When do you change your ostomy pouch - and why?

You should be changing every 1 to 3 days.

Earlier if you feel or see something wrong.

If you feel an itch or discomfort from anywhere round the base plate it is worth looking to seeing if a leak has started.

If you see some waste creeping under the base plate definitely time to change.

Day 3 to be on the safe side.

As always I say we are all individuals and you will hear of people getting 7 more days out of a pouch but we are never told what they find when they start to remove or even the smell that greets them

If it makes you feel comfortable changing every day at the same time that is your routine but I would ask you to keep an eye on your pouch supplies, all you need is a few days a month when you have to change twice in a day, or you have trouble getting a good attachment then you could eat into you your supplies.

 your stoma your rules

You will slowly learn when the best time to changes is and obviously the best time not to when you feel your stoma is being active, you'll still get the job done a bit longer than normal with a lot more paper towels.

Please ķeep me informed how you het on.

Ian

CC

Apologise for typos not wearing my reading classes.

Hello

At the moment I am changing daily . . . op was just over three weeks ago, and the stoma is changing (shrinking mostly) almost daily it seems, so I want to keep an eye on things.

You have helpfully answered one of my other questions, which was whether this would be a daily routine for ever, or whether it is okay to do it every other day etc.? So thank you for that.

Early days, but other than when in the hospital  when there was a leak situation (trying a different pouch), so far at home I have not had any problems like that, which is good. Also, because I am at home at the moment, I am emptying regularly, and also checking on the pouch to see how it is.

Yesterday, for the first time, I changed the pouch a second time, this was just before bed, because I had a little bit of discomfort, and wondered if it was the pouch/stoma. It wasn't - I think I had just overdone things the day before - a couple of walks, lots of up & downstairs, and various other things, and the discomfort was, I think, as a result of that. Today, I have been 'more sensible'.

Another question I had, which I was going to post separately, but will add on here is about how to get a good fit for an irregular shaped stoma? I seem to spend a lot of time trying to get the right shaped hole and then attach the pouch.

I realized very quickly that I and my stoma have a symbiotic relationship - if I look after my stoma, my stoma will look after me.

Hope you are doing okay. Best wishes.

If you have an irregular shaped stoma and it is not a round one way to measure your stoma is to take the plastic covering that comes off the wafer and use this as a guide.

Making sure that you have the covering the right way up and and the printed side towards your skin.

Gently  position the covering sheet to your stoma and press it around your stoma, if you feel any resistance take  a note where it is happening and remove it, expect to see some blood on your stoma, nothing to worry about.

After you take you guide off trim some of theI plastic away from the areas you felt resistance and try again until you get the right size. This becomes your template.

Be also warned that around the stoma you might come across some small, red, raised areas on or around your stoma, these are called granulomas these are not usually a problem and sometimes only cause bleeding or discomfort, your stoma care nurse can burn them off if necessary.

Back to cutting out your template you should make allowances for any raised area around your stoma, these little lumps could just be enough for a leak to start.

Hope this helps. 

Ian

CC