Continuing with the same theme, I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do to make my 9 months of living with the ostomy easier. I’ve heard a lot about the Phoenix Belt as well as the belts/wraps from OstomySecrets, Stealth Belt, and Ostomy Armor.

Has anyone tried any of these products? Any thoughts/reviews?

Side note: Dennis over at the  ucvlog.com has teamed up with his friend Nadia to collect ostomy supplies to donate to Haiti. If you have unused/new ostomy supplies or any other medical supplies check out this site to learn more about how to donate them to those who need help in Haiti. If you’ve got any questions, feel free to contact Nadia@UCVlog.com.

These posts might also help out:

• March 3, 2010 -- University Research on Jpouch Social Support Sites (7)
• February 13, 2010 -- Take a walk in my shoes (93)
• June 20, 2009 -- Stoma Retraction (or, changing my flange 8 times in 24 hours) (5)
• November 23, 2008 -- HI EVERYONE! (3)

Since I got home from the hospital, my stoma has been somewhat retracted. I have a loop ileostomy now, so I have two pieces of my intestine forming my stoma instead of one. The working part retracted quite a bit, but went to the point of near disappearance a couple of days ago. Because the stoma was flush with the skin and my skin was sort of concave around the stoma, the output started to continually break through the flange (and by continually, I mean it broke twice at work and a total of 8 times in 24 hours). It was an incredibly frustrating and painful day (my skin is a disaster). I used ever flange I had, and had to go to the medical supply store at 8am in desperation to find out what to do. Thankfully, a woman there called Coloplast (I usually wear their products) and got some advice on which products would work.

I thought it might be useful for anyone who has this happen in the future to know that the basic idea of what to do is to use a convex flange and a belt to help keep it in place. It’s working for me now and the stoma is starting to come back out again, it seems. Also, a retracted stoma is not dangerous or any type of emergency. I was pretty panicked when it first happened since I’d never even heard of it happening but my surgeon wasn’t concerned at all. He did arrange for me to meet with a stoma nurse but he didn’t bother changing the appointment that I had already had for week later, which I actually found reassuring (especially since my first concern was that it was going to completely disappear back inside my body somehow!).

These posts might also help out:

• February 10, 2010 -- Making Ostomys HOT! (3)
• June 10, 2009 -- The First Surgery: One Month Later (9)
• March 3, 2010 -- University Research on Jpouch Social Support Sites (7)
• February 25, 2010 -- Commenter with Questions (13)