Tips for Managing a Colostomy Bag with Chronic Psoriasis

Can someone please tell me if they have ever had this problem please. I had to have a colostomy bag and I have chronic psoriasis and I can not keep a bag on because of it. If anyone knows of a way to make the bag stick with this condition can you please tell me how you accomplished keeping the bag on. It is so bad I don't want to leave my home for fear of accident. Any helpful advise as to how to keep the bag on with chronic psoriasis would be greatly appreciated  please and thank you damon

Hello Damon.

Sorry to hear that you have this problem with psoriasis as it is difficult enough to deal with without it being where you need to stick the bag. 

I don't have the problem myself but I might be able to suggest a possible solution based on what I have developed to use overnight. Basically, I don't stick the bag on my skin but onto a baseplate which is approximately 3.5inchesx 2.5inches with a hole cut to the size of my stoma. I have several of these baseplates made up of pieces of plastic skiriting board and others of aluminium but they all do the same thing. They are kept in place with two elastic belts 'borrowed' from Coloplast and Dansac equipment, The belts are atteached to the top and bottom of the sides of the baseplate so that the tensions can be adjusted to suit my profile. There is a picture on my profile of one of these baseplates when I was experimenting with using a condom rather than a bag. That will give you an idea of how the thing works and what it looks like. There is also a Conseal stomaguard which (with double-sided carpet tape)  I stuck on the skin -side of the baseplate to stop it sliding around  and to make a reasonable seal. The stomaguard is designed to support the sides of the stoma with a very soft rubber short sleeve, which also helps to guide the output into the bag rather than have it pancake on the skin surrounding the stoma.

I know it may sound a bit complicated, but prototype solutions like this are simply experiments using whatever comes to hand and are cheap rather than professional looking. I found that this works quite well and it seems as if it might help with your problem. I hope it does!

best wishes

Bill 

Hello Damon.

I just looked on my profile and realised that the photo I was referring to only had one strap and was designed especially for the condom. I have now reposted a photo of one of my other baseplates with a bag and two straps. The elestic is threaded through a protective material  belt that I made up because I tend to be allegic to the elastic in the belts. The orange ring is just an adaptation of a complementary rubber Dansac placemat but any of the prprietry rings would serve the same purpose. I just found that they were a bit messy and disintegrated after the first outing, whereas the rubber ring lasts indefinitely.

Best wishes

Bill