About Irrigation Equipment
Contents
Choosing an Irrigation Kit
Choosing an Irrigation Kit
Authors of this page
Much of the information on here has been taken from the Ostomyland Message Board - Irrigation Section. The authors are listed under each article.Choosing an Irrigation Kit
Ive been irrigating since for about 7 months... with a 1 month break in that time... I can tell you a bit about what I have tried and what works for me :)
I use the coloplast water bag... purely because it tells you on it wot temperature the water in the bag is... with that water bag I also use the coloplast 2 piece irrigation sleeve... I chose this one to suit my needs more... my stoma is in a very deep curve of my skin which is very badly scarred... the piece that goes next to your skin is not a wafer.. but a plastic plate... that clips onto a belt and goes around your body... the plate itself would be not enuff to stick to me so i use eakin seals to mould into my scars and fill out any gaps that may appear around the skin... then the cololast sleeve itself clips onto this plate.. I find this much more secure and much less risk of leaking... at the top pf it the has a like a plastic coated flexible wire that your can fold down to seal the bag and bend the wire to make sure it dosent come undone... at the bottom I was given 2 red pegs to secure the sleeve.. I found in my experience this wasnt very secure.. I prefer to empty the sleeve as I pass out the water again... instead of allowing the sleeve to hold it... as the peg cant hold much weight... you can find out more on coloplast products at http://www.coloplast.co.uk/ or www.us.coloplast.com
I had previously tried the dansac water bag... it dosent tell you the temp.. that is the reason I decided against it.. I also found the cone with this one much bigger and more uncomfortable for my stoma when using it... the danac sleeve I used was a one piece with sticks onto the skin.. the part that sticks to you.. its like a thin wafer almost.. I found to be very very thin and flexible.. but hopeless when water began to come back out of me... the sleeve became wet and loose from the skin within minutes and well! I'll not go into what happened after that! but I tell you! it was very messy! :) this may just have been for my body shape tho... Im sure it works fine for other people... you can find out more about it at http://www.dansac.co.uk/ or http://www.incutech.com/
My stoma nurse gave me both products home with me to try out... and I new within days of trying which one suited me more...
Hilary
Coloplast bag set. Has a little wheel that shows you the water is going in (or not), and how fast. I don't use temp gauge, but I see it's helpful for others. I just judge water by pouring it over the inside of my wrist first. If it feels hot or cool I adjust till it's body temp. Slightly warmer is OK, but colder give me cramps.
Sleeve. In the beginning, I used Cymed Microskin as they make the barrier I preferred. US distribution, not sure about elsewhere. They make an adhesive-coupling barrier and compatible sleeves. I liked it fine, but my goal was always to get away from barriers/pouches altogether and onto the thinnest covering possible.
So I moved to Convatec sleeve, attached with Hollister ostomy belt. (Any 2-pc ring system irrigation sleeve will work with pretty much any belt, though.) I don't use a faceplate. I'm fairly thin and the surface around my stoma is not too irregular, so the ring on the sleeve gives me a suitable, leak proof seal. I use clothes pins on the turned-up tail when I want to move around. After finishing, I cover the stoma with Mestopore dressing - a bandage designed for continent ostomies.
So far, so GREAT! It's closer to life 'before' than I ever imagined possible. But as you say, everyone's different. Not everyone feels secure without a pouch or at least a stoma cap, but after 6 weeks of irrigation, I know how my body behaves. That isn't to say that I don't expect variations or I won't ever be surprised. (Read too many posts for that!) So I have Hollister contour stoma caps and am planning to get some Coloplast 1pc mini pouches for my 'wardrobe.'
Kitty
