Water, showering and bathing with a stoma | by Maryrose
If you’re new to stoma life, you may find this daunting. Will the bag stay in place? How long can I stay in the water before the bag starts to peel off? Can the water get into the bag? There are so many questions that can flood your mind when doing something that would not have taken any thought previously to having your stoma bag.
It’s tough to have trust in your bag when it comes to things like this, and rightly so. It’s unclear territory when you are getting used to stoma life, but sometimes the more we think about these things, the more scenarios we can create in our head, therefore creating more hurdles to overcome.
My advice would be to start with a shower. Once you try the shower and see how resistant your bag can be to water, this will hopefully give you the confidence to try having a bath. Your stoma bag and products are designed to ensure that your bag stays out during a shower or a bath.
I use both and have never had any issues with my bag during either the shower or the bath. I choose to keep my bag on during both, but I have tried a bagless shower. This can be a bit more challenging, knowing when your stoma may be less active, especially with an ileostomy, so this isn’t something I enjoy doing, but I know a lot of others enjoy getting water around their peristomal skin. It took me a long time to build up the courage to do this, and I was glad I had tried it. I made sure to have all my products set up for when I was finished showering and extra dry wipes at hand to reach and cover the stoma before I stepped out of the shower.
It’s hard to put your trust in your stoma bag in water, especially if you feel it has let you down before, such as with a leak, which can happen. But, in general, if you are using the correct products, frequent leaks should not be happening, and if they are, you should maybe discuss with your stoma nurse about changing your products up.