Is It Difficult for you to Empty your Ostomy Pouch? Learn and Make it Easy

After the ostomy surgery, the perception of discharging the waste matter gets changed. It needs a lot of encouragement and mental strength to adopt a new style of life with some new appliances. Many ostomates are afraid of changing and emptying their ostomy bags. They worried about leakage, handling, and draining of the pouching system.

Moreover, ostomates need to adopt new habits and routines of cleaning and discharging. After the surgery, the frequency of excretion is not in the hands of the patient. Thus, they need to be psychologically active and strong. If you do not know the right ways of emptying and handling your stoma pouch, it can cause pain, leakage, infections on the peristomal skin, disturbance, annoyance, and mental pressure.

Well, no worries, I am here to teach you some simple tactics to drain your stoma pouch. Read the article and learn the simple process in easy points.

How to Empty the Ostomy Pouch?

Right after the surgery, you should seek professional aid to change, clean, and empty the ostomy pouch. However, you can learn from your nurse and adopt her/his ways of draining and changing the pouching system.

Well, after a few weeks, you need to do it on your own. Thus, you should know about the adhesive, glue, flanges, barrier, fitting techniques, and changing methods.

·         To do it on your own, you should sit in a comfortable position. If you feel relax, you can stand for emptying or changing your pouch.

·         Use a gentle towel or toilet paper and place it around the skin to prevent the splashes.

·         If you are a patient of constipation and you have thick discharge, then add a few drops of water and move your container. It will soften the waster matter within some seconds. It will ease the emptying process.

·         If you want to change the ostomy bag, use wet paper, and remove the adhesive. Moreover, you can use the glue remover to clean the paste.

·         Through gentle hands, you can pull out the stoma pouch. Drain out all the waste matter and wash it through the water. You can use soap after the recommendation of your doctor.

·         However, do not use soap on your stoma or peristomal skin. Wait, until the ostomy pouch gets dry. After a few minutes, apply some adhesive on the corners of the bag and paste it again on the stoma walls.

·         Use hand sanitizers to clean your hand. Moreover, you should use deodorant for your stoma skin and hands.

·         Always use paper sheets or gentle towels for cleaning purposes. Do not press the stoma or stoma bag.

If it seems problematic for you to empty the ostomy pouch. You can use disposal ostomy bags. You can discard them after the one use. When you feel your sack is third full, remove it and throw in the dustbin or toilet. Apply, the new ostomy pouching system.

How Often you Should Empty your Ostomy Pouch?

There is no fixed timing or rule for emptying your ostomy pouch. It depends on the type of ostomy surgery and condition of the patient. However, many doctors suggest that the preferable time of draining your bag is four to five times per day. However, for urostomy patients, the case is different. They need to empty the ostomy bag six to seven times daily. Moreover, for constipation people, they should drain the pouch two times a day.

Moreover, when it comes to changing the ostomy pouch, the general wear time of the system is three to four days. But, it varies from patient to patient and type of stoma.

One of the necessary points for emptying your pouch is, you should drain it when you fell leakage or it is ½ or 1/3 full.