Top tips for overcoming challenges in summer with a stoma | by Maryrose

With the change of weather comes some changes with our stoma routine, clothing, frequency of bag changes, travelling with our stoma bags and staying hydrated.

Some of these factors can be a challenge especially if you’re new to stoma life so I have put together some of my top tips to help overcome these challenges.

Bag changes

With the increase in temperature, peristomal skin can be effected due to excess sweating, extra bag changes, and increased high output. More sweating will mean the stoma bag adhesive can become weaker, especially if you are mixing this with being in the pool on holiday, extra showers etc so it’s important to re-look at and adjust your bag change routine according to this. If you are going on holidays you may change your bag every day maybe twice a day when you wouldn’t normally do this at home so it’s important to pack extra supplies to accommodate this.

With the extra bag changes and sweating can mean your peristomal skin could become weaker, therefore you may need to look at extra protection for this area, a ring such as the freeseal ring, which is light, thin and has no effect on the fit of your stoma bag. Another option is to add a barrier of some sort. You can do this as well as adding the ring, such as a spray, wipe or cream and if travelling a good one for this is Respond’s REFRESH 3in1 as it does the job of 3 products in one! Therefore you’re not having to pack more supplies.

Staying hydrated 

My next tip is to stock up on dioralyte or lucozade sport and up these according to the weather and what you will be doing in the warm weather. As you may know, with an ileostomy, dehydration can happen more frequently so it’s important to know the signs and stay on top of this as the weather gets warmer. Know when to take a break out of the heat and sun to help reduce the chances of dehydration.

Clothing

Clothing for the warmer weather with a stoma bag is such a mixed bag. The issues that some people struggle with here is whether to have their bag on show in swim wear, wearing lighter clothing due to the potential risk of a leak, wearing tighter clothing due to compression on the stoma bag and clothing that you may be able to see the outline of the bag through. With this one it’s such a personal choice and will not be the same for everyone so it’s important to not feel under pressure to wear something that shows your bag if you do not feel comfortable. Me personally, I do not mind my bag being on show when in swim wear but on my first holiday I did, so I covered it up wearing one piece swim suits, I bought a lot of throws and cover ups that where still light but kept my bag covered so I was more comfortable and I wore high waisted underwear to ensure it didn’t show through any of my clothing. A tip if you are wearing anything high waisted over your stoma bag in the heat is to put baby powder between the bottom of you bag and your skin just so the bag isn’t pressed against the skin to reduce sweating.

Finally ensuring you are with a company you can trust especially when travelling. Respond, who offer global assistance will give you that reassurance that if for some reason you run out of supplies, or your supplies get lost etc that they will get you supplies wherever you are!

Maryrose @big_c_stomaandme