Ostomy Tips and Tricks (Having an ostomy in college)

I’m so sorry that it’s been so long! I’ve been moving back into school and starting classes, which has taken more time than expected.

I want to do a post all about my surgeries, but I felt like this post was more pertinent and could be more helpful, rather than just making a huge post about my surgical experiences.

I only had an ostomy (ileostomy, to be exact) for two months, which is decidedly less time than many people have them for. Obviously, I was very lucky to only have to have it for this long, but I should say that not having it for longer meant that I never really felt a need to get totally used to it — I knew it was temporary, so I didn’t put in as much of an effort as I could have.

Regardless, I did learn a lot about having an ostomy, especially about having one on a college campus, including some tips and tricks that I thought I would share.

• Pay attention to the pants you’re wearing when your ostomy nurse comes to mark out the place for your ostomy before surgery. I really wish someone had told me this, because the pants I was wearing were not the rise I usually wear (they were rather low rise). Pick your most commonly worn pair of jeans or shorts and wear those when the nurse comes. The nurse will mark the place for your ostomy based on the rise of your pants, so mine ended up being really low on my body and made it hard to wear a lot of the clothing I was used to wearing. Because it was so low, mid-rise jeans hit just at my ostomy site, which made them both painful and troublesome to wear.
• Get ostomy bands/belts before coming out of surgery. If you’re told that you will have an ostomy as soon as you come out of surgery, make sure to buy these beforehand. My favorite were from OstomySecrets. These will make you feel ten times and secure and will help to keep your ostomy bag against your body. I personally used the wraps, which have pouches on the inside where you can insert your ostomy bag, but they also sell underwear with pouches, as well as bathing suits. I had a black wrap and a nude one, and I would rinse them in the shower on a daily basis and then hang them up to dry.
• There are various options if you have leaks. There are many many YouTube videos on this subject, so if you’re having issues with leaks, definitely check those out. Personally, my ostomy nurse ended up giving me concave wafers, which curve inward pressing against your abdomen and essentially press the ostomy up and make it protrude. I also used a belt, which had a similar effect. The last of my solutions for leaks was having a ring rather than a paste. Other than just being a lot easier, the ring seemed to provide a better seal for me.
• On the same thread as the last tip, form a good relationship with your ostomy nurse. Ostomy nurses are a godsend when you need to deal with an ostomy. They can give you free supplies if your shipment is late, they’re great at teaching you everything you need to know about your ostomy, and they’re just generally nice people. Having a good relationship with my nurse meant I had someone to call with whatever issue I had, and I could usually just call and stop by the clinic whenever I needed anything.
• Find a good, private place to change your bag. Thankfully, I had a bathroom that I only shared with three other people, but if you’re not gifted with this option, there are a variety of places where you can change your ostomy. If you have your own room, you can do it there. I have heard of people who change their bags while laying on their beds. If you have a roommate and are uncomfortable changing it in front of them, pick a time in the day when they won’t be back for a while, or find a disability stall with a sink in a public restroom. It is completely feasible to create a backpack with all of your ostomy supplies and change your bag in front of the sink.
• Be prepared in case of leaks and make a kit to take around with you. Leaks happen to everyone, so it’s better to have a kit to be prepared in the case that they do happen rather than pretending there’s no chance they’ll happen to you and not being prepared. Most ostomy supply companies will send you a small kit with your first order, but make sure to always have this kit stocked with all of your favorite supplies and everything you would need to change your system in the case of an emergency.
• Skirts and dresses are your best friends. If you’re comfortable wearing skirts and dresses, I would really recommend them for while you have an ostomy. Skirts that cinch at the waist and then flounce out are the best, or dresses that do the same. They don’t press on your ostomy, and they make it easy to hide your bag if it’s been a while since you emptied it.
• If you’re not comfortable wearing skirts and dresses, putting your ostomy wrap over your pants or shorts can be a good solution. I found that when I tucked my bag into my pants, whatever I produced wouldn’t make its way down to the bottom of the bag, and could produce leaks. I would therefore wear a t-shirt with my ostomy wrap under it and over my shorts. This allowed for my ostomy to not be compressed at all and made me feel more secure about possible leakage.
• Start with a clear bag and then move to an opaque one. While opaque bags can feel more sanitary because you don’t have to deal with seeing what you’re producing until you empty your bag, they can also make it hard to prevent leaks. Ostomies take a while to enter into a regular pattern of production, and it’s important to get in tune with how your ostomy works. Therefore, having a clear bag makes it so that you have a good idea of what your production is like, and so that you can force any stool that collects around your stoma down into the bottom of the bag. It’s important to do this to prevent leaks, since having hard stool collecting around the top of your bag can break the seal between the wafer and your skin. If having a clear bag bothers you, you can change out the bag every day and keep the same wafer.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY, get to know your body! See this as an opportunity to get more in tune with your body than most people ever can. Get to know your ostomy (I even gave mine a name…) and get comfortable with dealing with it.

Having an ostomy can seem like a curse, but try to view it as an opportunity to learn more about yourself and what your body is like. It’s completely manageable!

I’ll probably think of more tips and tricks seconds after I publish this post, in which case I’ll add them to a second part at some point in the future. Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for reading!