Hi,

Another success trial :
when home,
I 'rinse' out the pouch with a Turkey Baster.
Gets it clean up to the stoma and the pouch lasts a little longer, hands do not get as soiled/lesser gross-out factor.
Personally I like the length of the baster vs a squirt bottle.

My stool is sludgy solid -50% of the time so a big help. Use after a liquid 'emptying' as well.

Next I am looking for a small syringe for my PC/messenger bag to take to appts, have not found one yet.

e

I have always been a "swisher" because my stool is nearly always too thick to empty effectively. It makes emptying so much faster and as you say much "cleaner" than squeezing stool out of the bag like toothpaste out of a giant tube! YUK!

I use a small jug which I keep in my bathroom at home and take a small bottle (one that had mineral water in it originally) in my handbag/purse. All I do is hold the drain end of my bag up and pour the water in then swish it around once or twice and empty. All done. No mess.

I learned this trick many years ago with my first loop ileo and it has stood me in good stead every since.

Shell

I use a squeezable water bottle, fairly tall in height. Shell taught me the great trick of emptying with clean water in the bag each time, and it's been a lifesaver-- or skin saver, I should say!
Even though the output is always very liquid, I think it does wonders for my stoma.
So, thanks, Shell! It works!
Paul

Thanks for the ideas...I am going to get a Turkey baster at stuff-mart next time out.
Wonder why someone hasn't invented an ostomy "swisher" to sell in the Byram catalog...probably cost 25 cents to make and can sell them for 3.50.
David

I don't bother rinsing since it's only going to get dirty again 5 minutes later (if not sooner lol). Plus stomas are used to having poop on them so it makes no difference to them

I like the swishing idea so I don't have to use a ton of TP cleaning out the end so before I close it back up.
Tried it today and it worked a lot faster than TP alone.
David

I don't rinse but I find that folding back the end of the pouch (inside out) before emptying makes things so much easier. I just take a length of t.p. (a few squares) and fold it up and have it ready, then unclip, fold the ends up and empty. Then, I "grab" the end of the bag with the t.p. and it simultaneously squeezes the last bit out and wipes it off, then I fold back down, clip and go. No mess in the end of my bag. Before I learned this trick I would spend forever trying to get the end of the bag clean.

Good luck!
Erin

I do exactly what Erin does--no fuss, no mess. Also, I don't ever rinse out the inside of the bag. I use an opaque bag and once it's on and the wafer is securely in place, I forget about it until the next appliance change. I'm very fortunate in that the surgeon gave me a beautiful stoma to work with.

Caty

I don't really do it for any other reason than to make emptying much quicker and easier. My stool is nearly always too thick to just pour out and as I mentioned before I hate having to do the "giant toothpaste tube" thing to empty it.

Shell

Shell - I giggled when I read your reference to the giant tube of toothpaste, but this morning when I went to brush my teeth . . . that's all I could think about!! I couldn't decide whether to laugh out loud or be completely grossed out!! :-) I'm a "swisher" too.

Hi Jennifer,

Glad I put a smile on your face (or was that a grimmace? )

I think us "swishers" outnumber the "dump and go" brigade. The only time I have ever been able to just let it pour is when I've got an upset tummy and my stool is like water, otherwise it's like the reference on one of the other threads (The endless wipe) and I end up going through a whole forest in toilet paper. Oh and not forgetting that the sides of the bag sort of stick together in a crumpled heap with all the gooey poo making it impossible to straighten it out under my knickers.

Shell

When I had my temporary, the stoma was very inverted and so if the stool was thick then it came out slowly and got on skin and I had troubles. A long time ostomate suggested that I lightly spray Pam (yes, the kitchen spray) inside the pouch. This helped really helped move the bag away from the stoma and move the stool lower in the bag. Emptying the bag was really easy. Now I changed my bag every 4 days, so I do not know if there was an obvious chemical interaction with bag or not.

Lala

I can see how Pam would work. I was told to squirt some baby oil into the pouch when you put a new one on and it would do the same thing. Funny thing is that I forgot all about it and haven't tried it yet! Got to do it on my next change.

Erin