Learning to love my stoma

Before being supplied with pre-cut pouches I had transferred my white writing paper template onto a fairly hard 1 mm thick piece of cardboard using a craft knife

Hi Dulac 

Just to say, yes pre cut bags do cater for odd shapes because I get pre cut bags for my crescent shaped urostomy. All they required was the right measurements.

Sarah xx

Hello Sarah,

Thank you for confirming that; I didn't realise that they could accommodate irregular shapes and will consider this in future. Do you know if all of the popular suppliers can offer this service?

Dulac

Thank you Alec78. It seems that all this won't now be necessary. Learning, learning, all the time......

Dulac

Hope all goes well

Hi Dulac 

I have used 3 different supply companies over the years-Fittleworths, Bullens and Respond, and all companies have pre cut my bags to the size of the measurements I provided. I’m all for making the process as easy as possible so prefer not to have to cut bags myself when it can be accurately and much more neatly done by machine.

Sarah xx

"more neatly done by machine" Agreed, but when you have a stoma in the shape of a pear as I do It's difficult, If not impossible , to provide 'measurements'

I am 5 years post op ileostomy and my stoma has changed shape dramatically and also pear shaped with a sort of figure 8 vibe - so 2 little insets in the middle. It was really getting me down as I was climbing nstantly sore and it was very painful. Details below, but my solution is to use a Cera ring but before I put the full ring on I mould 2 small pieces of cera ring to cover any skin that would be exposed, then stick the cera ring on, then the convex pouch. Since doing this for the past 2 months, I have had no issues and it’s much less fiddly than cutting and measuring and cutting the pouch every time.

The pear shaped stoma caused me lots of problems with my old pouch, which wasn’t big enough and having been measured by the stoma nurse and given a larger bag, I was still getting extremely sore and changing my pouch much too often. My pouch is the Platinum contour convexdrainable pouch 15-60mm and I use the Adapt cera ring stony barrier ring - a whole one plus about a fifth of one to fill in each time 

Have you tried Fusion applicators? They are like a cotton bud but treated with a substance that acts as a skin barrier and adhesive enhancer. My stoma nurse suggested them a while ago and they work very well indeed.

Hello SarahH21,

I contacted Messrs Coloplast about this and they replied: "I can confirm that pouches can be cut to an irregular shape. This is normally done via the Stoma Care Nurse sending us a template with the shape and measurements and then the cutting database is updated accordingly,"

This might also help others to know in addition to your advice. For the time being I think I will continue to cut my own as I seem to have mastered the irregular shape using the special curved scissors Coloplast issued to me a couple of years ago.

Best Wishes,

Dulac