How to Change Stoma Pouch

A stoma is an opening on the abdomen that can be linked to your gastrointestinal or urinary system. It gives way for waste such as urine and faeces to be abstracted away from your body. The appearance of the stoma is a lesser, pinkish, rounded piece of flesh that is attached to your body. Someone may need the stoma because of some conditions such as bowel cancer, bladder cancer, and inflammatory bowel illness.

The soma lacks nerve endings, and this makes it painless. Getting stoma attachment may be either temporary or permanent. Some of the common types of stoma include:

Colostomy

A colostomy is a process that involves pilling through the parts of your large bowel or colon from an incision formed on your abdomen to create a stoma. Colostomy exists in two forms, and they are.

End Colostomy

The procedure involves pulling through the end of one of your colons and sew it to your abdomen. The other part of the affected bowel is pulled out or given time to heal before it is stitched back together.

Loop Colostomy

It involves a process that pulls the looped portion of your colon to your abdomen. An opening is made next to the loop and then stitched to your stomach using a rod to rise it above surface level. The process is temporarily performed in case of emergency operation and can be reversed with a short period

IIeostomy

This is the second type of stoma that involves pulling the part of your ileum through an incision performed on your abdomen to create a stoma.

Urostomy

This process happens when your bladder is cut off due to illness such as bladder cancer. A small part of your bowel is pulled out through an opening created in your abdomen and attached to your stomach to create a stoma. The ureters are then removed from the bladder and stitched to the part of the bowel to create a urostomy.

How to change Your Stoma

Your stoma nurse will help you learn to clean your stoma and change your pouch. They help you to identify the best type of stoma that aligns with your health condition. Changing your stoma depends on how comfortable you feel. At first, changing the stoma may be a great hustle but once you are used to it only needs a few minutes to change the bag

Guidelines to Follow When Changing Your Stoma Bag

• Confirm that you have all the needed items with you to change the pouch successfully
• Ensure that you cut your stoma bag to the correct size
• Clean your hands properly before starting the procedure
• Gather some tissues or dry wipes around your waistband to avoid any spilling into your clothes
• Hold the skin around your stoma taut, and from the top, pull back the stoma bag slowly and cautiously using the adhesive remover spray.
• Dry your skin properly using dry wipe's and dispose of the used wipes
• To fix in your new stoma bag, fold back the wafer in half to link up the opening with your stoma. Starting from the bottom, move the bag over your stoma and even the wafer down to get rid of any creases or gaps.

When you are carrying out the whole process to replace your stoma calls for high hygiene maintenance. Ensure you always wash your hands before changing the stoma and after the process.