Basics Of Ostomy Care

The best sources of information about how to take care of your ostomy are your surgeon and ostomy care nurse. Additionally, many local and regional ostomy associations are also there to provide you all the support that you need to ensure effective ostomy care. It is, however, crucial to do your part at home.

This article aims at providing primary information about the ostomy care regimen that you need to be committed to.

The appliance

The ostomy appliance consists of the faceplate and the bag or pouch. Here are some tips regarding the ostomy appliance.

• Before and after changing or emptying the ostomy pouch, wash your hands.
• Change the entire appliance twice a week or every three to four days.
• Make sure that you are not letting the bag to overfill. Empty it when it is one-third to half full.
• If your stoma passes a large amount of gas into the bag, consider using an appliance with a gas filter.
• If you use cut-to-fit ostomy appliances, make sure that you have cut multiple ostomy bags ahead of time to avoid having to use scissors at the time when you need to change the bag.
• Keep your appliances in a cool and dry place.

The skin

• When changing ostomy appliance, check the skin around the stoma for sores, open areas, and redness. Notify your ostomy care nurse if you feel itching or pain.
• Use water and mild soap to cleanse the skin. Soaps with perfumes or moisturizers can be too harsh for the likes of peristomal skin.
• Unless your ostomy care nurse recommends you, you should avoid using lotions, baby wipes, powders, alcohol, or steroid ointments.

Daily activities

• Ostomy pouches produced these days have strong adhesives on faceplates. Once they adhere to the skin, they form a leak-proof seal. It means that you can shower or bathe with your ostomy appliance on.
• During summer days, heat and sweating may reduce the wear time of an ostomy pouch. Hence, you might have to change the pouch more frequently.
• After emptying the pouch, you do not need to rinse it with water. Instead, you can use a lubricating deodorant to make the ostomy pouch ready to use again.

Apart from taking care of the ostomy pouch and the peristomal skin, you need to make sure that your lifestyle makes it easy for you to manage your ostomy. For instance, your diet and daily activity routine should help you to have timely bowel movements.

 

Diet After Ostomy Surgery

An opening in the abdomen that allows the small or large intestine to pass through it to bypass the diseased or removed part of the intestinal tract is known as a stoma. The entire intestinal diversion is known as an ostomy. Common reasons that can lead a person to require an ostomy may include ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and colorectal cancer.

One of the significant concerns after undergoing ostomy surgery is the diet. In this article, we will talk about the diet after ostomy surgery.

Foods that you can include your diet place after ostomy surgery

During the first few weeks after surgery, you need to go on with a low residue diet. It’s the diet that is low on fiber. Residue, being a solid substance, reaches the lower intestine. If you have a stoma, this residue can cause problems in the first few weeks after surgery because your intestinal tract has not yet adapted to the post-surgery impact.

Foods that you might need to avoid include whole-grain bread, nuts and seeds, skins of fruits and vegetables, and dry fruits. A good rule of thumb is to avoid any food that you cannot cut with the side of your fork.

Daily water intake

Generally, ostomates are recommended to drink more water than people without ostomies. That’s because an ostomy is a diversion that bypasses a portion of, or the entire, colon. The colon’s job, apart from providing a pathway to the stool to move to the rectum, is to absorb water from feces as they move along. With the colon gone, there will be no absorption of water, which can increase the risk of quicker dehydration.

That said, you are going to have to increase your water intake to compensate for the loss of water due to the absence of the colon. However, it is necessary to talk to your doctor regarding the amount of water to drink daily.

Ostomy output odor

Foods and beverages that contain soluble fiber and sugar may cause gas in your intestinal tract. This gas can build up in the ostomy bag, resulting in a bad odor. You can avoid odors by limiting the intake of foods that cause gas.

When to introduce high-fiber foods back into your diet

You can reintroduce foods that you have been eating before surgery when your surgeon allows you to do so. It has a lot to do with the swelling after surgery. When the swelling subsides, you are all set to resume with your normal diet. However, you will need to be wary about the ability of some foods to cause bloating or discomfort. Those are the high-fiber foods, which you should eat only when your doctor allows you.