Please Help! All the barriers and rings I've tried dissolve after a few hours!!!

[Button]

If you have a well budded stoma and it sounds like you do, there is a brand from England called Salts that could help. The product actually has a thin plastic sleeve (collar) that you place over the stoma that directs the output into the pouch ( https://www.salts.co.uk/en-gb/products/ ... oma-collar). These products are amazing but the company has had a hard time breaking into the US market. It may be worthwhile requesting samples and speaking to a rep.

Salt’s ostomy products are GREAT. I was blessed to receive a wide array of Salt’s products as part of my repeated orders with the UK-based company ComFizz (ostomy undergarments and supportive wraps). I was impressed with Salt’s ostomy pouching options. The outer pouch covering was composed of a moisture-wicking, soft, high quality fabric. Salt’s wafers are dynamic and move with the body. Pouches are available in three colors (nude, white, and black).

I would order Salt’s products is they were available in the United States. Unfortunately, Brexit may further hinder the availability of Salt’s to enter the US market. I would love to see Salt’s hop on over from “The Pond.”
Karen

[Alesa]

Hi Flux, hello forum people!

Have you had any luck with finding a more viable solution? I have a similar problem and I'm sure we're not the only ones...

Just seems the industry doesn't care, I mean cater... much for ileostomy patients, as most resources are colostomy oriented and when you ask around, most don't understand what a huge difference the ileostomy corrosive output makes ... and how inadequate most solutions are.

While I'm getting slightly longer "life" out of my "solution"... After a day and a half (on good days) I'm in the exact same place you are in...
What would work, you're right, is a ring that doesn't dissolve/absorb liquid, and that sticks...
Tried silvex silicone rings (caused major burns as a lot of afluent went under it and burned my skin severely). So far, the best solution for me (as in... "with longest lifespan") has been Salts paste combined with hydrocoloidal ring and convex single piece Stomocur bags. After reading your posts, my husband suggested coating the exposed edge of the ring with barrier spray or barrier solution soaked napkins, so to protect the ring from the acid affluent, and hopefully extend the life of the ring somewhat...

How is it possible a better solution hasn't been invented yet, is beyond me... Yet surgeons keep creating ileostomies and view them as "solutions", then let the patients figure out how to deal with acid squirting out of their bellies constantly... That's just inhumane!

I moved from Canada to Romania (because of my husband's work), where I "managed" to get a severe obstruction and then to get my ileostomy in March 2019, and where they have 1 qualified nurse in the whole country... Not ideal... (sorry for the long and not very useful rant... It's just extremely frustrating).

I'd very much appreciate it if you could share any solutions you may have found, even if only half viable.

[Alesa]

I had the same problem. Try the Siltac silicone ones. They did not break down at all no matter how wet they get.
They come in convex and regular. It’s been a game changer in keeping my skin in good condition.

Hi Loloandamy,
May I ask you how you managed to make the sillicone rings stick to the skin? I tried silvex silicone rings and the "transit" goes right under them... (my stoma is "retracted", as in, the peristomal area is retracted / sunken, and the "spout", as it were, is at an angle, so it's squirting almost horizobtally/at an angle almost parallel with the skin), so unless the ring sticks to the skin, stuff will get underneath it...
Did you use any adhesives?
Thanks a lot!
Alesa

[Alesa]

Flux, have you looked into the materials provided by this company:
https://polymerscience.com/
They seem to have resistent yet "sticky" materials. Just thought I'd mention it..
Cheers!
Alesa

[goldenbee]

Are there any rings out there for those with ileostomies ???
It seems they are all made for those with colostomy, because they are all made out of a dissoluble material (hydrocolliod), that dissolves by the end of the day, and exposes the skin to the output. I have to put on a new bag 1-2 times per day.

I have tried 5 of the major brands of bags, and they all dissolve in less than 6 hours.
At least this gave me a chance to figure out which closure I like, but I still have the problem of having to change it every day, which is making my skin VERY unhappy (and my bank account very empty).

So the solution seems to be to find a ring that does not dissolve, like the hollister/Eakin/Coloplast/etc ones do. I don't know what moron thought it was a good idea to make the barrier dissoluble... the bag isn't dissoluble, so they should do the same with the barrier and make it out of foam, or rubber, or gel, or plastic, or silicone, etc.

So what ring out there can I use????

The only one I found so far is Siltac, but it doesn't stay stuck to the skin, and so the output goes under it.
I tried using washers from the hardware store, and then sticking them to the skin with Urobond III but it burns the skin horribly, and tried using Talbot latex cement, but it doesn't hold the two together, and so just lets the output pass right under the appliance.

So in summary, the solution I (and I'm sure thousands of others) need is a very thin (so it flexes and moves with the skin) ring that does not dissolve, and then an adhesive that sticks to skin and does not dissolve by simply touching output. (We are in the modern age for goodness sake, there are literally hundreds of adhesives out there that are water proof, fire proof, acid proof, gasoline proof, oil proof, shatter proof, etc. I'm sure there are plenty that can hold up fine to a little human waste.)

Flux, did you ever find a thin, flexible wafer that doesn’t dissolve? They use to make them.

[Mysticobra]

I use the hdrocolloid (spell) rings now.
Before I used just a wafer. But it seems the stoma is ever changing. Albeit slowly my precut wafers have too big of a hole now. So I use the rings. Which I can get to last up to six-seven days.
I have never seen them dissolve at all. But I do pay attention when I take my wafer off I see it always finds its way underneath along the horizontal surgery crevice. It's not all the way to the edge of the ring but about halfway. Fortunately it does not burn my skin.
I have never seen one of my wafers and since I've been using them.... the rings dissolve.
In fact it takes me extra time to get the residue from the ring off.
I have liquid output. Ileo.
I hope you have found a solution.
R.

[JackieRose]

I hesitate to join this discussion because what I have to say is perhaps too radical or maybe untrue but I recall early on on this forum you posted an image of your stoma showing the way in which the barrier was dissolved. I venture to propose that the problem is not the barrier but your image of your own stoma. Have you ever looked at images on google of ostomy surgery (not for those with a weak stomach)? My stoma looks a lot like yours and I've been struggling for years until now I -- changing appliances sometimes 3 or 4 times a day. It turns out that I have a double-barrel ileostomy stoma that I am just learning how to manage. I realize you have a colostomy which is not the same but take a look if you can stand it and maybe make some experimental changes in how you manage you stoma will occur to you.

[Emma]

I realize this thread is older, but it addresses a problem my brother has.
He has a recent ileostomy. I change the wafer/barrier and bag for him.

The wafer/barriers have started to dissolve quite quickly, inside the flange, within 12 hours of my putting on a new wafer/barrier and bag. We are currently using Hollister 2-piece with a piece of an Eakin Cohesive seal over what I call a "crater" in the skin at the base of his stoma. The current wafer/barriers are the Form Flex.

He has had irritation from some of the products we have tried, so the WOC NP suggested not using the adhesive remover spray, but just carefully pulling off the wafer/barrier.

We are trying new products, such as sprays and wipes, one at a time, to try to find out what product is affecting the peristomal skin in which way.

I called Hollister to request samples of a barrier that is not so easily eroded, and also a convex waver/barrier, and am waiting for those to arrive.

The "Salts" company website would not load on my computer, so I accessed it via the Wayback Machine, and called them. It is only possible to buy from them if one has an address in the UK.

I will call Trio Ostomy Products this morning to ask about the pearls and their rings.

The WOC NP at the outpatient clinic at the hospital merely said to change the wafer/barrier and bag more often and to make sure I have the hole for the stoma quite close around the base of the stoma. The WOC NP paints the liquid acrylic called "Marathon" on some of the damaged skin around the stoma, otherwise, as yet, no other treatment for the skin.

If anyone has other suggestions, we would appreciate it. The irritation to his skin, the expense of more supplies, and the wear and tear on both of us is accumulating.... We need more help than Hollister or the WOC NP has given us.

Thank you very much.