Newbie- advice needed

[Snoopy73b]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to irrigation. My WOCN nurse showed me how to irrigate about a month ago. I had 3 very successful weeks where I was infusing between 700-1000 ml of warm water once a day with no output in between sessions. Then this week things changed! I'm getting output again after about 16-18 hours. I'm not sure what my next step should be. I loved the freedom of not having to deal with output all day. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!!

Jen
(Background info... Fairly new to all this in general. I'm 43 yrs old. Diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer in December 2104. Had surgery in April 2015 for what was supposed to be a temp ostomy, but surgeon wasn't able to get clear margins so he did APR surgery and I have a perm colostomy.)

[markstan]

Hello Jen,

Welcome to the gators discussion group. Glad to see you have embraced the lifestyle. Since this is a new process for your colon you will likely have to change up your procedure. I would not react immediately but wait a week or so to check for consistency. If you have already done that and you are getting consistent results day after day and you are getting less than 24 hrs output free I would then begin to increase the infusion volume. The best volume is of course unique to each of us. I for example infuse 2 liters. It has varied a bit over the years but that appears to be my best volume. If the increase in volume alone still does not get 24hrs, you may try using immodium. However I would recommend only experimenting with water volume for the time being. One last thing, I have assumed that you are irrigating at the time of day that you would have had natural bowel movements. If not then, I would suggest irrigating at that time. Be patient it will work for you.

Mark

[rebeccaannmarie]

Hi Jen
I am very similar in that I am 39 years old, was diagnosed with rectal cancer, and needed an APR so could get clean margins. My Ostomy surgery was March 2nd, and I will be trying irrigation for the first time this June. This site really encouraged me to go ahead and try. Hope everything starts wor King the way you'd like!

Becky

[ot dave]

Hooray!! Gaitlets in the mist! I like the stories that come from Gaitlets!

Seriously though, welcome to the irrigation forum. let us know what we can help with...
Irrigation, for me any way, was a life changer.

David

[Lisa]

Hello Jen and Becky,
Welcome to the irrigation board! I have been irrigating for a little over a year now and it has made all the difference to me. You will find a lot of experienced and kind people here.
Just to add to Marks great advice, if increasing your infusion amount does not give you the results you want you can consider doing a second infusion. For example, I infuse 1000cc and then a second 1000cc 20-30 min later. It takes a little longer but 2000cc would be a lot for me all at once. Let us know how things are going.
Lisa

[Murph00]

Hey Jen, and Becky,

I'm really glad to hear you've joined the club.

The irrigation process can take some time to find what works best for you. 3 weeks isn't allot of time to learn all the little tricks and train your body. It really is a trial and error scenario but once you find that happy place you'll look back and wonder how you coped before irrigation. Like Mark said, be patient.
If I can add one other suggestion to the great advice the others above have offered, I would recommend going with water temperature a little more on the hot side rather than warm. For me, and quite a few others it seems to produce much better results. Please be advised that common sense must prevail here. If it's too hot to touch it's going to be too hot for the colon. I usually test the water with the back of my hand. You'll know what too hot is.

Also, you can ask anything here. All of us have been through some very rough times and some pretty embarrassing situations. So don't be shy.

Best of luck to you both,
Murph

[Barbro]

Hi, I agree with the advices above (twice, warmer water, test different amounts) and can also add: think about if a meal influences you. My irrigation works better before dinner than after. And stress stops output, I need to feel calm when irrigating. Good luck! It takes a lot of time to find the way forward - and it might change again.