so i've gotten to where it hurts so much to pull the wafer off to change it... like the little peach fuzz hairs on my belly are getting pulled out one by one. it takes me probably 10 minutes to pull the whole thing off, and the pain brings me to tears. i have some of the hollister wipes, is that what they're for? anything else you do to lessen the pain of the adhesive coming off?

I can tell you what really worked well for me! And I really hope that this helps! I would get into a really hot shower, in ten min's, I would slowly just peel the melted (from the direct contact with hot water) flange right off. I also used the silly puddy ring under the flange, this way the output would not burn my skin, but rather burn through the silly puddy ring and flange until it had to be changed. The silly puddy ring was a saving grace for me, and so was the really hot shower to pull the flange off. I also made sure to never get my conditioner near the stoma, or any body creams, including on your hands, for this would not allow the flange to stick as well. Okay I hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions!
Kbear!

I just read that you had your fully collectomy in Feb, so I can imagine the area around your stoma is still healing, and so this will become much better once the stitches around the base of the stoma fully heal up.

Do you Shave around the area?

I was told when I remove the wafer, not to pull it off, instead hold the wafer and push gently on the skin.

Yes, use the adhesive remover wipes, preferably ones without alcohol or Alkare wipes by convatec that have a non-stinging alcohol and then gently push the skin away from the wafer once you have an edge started. Just be sure to clean the area real well after to get all of the wipe residue off.

I think I did all of what everyone here is recommending. Definitely push the skin away from the wafer rather than pull the wafer off. I changed in the shower so I got the benefits of the hot water (and my skin enjoyed the shower and breathing time too). I used an adhesive remover to get the wafer off and all the excess adhesive that would stick to my skin. I would shave the skin around my stoma once all the wafer adhesive was off. I didn't usually get right up against the stoma - too many bumps - but that was ok. I took off my appliance as my first thing in the shower and then I showered, conditioner and all, and the very last thing I did before I got out of the shower was wash the area around my stoma with Hibiclens soap. It's the pink soap that a lot of people get to wash their surgical areas before surgery. My surgeon had me use it to wash until my incisions were healed so I still had a pretty full bottle and it worked really well to get all the residue from my adhesive remover off. Some people aren't comfortable changing in the shower. If that's the case and you use an adhesive remover just be sure to clean the area well before you put your new appliance on.

There are some great suggestions already listed. I'll add my two cents of what worked for me. I can totally understand what you mean by needing a good 10 minutes to get the flange off and being close to tears. That was me! I was such a baby about it at first. Over time though, the peach fuzz stopped growing (I suppose I ripped it all out - ouch!), and it was less painful as time went on. The first few weeks were brutal, though.

I used Hollisters non-sting adhesive remover wipes for a long time. I also (like mentioned above) found a hot shower to be helpful. (I actually don't use the adhesive remover wipes anymore since the shower loosens the glue just fine on its own). I didn't change the bag in the shower though because I had incision issues and I didn't want output leaking into the incision. So I would take a hot shower with the flange on.

Then once I got out of the shower and dried off, I would sit on the toilet and remove the flange. By sitting on the toilet, if I leaned forward a bit, I didn't have to worry too much about the controlling any fussy output. Once I finally adopted this routine, changing days were much less daunting!

Wow...what brand wafers are you using? I have no pain what-so-ever removing my Coloplast wafers.

Thanks for all the input. i have added the adhesive remover wipes to my monthly order (the ones i had were the skin conditioning wipes that you're not supposed to use with the flextend barriers), and have started removing my barrier in the shower as some others suggested. still uncomfortable, but getting a bit better. thanks again for the great suggestions!

I see these posts are from April and it is August now, but I thought of one more thing that might help anyone during the changing of the bag. I use a wet wet paper towel as I am gently pushing my skin away from the tape, ring, etc. It really helps.