The ideal appliance will fit in a way that protects your skin while also providing a durable, and secure fit. Unfortunately, not every ostomate can achieve this balance so easily, so many will experience a breakdown of skin around the stoma.
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This happened to me a short while after getting my ostomy, as my new stoma was still shrinking down from its swollen state.
I was quite inexperienced, so rather than change my appliance more often, I’d try to get 5+ day wear time, which meant that as my stoma became smaller, it left room for my output to eat away at my skin.
As you can see from the photos below, I had fairly deep erosion of the skin, and it hurt a lot. At the time, I had used the “crusting technique”, which involves putting stoma powder on the exposed, raw part of my skin, dust it off and apply a barrier using either barrier wipes or cavilon spray.
You do this a few times to build up protection on the skin, and to allow the wafer to stick to something other than the powder. This technique does work for many people, but it worked very slowly for me.
More recently, as I’ve been in between wafer samples, I began to get more breakdown of the skin.
I attempted to remedy this using the crusting technique, but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted; so instead, I opted to simply use a barrier ring without any powder or barrier wipes.
The results impressed me, and my skin has probably never looked that good around the stoma.
And here’s another example of how quickly this method can heal damaged skin:
Now, I continue to use a barrier ring when I notice more breakdown of the skin. I may continue to use them more regularly, but they are quite expensive and I’m not done trying new appliances that might offer a better fit.
Here’s a video showing how I change my appliance, including how I use barrier rings.
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Caution: Before you change your routine, you should check with your stoma nurse first, unless you’re willing to experiment on your own.
INFO: If you’re interested in the “crusting technique” for healing peristomal skin, check out THIS article.
QUESTION: What techniques have you tried to heal up your skin?
I can’t speak to all nasal sprays, but many will include antiinflammatory, steroid, antihistamine, or all of the above, and that can sometimes help with skin problems. I DO suggest speaking with a nurse before using any around your stoma as there may be unexpected side-effects.
Thanks for sharing that, JoAnn! Yes, I’ve heard of others using that trick with success. Glad it worked for you!
What does the nasal spray help with? And How! I’ve had a stoma for a few years now, but I am still trying to learn.
I was in a coma when my surgery occurred and suffered with seizures after that and I have problems with memory. My husband was taught to change my appliances and slowly over a long period of time, I learned to do it for myself.
Any tips will be a welcomed change.
Thank you Eric for your amazing videos. I am a bit confused. I mainly use Hollister 2 piece. Can you apply it without a barrier ring? I just continued changing the same way as in hospital with the ring. Again thank you so much for your calm advise.
Larry
Hi Larry. Barrier rings are completely optional for most people and only needed in specific cases for some. Unless you need to use a barrier ring, just use your wafer “as-is".
Hi Gemma, If you don’t use already a can of Adhesive removal spray can make the process of removing the wafer a lot easier
Thanks so much everyone for your help he left a message with his stoma nurse no ring back yet tho :( and he is trying to change his bag every day method and soaking it in the bath to c if that helps at all I will get him to read this as soon as as all great methods and super helpful thanks so much xx