Irrigating with a hernia?

[emily]

I have - from what I can gather - an inguinal hernia. My doctors know about this but they don't seem concerned.

I've talked and talked (and talked ) about irrigating but I always chicken out in the end. I REALLY want to do it, but now I'm afraid that it will cause problems with this hernia. Do any of you irrigate with hernias? If so, do you find that you have to do anything different?


Thank you!
Emily

[steiconi]

Do you have the irrigation equipment already? Why don't you just try it?
Everybody's different, and other people's experiences don't always apply. It would be too bad if you gave up on something that might work for you because somebody posted a horror story.

You can keep using full-size bags until you're confident, so there's not much of a downside.

[Barbro]

I had a small stoma hernia which has been operated and now I have one again, or its a 'bowing' maybe, not sure. My experience with irrigating is this: my hernia cause 'congestion' just before the stoma which makes irrigation tricky but not impossible. My solution is to first enter a little water and immediately release some stool, and I do that 3-4 times. Then I insert all the water (in my case I started with 750 but I have now increased to 1000). And then I wait for the output. This works well sometimes, and not sometimes. It has been working perfectly up till 1,5 month (no output in 48 hours) but very often something happens that disturbs the rhythm. So I am still experimenting with water amount etc. The hernia may be a problem in al this, or not, I am not sure. Anyway, I have bigger problems with the hernia when not irrigating so I continue experimenting.

When not irrigating the main problem is the 'congestion' of stools just before the stoma. When irrigation works well the bowel is empty just before the stoma so the hernia isn't visible - I like that because it looks nice but most of all I like it because I don't have to worry about the hernia growing larger and the stools in it getting to hard to come out. When irrigation works perfectly there is no stools in the hernia when starting to irrigate so I just enter all water and then after 5-10 minutes everything starts coming out. So for me irrigation is a way of controlling everything, also the hernia.

At the hospital nobody advised me against irrigation so I am quite sure its not generally incompatible with having a hernia. But of course we are all different so you would need to try. I got advise from an ostomy nurse the first time, mine was really helpful, I made my first try with her and I can call her with questions, this is really good. Then they don't know everything, I learned lots of things through this forum that she never mentioned.

Good luck!

[Barbro]

Is inguinal the same thing as groin? I have heard that such hernia should be operated... Because it is the place where pinched bowel is at high risk. (sorry for my language, I don't know all these words in English...)

[emily]

Steiconi, I don't have any of the equipment, I use Convatec pouch and wafer so I'm assuming I would just use that brand for the irrigation too. What do you use?

I'm just a nervous Nancy and just the smallest sight of blood coming from my stoma freaks me out (even though I know it's normal) the thought of sticking a rather large cone (I know it's just the tip, but still...) into that small hole, just, makes me a little uneasy. lol.

The biggest reason that I want to do it is because I'm looking starting college classes in the Summer and I don't want to have to worry about my bag filling up during classes. Been there, don't that, don't want to deal with it again... If I can just get over myself and my fears I'm 100% sure it will help me.

Barboro, thank you for your advice, my hernia is in my groin, sort of in the middle. I'm assuming that's the name, I had to google the location lol. When I ask my doctors they just kind of shrug and say, yea, that's a hernia, don't worry about it. They are both top doctors so I trust them, but the thought of a hernia, and then irrigating with one just scares me. Maybe I should try to contact an ostomy nurse, I'm not even sure if there is one in my area.


Thanks again, y'all I really appreciate your replies! Have a happy New Year!

[steiconi]

I use Convatec, it's supposed to be the most durable. You order sleeves to match your wafer rings; if you use a one-piece system, you can irrigate without a wafer. The cone is soft, you use lube, and you don't put it in too far. I've never had a bleed from it.

You might ask for samples; I asked for a sample of the watchamacallit plate (to make waferless irrigation easier), and they sent a whole setup--infusion bag, hoses, cone, and sleeves. I was happy to have a spare set.

[Barbro]

There are lots of good videos on youtube showing different ways of irrigating. This is one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7gjsJ3VuXE
I use coloplast's system which is similar to the video and I appreciate the self-adhesive bags for single use they have.