular bags.

I very well could be talking about stuff everyone already knows about, but I had my ostomies for a year and had never heard of any of this. I always thought irrigation was rinsing my bag after dumping it. There are YouTube videos on irrigation and the stoma caps too.

Anyway, hope it helps someone! I love you guys and think about you all the time.

Heather

Thanks, Heather! Some of us know about irrigation, but I'm sure there are some who don't.

Just to add, it's restricted to those with descending or sigmoid colostomies and is contraindicated for those with IBS-D or a history of radiation treatment in the pelvis.

If you are interested, get ahold of your surgeon to see if you're qualified, and then get a stoma nurse to help you.

Hey Susan! I had a sigmoid colostomy in 2023 that was replaced with a loop ileostomy before a final reversal in 2024. I didn't know irrigation was a thing to actually do. I don't know that I would have been brave enough to do it, but it sounds nice, being able to kind of influence the going, if you will. If that indeed does that. When I read about it, I immediately wanted to come on and tell everyone in case it could help anybody that might not know.

Now I've got to catch up on some of BeachBoys stories! 🤭

I hope you find the irrigation suitable for yourself.

Regards, IGGIE

Hey there,

I've had a colostomy for over 20 years now that I irrigate daily in the morning. When I had my colostomy placed, I didn't know any different. The medical professionals trained me to do it this way, and I didn't realize there was a different way of operating. I generally refer to it as a "continent colostomy." It has no output aside from when I irrigate. There are pros and cons to the irrigation. The pros are that I never have a bag full of anything on me, and I don't have to change bags at all. It makes clothing options easy. It also helped prevent constipation, as you're basically giving yourself an enema flush every day. The downside is the constraint of the irrigation schedule. I have to be in the bathroom every morning during the same 2-hour window. This makes traveling, especially in different time zones, very difficult, and my whole life is planned around my irrigation schedule. I have kids and a demanding job. I can't ever have plans that interfere with my irrigation. Also, if I really need to have a BM and my body knows it (maybe some food didn't agree with me or I'm bloated, etc.), I'm basically really uncomfortable until morning rolls around when I can irrigate again. Once your stoma is trained, you can't really untrain it, so just some things to consider.

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