MY OSTOMY IS

How Do I Bathe With An Ostomy-The Steps to Cleanliness

Bathe With an Ostomy-The Easy Way

When you talk about bathing with an ostomy I see it as two choices. Choice one is considered the easy way to bathe with an ostomy.

This choice the details would be-you are naked when you get in the shower or the bathtub with your ostomy pouch and wafer fully intact. Shower as a normal human would.

You wouldn’t be covering it up with a baggie, or any cover. You would be bathing like it wasn’t even there. You can get it all wet and wash with soap shampoo etc without the fear of it being dislodged in the bathtub or your shower.

The Second Choice That I Offer

As your second choice you may become deeply involved in removing your bag (ostomy pouch). This would be bagging up your pouch for disposal, actually disposing of it properly, and then cleaning your stoma up.

Then you are hoping that you don’t experience any releasing (going to the bathroom) while it is totally open to air and water. That could get kind of messy.

It is perfectly fine and safe to expose your stoma to submersion in a bath or to have it hit with flowing water in the shower.

Nothing will get inside of you by doing the bathing or showering without an ostomy pouch attached to you.

Then after your shower or bath is over you will need to get completely dried off.

Then all of your supplies will need to be used to get yourself back to where you need to be for your normal living routines.

Bathing Preparations for the Two Choices

Preparations for Choice #1
You will need a towel to dry off with and I usually use a hair dryer to dry very carefully all of the area around my stoma where the wafer is applied.
I also sometimes need a second smaller towel to hand dry the ostomy pouch. I squeeze it and rub it with a cloth towel to make sure the pouch is dry before I pull my underwear and pants over it.

Preparations for Choice #2
The preparations for choice 2 are much more involved. Here is a list to cover this.

You will need two towels-one for drying yourself off and one to help with cleaning up the extra water on the floor. This would be because you experience a sudden leaking and you need to get out of the water quickly.
You will need a roll of paper towels to clean up an unexpected leak
You have to gather up one wafer, and one ostomy pouch to be used
A Medline Wipe Protectant Skin Sureprep-to treat the area around the stoma before adhering the wafer to your skin
A plastic bag to put soiled paper towels in to properly dispose and remove from the bathroom
A hair dryer to dry the area thoroughly before you apply the new ostomy wafer and pouch set

So it is easy to see that just in the preparation area that one choice is much easier than doing the other choice.

If You Need A Reason To Pick Choice 2

From the onset it definitely is much easier to pick choice one. Just get in the tub or the shower. That is actually what I always do.

In fact, I will be very honest with you. I just will not do choice two because of all of the extra efforts it takes to do the second choice.

So I would need a good reason why I would pick choice #2. After nearly 5 years of this living, I can see that I will be working towards choice two, because my skin needs it.

The stoma is usually only open to air and water etc only an average of fewer than 30 minutes every week. It would do me some good to expose it to the elements. HaHa ?

Most Important Benefit of Open Air Exposure

Stoma Discolored Skin

I seriously do see benefits to you to get your skin out there and put it into normally natural human situations. Skin does belong with open air and with open exposure happening to it.

It is totally unnatural to have that part of my body covered up with a wafer and a pouch for the rest of my life. You have to figure out for yourself if it is worth the extra effort to be so inclined to performing choice #2.

Here is a collage of what you see normally when looking at an always covered up stoma. Does your’s look like this then get Healthy?. Uncover and bask in the sunlight and open air

I am committing to having healthier skin around my stoma. As you can see the area close to a stoma is indeed very different looking. Any picture I have ever seem of stomas, plus seeing my own all the time, the is real.

You will notice that there is a purple pale color that is close to the stoma center.
It just looks unhealthy. So get healthier than you have been.

Helping You Maintain Your Stomas’ Good Health

So good health is something you wish to properly maintain. If so then you need to constantly be monitoring the health of your stoma and it’s relationship with your skin and your body in general.

Here are some preparations that I have used and that you too may be interested in purchasing to help you maintain your stomas’ health integrity.

Medline MSC1528H Sureprep No-Sting Skin Protectant, 28 mm MEDLINE MSC1500Z Sureprep Skin Protectant Wipe (50 pack)Medline Skin integrity Wound Cleansers, 16 fl oz.

Ostomy What To Eat-What Is Best To Eat With My Ostomy

I Have an Ostomy-What to Eat Is My Question

So now you have an ostomy. Many things are new to you. I found that one of the biggest things for me, when adjusting to the changes, was working on figuring out my diet.

Big Question is What To Eat?

It was noticeable to me within the first week of my ostomy being operational that some foods that I would eat, were responding differently for me than those same foods had before my colon operation.

This was noticed by me quickly because the changes created things that were bothersome and concerning as well. I knew at that point that this was and is a problem area that everyone was needed to pay special attention to.

Planning out things for better results could be done and should be done, to avoid any mishaps.

What To Eat Concerns With an Ostomy

So here is a list of the foods that involve me. Some situations you should be prepared to either avoid or learn to deal with.

Foods that used to not bother you at all, now are proving to be gaseous for you. I found as some examples of this would be fresh broccoli, while good for you and your diet, for me has proven to be an item that can and has produced extra amounts of gases in my ostomy pouch.
Another example which is easier to understand is beans. Beans such as baked beans (navy beans usually), kidney beans, or pinto beans. Maybe they produce smaller, less harmless farts for you, but for me it has been different. The difference for me is that now every ten minutes you have a large expanded ostomy pouch. One that needs attention by you. Is this what you need or want to do, maybe,? it’s your choice.
I have found that soups, stews, and foods like chili, go in your stomach as liquids mixed with some solids. However, they always come out through my pouch as quite a bit of liquid, much more than I really like to deal with.
Dairy products can be very interesting for you as well. I have found that ice cream definitely is diarrhea type discharge. Many cheeses like cheese that is (processed you know like cheese whiz), or Velveeta, or a cheese dip like a Frito Lay cheese dip or Tostitos cheese dip (those type of smooth liquid cheeses) will come as possible ostomy adventures.

So you can see just looking at this abbreviated list, that the foods you eat you will be dealing with, when it come time to empty your pouches. I guess this is just common sense. Be aware of this.

Some More Eating Examples For an Ostomy Owner

I have found some good examples of food not being a problem for me. Such foods as breads, pasta, potatoes, green beans, and salads, foods that possess a lot of roughage and carbs.

These foods (mostly vegetables) while very good for your health are also very good for a person with an ostomy. Your waste will be more solid, less gassy and much safer to deal with.

A Great Key Suggestion: You should go through what you are eating, as a project and for a few months keep track of what foods you eat, and how you respond to them.

I believe you will find that most foods will generally react now as they did when you had the normal waste management system.

But you also will find a few other things that you will need to realize and that you will probably naturally react to.
Here are the items that I find had the most profound of all of my new changes.

Vegetables-Some foods just don’t digest well. So be prepared. Corn is one of those. I have also found that asparagus can be interesting for you as well.
Soda or pop whatever you call it, basically carbonated drinks can create a lot of gas for quite a period of time. Many hours is what I am saying. Or things like sparkling water, or club soda, again the carbonation, be aware of.

Furthermore just so you get the idea even better I have put together a list of my foods and If they are affecting or have affected me since I have been living with my ostomy. You may click here to have a look at a closer look at foods I eat and how I respond to them in my blog post titled What I Eat-How Food Affects My Ostomy Pouch.

Eating with an Ostomy Can Be Very Interesting

So I have found that it is just not what you are eating, but when you are eating that can make a few changes seems probable for you.

What I mean is that what your daily life today is (as a single day unit) or you can look at your life for the next 5 days as a 5 day unit. How you are viewing your life, either as take it a day at a time or a block of 5 days at a time. Your view will cause how your approach to all ostomy things is and what it looks like.

This is what I am going to be discussing, so let’s go it over that now.

An Example: Example One

If my next three days, let’s say as an example, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. These next three days for me, are uneventful.

Nothing special is happening. I don’t have any meetings, any social gatherings, no road trips, nothing Nada. All perfectly normal.

So in this case, with my food I will be doing my normal 3 meals a day, with my Keto genic diet. The times are spaced out and my ostomy will respond as a normal time thing. No surprises should come up. Life is normal.

An Example: Example Two

Okay the second example is that the next 5 days are going to be on a road trip, visit my daughter 5 day event unit. So I have prepared for this. My eating alone should be kept under control.

It looks like this. Travel in a car, so the food to bring along is a few apples, some red grapes, and a couple of keto snack bars, and we will be taking along a case of bottled water.

To supplement the trip with food we will be stopping at a couple of often visited fast food type restaurants on the over 300 mile to trip visit our daughter.

Foods I in the the past included on a road trip, potato chips, corn chips, and then we always had a few 6 packs of bottled Coca-cola and or Sprite, root beer.

You Get the Picture

I don’t do soda or carbonated drinks on a road trip anymore. This lets to my pouch filling up with gas very often. That makes sitting and driving uncomfortable.

The visit with my daughter will be mostly eating out at a few local diners, or others like that. I try to eat sensibly and I certainly do not eat soups, stews, cheese dips, or things that will cause more gases or a more loosening of the feces waste.

Why because I am now dealing with changing, and emptying my ostomy pouch in strange bathrooms. This is always just not as comfortable as what I have set up at home.

Summation of Ostomy What To Eat Thoughts

Just my siting a few simple example you can see, that what you eat with an ostomy pouch can be something you need to pay attention to.

There are many situations that you always need to address, it’s just a matter of how successfully you navigate those waters that will matter.

Yes you can do it, using my easy to apply, common sense tips on living with an ostomy in 2018.

What I Eat-How Food Affects My Ostomy Pouch

Proteins to Start My List Of Ostomy Foods

These are a few things that I eat in my diet. This list is far from complete. These are the only foods that I can share because they are my foods, my diet.

I am sure of this if you are looking at my list, it is just that it is my list, so here goes. I am likely to find that with different cultures and different countries and different foods that the list is only the tip of the iceberg.

Much more can be contributed to this page. Please share in the comments.

With the list, I will list food, and then I list a comment or comments about how my ostomy pouch and my body response to or handle this food.

Turkey-light concerns-a little more leaning towards diarrhea
Chicken-everything has been fine
Steak-everything has been fine
Ham-everything has been fine
Beef Roast-everything has been fine
Crab-everything has been fine
Lobster-everything has been fine except very rich butter sauce has lead to looser stools
Pork Chops-everything has been fine

Basically, most meat proteins have been fine, no problems however, please remember that you shouldn’t be eating more than 6 oz. of meat protein per meal.

This is a healthy recommendation. In fact, I have found that meat seems to solidify my excrement in my ostomy pouch.

Vegetables

A vast assortment of vegetables that I eat. Many are listed but I am very sure, there are many more veggies that other people eat all the time that I never consume.

So the list is only of ones that I have exposed myself to.

Potatoes-everything has been fine
Broccoli-as mentioned earlier this has caused a small amount of increased gaseous activity for me
Cauliflower-everything has been fine
Corn-fine as far as no extra gases, but it is usually passed solid and it has a tendency to make you pass more feces more often. I guess kind of like a laxative but not as active as a laxative.
Green Beans-everything has been fine
Tomatoes-everything has been fine
Tomato sauce-used in sauce type dishes which unfortunately do produce more of a looser stools situation.
Acorn Squash-everything has been fine
Zucchini squash-everything has been fine
Romaine Lettuce-what can I say about romaine lettuce. This isn’t meant to be too detailed, but at times it causes as kind of a string to be left and undigested. I probably need to chew it better or cut into smaller pieces when it is prepared. Stringy is hard when you are trying to empty the pouch.
Celery-everything has been fine
Beans navy baked- are almost instantly extra gassy and will last very actively for sometimes up to 4-5 hours. Not much fun, but sometimes I just have to include in a meal choice.
Pinto Beans- a little bit of gas but not as much as the navy/baked beans
Green peas- similar acting to corn. in fact almost identical to corn in it’s behaviour.
Cabbage-very gassy. Started almost immediately and last probably 3-4 hours as well.
Brussel Sprouts- very nearly the same as cabbage is. gassy to a fault.
Onions-everything has been fine
Garlic-everything has been fine as long as quantities are lower for me. Higher quantities make me a little ill
Carrots-everything has been fine

Dairy

Cheese sticks-everything has been fine
Processed white and yellow sliced-everything has been fine
Mozzarella Cheese
Milk-everything has been fine. Again in limited quantities
Cream Heavy-love delicious homemade whipped cream. But to need to limit as the ostomy will not like the rich liquid.
Butter-in keto a major item, but I have not had any problems with.
Ice cream-definitely a problem as far as does lead to more of an upset stomach feeling and slight cramps with the stoma. These cramps are hardly ever experienced but when I do then they are very painful. I almost always need to lay flat to alleviate the cramps.

PreFab/Prepared Meals/Boxed Meals

Hamburg Helper-not any problem, but honestly almost never have as a meal anymore.
Rice Sides-everything has been fine
The Gravies-no problem as long as I keep the quantity low and reasonable
Apple Sauce-looser stools. really hardly ever eat.
Fettuccine Alfredo Sides-everything has been fine
Stuffing-everything has been fine
Bread-everything has been fine
Hummus-use in moderation, so no problem
Frosting-sweet, no problem. but very limited in every eating any.
Ice cream cake-same as ice cream can be a problem. sweet and too much dairy causes stomach cramps sometimes and looser than normal stools. Only for a birthday.

Spices

Spices, in general, don’t seem to affect anything in either direction for me. But I have found they are invaluable in helping with preparing the Keto Genic diet food I prepare. It makes the food recipes work better. But no effect on the pouch.

Fruits

Apples-everything has been fine
Strawberries-just noticed more grit in the emptying the ostomy pouch.
Red Grapes-like with strawberries when emptying the ostomy pouch everything is a bit grittier than from other normal foods. The small seeds are still there.
Pineapple-everything has been fine
Watermelon-the main thing here was that I needed to pee more often and I did have a few larger bag emptying sessions if I ate a large piece of melon.

Other Foods

Bran Muffins-extra fiber extra help in firming up things for you.
Juices green vegetable juicer juices-they are extra healthy but they are all liquid. This did lend itself to being looser stools, and some more gases being released
Isagenix Isalean shakes-protein shakes-or any other high fiber mixed shake drinks. A meal of itself a protein shake. These have lead me to be gassier at times as well as I do get looser stools when I drink them.
Spaghetti-tends to make things a bit looser for me.
Noodles-everything has been fine
Cookies-no effects from cookies. The exception would be they usually are invading and destroying a diet for me

My Summation

In summary, it appears from my experience that if I consume foods that have more liquid, my stools will be looser. More solids like meats and things go to the firmer side.

But to me, the thing that bothers me more than this is the gassy situation. Sometimes for hours, I keep going to the bathrooms to release the gases from my ostomy pouch.

This is always embarrassing since it seems that no small amount of air freshener will handle the smells anywhere nearly as effectively as I wish they would. Very smelly and very embarrassing at times.

At the end of this discussion please remember I am only discussing openly with you the way it is for me. One single person with an ostomy.

I believe we all have some things very much in common, but please allow your individuality in looking honestly at you and your personal life. God Bless!

How My Faith Is in the Middle of My Ostomy Story

My Faith Is In the Middle of My Ostomy Struggle

Where do I start with this one? My statement to you and the world is my faith is in the middle of my ostomy story.

My faith is everything to me. I walk in faith every day. I know that I exist today, I live today because He lives in me.

It says in the Bible “Now faith is the [a]substance of things hoped for, the [b]evidence of things not seen.” This is from the book of Hebrews in the New Testament.

This is the new covenant that we live under since Jesus went to the cross at Calvary. It is found in Hebrews 11:1. Hebrews chapter 11 is the great Faith Hall of Fame. Read it sometime. Amazing Reading.

What I Did First

As soon as I was diagnosed with cancer, my march towards having to have an ostomy started. From that point on I was walking in faith.

I immediately went and researched healing scriptures from the Bible. As you can see my faith is in the middle of my thoughts towards getting healed.

I needed to find healing scriptures, where God promises that I have been healed. All of the promises of God are yes and Amen. In the Bible, you will find this “2 Corinthians 1:20 New King James Version (NKJV)

20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”

You can read that in 2 Corinthians 1:20 King James Version (KJV) For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

After I found the Scriptures

I wrote them out on a sheet of paper. I used a concordance and a Bible to cross-reference them. Then that sheet of paper became nine pages of healing scriptures, that I had with me or around me for the next couple of months.

Wherever I went they were within reach for me.

I researched entire sections of the Bible so as to not leave out anything according to context. The context, what is before and what is after is important to me, and to the proper understanding of the scriptures.

My wife and I prayed over these scriptures, and we believed that every one of them was true for me and my life.

If you would like a copy of the Healing Scriptures-Faith Builders PDF you may click on this link and sign up for the PDF and I will happily send it to you.

My Faith Is in the Middle-How My Faith Builders worked

I needed to put everything into action. Getting my faith activated was important to me. I learned many years ago, that God can’t drive a parked car.

How true that is. I can sit and think, or hope that something will take place, but that’s not good enough. God wants a commitment, then a walk towards what you are believing to be true.

In this case, I picked out a few scriptures that I could believe on for me, and then my wife and I prayed these scriptures. We believed these to be true for me right now.

Again everything that was being done by us was putting our faith right smack dab in the middle of this whole medical situation.

As we did that, and every day after that as we continued to believe, we added thankfulness and praise to God Almighty and to Jesus and thanked Him for my position in the righteousness of God as a Born Again Believer.

My Walk Started and What Followed

At this point in time, I started getting measured for my radiation treatments. You know where they figure out all of the measurements for where the radiation is getting aimed at in my body. The tumor was going to be targeted from multiple angles.

My radiation treatment each day was 22 minutes and I know for sure that the radiation machine stopped at least 10 times.

So that is 10 times that it stopped…. aimed…. and shot. Then it would stop and everything would then move to the next position. Then it was rinse and repeat.

Now I do know it wasn’t that simple, but I made it that simple, so that I could handle the 22 minutes each day.

I had to go through 27 of these treatments. For more reading on these radiation treatments, you may go to my post titled How to Get Through the Radiation Treatments for Colorectal Cancer.

What Exactly Did I Do To Put My Faith in the Middle

This whole thing is mental, will power and belief. I needed to kick the fear out of any equation. There wasn’t any way that I could fear, doubt or even say anything negative.

You see once I committed to a fact (which is a scripture) It is written, then I had to believe it was true for me.

You see that’s where the rubber meets the road. Could I do that? Could I stay with the belief, have no fear, speak no negative, and just keep telling myself that I was the well and the enemy of this world was trying to get me to accept cancer, to accept all the side effects that I was told might happen?

I was already healed by Jesus when he went to the cross for me, a believer.

Isaiah 53:3-5 reads

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

So I was already the healed. But getting back what he said He took it all on so that I could be totally free from all sin and death.

Practical Tips of Faith

So an example would be that I read the scriptures a couple of times a day. Then when I was doing treatments or when I visited the cancer doctors I would expect a good report. And you know what, I received several good reports throughout the 364-day process I lived through.

I would get told things such as:

“I see the tumor shrinking really well. We are right on target, and you appear to be doing really well handling the side effects that patients usually experience with the radiation.”
“You are responding very well. I would put you in the top 95 percentile for all the patients and how they handle these side affects.”
“You seem very calm with everything that you have been going through. Many patients will show a bit of anxiety by now”
You appear to be in my upper 90% of patients in dealing with the chemo side effects that most people are affected by.”

So as you can see, we claimed that the side effects would be minimal and that I would totally healed of cancer. I was and I am.

I would visualize being cancer free. I would listen to Praise and Worship music while I was under going the radiation treatments, 27 of them in total.

I did have the tumor get burned into submission And it had no sign of cancer in the biopsy after the removal and the colon cancer surgery I went through.

My faith did get me through the nearly year of treatment plans. I don’t even want to think about where I would be now. I am very grateful for my results.

You Can Do This Too

You can make your claims using the Bible verses as I did. It has nothing to do with me, but everything thing to do with the Word of God. Bless you as you move forward with your walk of faith.