Things You Need To Know About Stoma Skincare

One of the necessities of ensuring effective stoma care is to look after your peristomal skin. You are going to have to avoid feces or urine from coming into contact with the skin around your stoma, or it can lead to soreness and inflamed patches in the peristomal skin. Not only is this leakage a source of discomfort, but it can also compromise the ostomy bag’s ability to stick to the skin.

In this article, we are going to talk about ways to prevent and treat infections that tend to occur in the peristomal skin area.

Cut to the correct size

You have to make sure that you have cut the ostomy bag to fit the size of your stoma. For this purpose, first, you need to measure the stoma. Using those measurements, you will need to cut the wafer to create a hole that if of the exact size and shape of your stoma. If the hole is too big, it can leave room for the leakage to occur. And if the hole is too narrow, it can obstruct the excretory pathway.

Consider using the barrier ring or paste

Any uneven cracks or edges around your stoma can result in a poor seal between the skin and the wafer. That can further lead to leakage, which is never a good thing for skin health. You can use a barrier ring or stoma paste to create an even surface to ensure a good seal.

Convex pouch

An inverted stoma is the one that sits below the surface of the skin. Understandably, it is not easy for a normal skin wafer to form a proper seal with the skin around the stoma in that case. The best solution, in this scenario, is to use a convex pouch, which consists of a skin wafer that protrudes from the side that has to go against the skin. However, you will need to be sure whether a convex pouch is the right choice for you. You may need to talk about it with your doctor.

Use adhesive remover

The skin barrier comes laden with significantly strong adhesive whose purpose is to form a leak-proof seal with the skin around the stoma. The downside, however, if this adhesive is that it is not very easy to remove from the skin when you need to change the pouch. Pulling the skin barrier while it retains much of its adhesion can cause injury to the peristomal skin. That’s where you can consider using an adhesive remover. This remover can dissolve the adhesive, making it easy for you to take the skin barrier off without causing any injury to the skin.

Things You May Need To Know About Ostomy Pouching Systems

After an ostomy surgery, you get different types of pouching systems that you can take home. These pouching systems work for different kinds of stomas. After getting home, you can try each of the systems to figure out what works best for your stoma.

One-piece and two-piece ostomy pouching systems

There are two types of ostomy pouching system from the perspective of pouch attachment with the stoma. These two pouching systems are one-piece and two-piece ostomy pouching system.

Both of the pouching systems consist of a skin barrier and a pouch. Skin barrier is the part which has a layer of adhesive. This part has to be attached to the persitomal skin, the skin around the stoma. Its main purpose is to prevent leakage of stomal output while ensuring protection of the peristomal skin, which is quite susceptible to irritation when exposed to stomal output. The pouch is a bag which collects output from the stoma.

One-piece pouching system

This pouching system has a skin barrier which is permanently attached with the bag. It means that if you are going to have to remove the bag, you are going to have to detach the barrier from the skin. This pouching system is very simple and very easy to apply; i.e. just peel the protective cover from the skin barrier and attach it with the persitomal skin. The best thing about this pouching system is that it lies flatter than other types of pouches, meaning that you can conceal the pouch more easily.

Two-piece pouching system

A two-piece pouching system is more versatile because it has a pouch and a barrier as two different entities. These two parts are connected together by the means of a plastic ring, or flange. The major advantage of this pouching system is that you don’t need to remove the barrier in order to empty or replace the bag. Thus, it is the perfect pouching system if you need to change the bag more frequently than the barrier.

Drainable and closed ostomy pouches

From the perspective of bag usability, there are two types of pouches; i.e. drainable and closed ostomy pouches. Each of these pouches has its own set of advantages.

Drainable ostomy pouches

These pouches have a clamp or an integrated closure that allows you to empty the bag when it is filled. But make sure that you are not waiting for the bag to be completely filled. The best practice is to empty the bag when one-third of it is filled. These bags are typically needed in case of urostomy.

Closed pouches

These bags need to be disposed rather than emptied. You can use these pouches when your stomal output is not quite frequent. All you have to do is to remove the bag one it is filled and throw it away.

Things You Need To Know About Ostomy

The key to living an active and healthy life after an ostomy surgery depends upon how well you take care of your ostomy. And that is possible only when you follow instructions by your doctor and ostomy care nurse. A huge prerequisite of this process is to understand what your ostomy care nurse is saying to you. People in the field of medicine often use too many medical terms that feel like beyond a normal person’s understanding. That’s pretty much OK if you are not an ostomate. But if you have an ostomy, you are going to have to learn these terms to fully understand what your nurse or doctor is saying to you.

It is definitely worth mentioning that understanding the ostomy terms along with the main concept of ostomy may very well be the difference between a healthy life and a life which is affected by an ostomy based obsession. The first thing that ostomates and their caregivers need to understand is the fact that ostomy is never meant to make a person handicapped or somehow dependent. On the contrary, it is an important procedure that helps a person with a problem in excretory system to effectively manage this problem.

Ostomy care nurses have huge role to play in this regard. They are the individuals who have the responsibility to do their best to make a difference in the lives of ostomates for good. Helping ostomates understand the ostomy, its possible impact on life and the way to live with ostomy without getting the overall health impacted is an important part of an ostomy care nurse’s job.

Another worth considering fact is the inability of ostomates and their caregivers to describe the problems properly due to their lack of understanding of ostomy terms. Since they do not understand what their doctors or nurses talk about while using some specific medical terms, they are unable to answer the questions accurately. And because doctors and nurses are well aware of the terms, they assume that their patients also have that knowledge, which they don’t really have. While patients should ask their doctors and nurses about the terms, they should also educate themselves by doing a little bit of research.

Know the type of ostomy you have

At the very least, you need to have knowledge about the ostomy you have. There are three major types of ostomy.

• Colostomy: An ostomy that is made in the large intestine. It bypasses a part of the colon
• Ileostomy: An ostomy that is made in the small intestine and it bypasses the entire colon
• Urostomy: This type of ostomy uses a portion of the small intestine to drain the urine out. The bladder is bypassed

Know how to describe your stoma

You can look into the front mirror to see what your stoma looks like. Below are the shapes a stoma may be in.

• Round
• Oval
• Irregular
• Smaller at the top, larger at the bottom
• Larger at the top, smaller at the bottom
• Has one opening
• Has two openings

A stoma can be in any of the following colors:

• Red
• Pink
• Brown (not normal)
• Black (not normal)
• Maroon, Blue/Purple (not normal)

The position and level of the stoma can be described as any of the following:

• Below skin level ( in a skin fold or sunken)
• Flush to skin level/at skin level
• Above skin level

These are just a few things but they should tell you much about your stoma. You can describe these factors to the ostomy care nurse to know whether or not you have any issue.