Colostomy appliances

[PennythePearl]

How do you know which one is right for the patient? My mother is 85 yrs old today and she has been using the Activelife Convatec 1 piece drainable pouch. She has sciatica or osteoarthitis of the back, failing eyesight and hand tremors because the whole ordeal just works on her nerves so bad. All of which is making it almost impossible for her to maintain the schedule of changing and cleaning of the appliance. Do all elderly colostomates end up in nursing homes just to have someone take care of the colostomy when they no longer can? She now has occasional skin irritation and bleeding from too frequent changings. She changes so much because of recent leakage problems and she is still very self-conscious of odor and visible ballooning of the pouch from gas. What other appliance could she use and how does the stoma cohesive work? Does that stay on when the pouch is changed? Would the 2 pc closed pouch be less maintenance and make her life easier now?

[patient915]

Good, I'm glad you found help.  I didn't even know we had an ostomy community, but you learn something new every day!

[PennythePearl]

Thank you patient915. I was able to do that. I am new to the site and had trouble finding things at first. Posting questions when you first come to the site sorta pigeon-holes you into categories that don't always exactly fit. I've learned a lot from the ostomy community from this site.

[patient915]

Welcome to the gastroenterology community!  I would recommend you ask the colon cancer community about this, as they have a lot more knowledge about colostomy appliances.