Considering Irrigation for Colostomy - Seeking Advice

I had my colostomy done on September 18, and it is reversible, so I have a few more months to go. I had many complications with the surgery, so I was unable to return to work until January 3. I teach 8th grade. So.... of course I am nervous about the bag if I have some sort of problem there. Things are going well with wearing the bag and I am not having leakage problems (knock wood here!) but there is also the noise you make.
Should I learn to irrigate since I only have a few more months to go? I may get the surgery at the 6 month point or I may wait until summer so I am not off work more.
I don't know if it is complex and worth ordering the stuff to use and learning how to use it.
I don't have a clue as to what to do and how to do it. Although I am sure insurance might be able to help out with instruction and cover supplies (I would hope).
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Leanne

I would sure look into it. Talk to your ostomy nurse, I started irrigation in Oct. It adds about 30 to 40 minutes to my morning, but my days are free of going to the bathroom and emptying the bag. And it helps a lot with the gas.
Good luck, and I hope your reversal is a success. Mine didn't work out too well. Whole another story.

It is about maintenance. You are trading the time it takes to irrigate over the rest of the day where, once trained, there would be no output.

But first, you would need the blessing of your surgeon and you should talk to an ostomy nurse to get a gist of the procedure. From there, it is getting the right formula or routine (much like one's system for applying one's gear), and by that I mean how much water, how many infusions, etc.

Then it's about training one's bowel. Ideally, your bowel will "learn" not to evacuate until the water is introduced and that's where the holy 24 hours of no output comes from.

And I believe insurance will cover the supplies. I am not the best advocate because I tried it and it didn't take.

Irrigation is not complex, it's quite simple. The cost of the irrigation kit is around $55-60, money you can quickly recoup since you will use fewer supplies and your wear time will increase. Not everybody qualifies for irrigation, please consult your doctor or nurse. If you do qualify, I suggest you try it. I have attached a link to a short video, which explains it better than I can. Good luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g14kbuw1fU8

Hello hockeymom.  The previous posts more or less sum it up and if you watch the video it will give you a good idea of what it is about.  For me the trade-off in time spent all at once rather than in dribs and drabs throguhout the day is invaluable as I found using bags too intrusive in my active lifestyle.. I irrigate in the late evening when there is little else to do so I don't feel the intrusion quite so much as at other times. Good luck in whatever you do!

Best wishes  Bill

Words of Encouragement from Ostomy Advocates I Hollister

All these posts seem to be that you irrigate every day but I swear I read on another post that you could do it every other day. That's what made me think about it (haven't done anything more than think so far).

Lobster,

For those that irrigate regularly, can migrate from every day to every other day, assuming they've been keeping up with their schedule. In general, individual results may vary.

The time between irrigation sessions is determined by

1: how much you get your system evacuated.

2: how much fiber you intake.

I can regularly go 2 days with no problem and sometimes even 3. I try to avoid high fiber foods.

If you will try it for a month...you will never go back.

I gave it eight. I stopped once I started to hate it.

Hello hockeymom. I would recommend trying irrigation to see if it works for you. From my own experience I wouldn't want to go back to wearing bags as I feel the advantages of irrigation far outweigh the disadvantages. I too irrigate in the late evening as this way there are less complications than if I did it during the day. The main advantage to irrigation is that I am free from almost all the hassles of bags and worrying about what I might and might not be able to wear or do during the day. The problems (if any) are confined to about 1 hour in the evening.  I worked it out that when I had bags I was spending more than an hour catering to them in dribs and drabs throughout the day. Also having bags took up more of my 'thinking' time - which I resented greatly.

I hope this is helpful.

Best wishes Bill