Starting Irrigation After Colostomy Surgery - Tips?

I am new to the colostomy world.  I had surgery in July.  Very interested in irrigating.  How soon can I try it and how do I get started?

what was the reason for your surgery? not everyone can irrigate, if the remaining colon is healthy you should qualify. i would just ask my doctor to be sure. i would think 6 weeks post op would be safe, again ask you  dr.

there is a very good video on you tube, search ostomy irrigation. i use the coloplast irrigation kit, i prefer it over the others for ease of use and durability. it comes with 3 sleeves which you can reuse about 6 weeks each. if you have any questions you can message me direct and i`ll be glad to help if i can. regards mmsh

Hello yellowsunshine.  MMSH is spot on with his advice. I use the Dansac irridrain sleeve because it gives a generous amount of room at the top to get access to the stoma without getting 'splashed'. These are disposable and I irrigate once per day. I've also made a device that I can stick a sleeve too and that can then make them last up to a fortnight. However, as I get the sleeves from the NHS for free, the device was really only made because I can't help inventing stuff. I use a stoma plug during the day but have often thought that this is possibly unnecessary for about 80% of the time as nothing comes out. However, I keep using them because just occasionally some residue 'nuts' push their way out and it seems prudent not to have them wandering about on their own  to embarrass me.  I also use a pressurised water system because I found that the 'hanging-bag' was both too small and did not provide enough pressure to get past my hernia. In my opinion irrigation doesn't save much time as it can take between an hour and two hours (if you count the waiting for the last after-burst.) I worked it out that when I was using bags I spent about the same amount of time spread out over the day sorting out the bags. Spending the time in one session at a time convenient to me seemed much more sensible and gave me much more control during my 'normal' life. Irrigation takes a bit of getting used to at first butI would be very reluctant to go back to using bags. - As usual these are very personal choices and each of us must find the best thing that suits us and our lifestyles.  Therefore, if you try as many things as you can, you'll have a better chance of deciding which methods suit you best. 

Best wishes  Bill

You need to change your topic - it says "Irritating"  ;)

How is it that people can post here without a profile?

When you post a profile, yellowsunshine, I will share my experiences with irrigating.    Pinky