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