How To Improve Sleep Quality With An Ostomy

Trouble sleeping due to worries about rolling over the pouch or leakage is not an uncommon issue. Most new ostomates have this concern. The good thing is that you can consider different options to improve sleep quality with an ostomy.

Tips to improve post-ostomy sleep quality

Is it possible to have good sleep quality with an ostomy? Yes, but you might have to make some adjustments to make sure that you do not get up abruptly from sleep. The type of adjustments will depend on the procedure you have had.

A few tips that may help you have a worry-free sleep at night with an ostomy include the following.

1. To prevent rolling on your ostomy pouch, you may want to put pillows on your sides.
2. You will want your ostomy pouch to remain tightly held against your abdomen, so you may want to wear a little snug shirt.
3. If possible, sleep on your back. It will help you prevent rolling on your pouch.
4. Before going to bed, you might want to empty your pouch. It will help you prevent having to get up in the middle of the night due to the risk of leakage.

Pouching options for different types of ostomies

Using the right type of ostomy pouch is the key to prevent leakages and other issues related to ostomy care. There is a wide range of ostomy supplies available to meet the requirements of all types of ostomies. To make ostomy care even more effective and comfortable, you may want to use different accessories.

Now, we will discuss different options for different surgery types.

Urostomy surgery

If you have a urostomy, you are going to have to use an ostomy pouch, which will be different from ones used to manage intestinal ostomies. The valve at the bottom of a urostomy pouch allows you to attach a night drainage system, which collects urine from the pouch while you sleep. The most significant benefit of this drainage system is that it eliminates the need to get up during the night, even if you have a high output.

Ileostomy or colostomy surgery

With a colostomy or ileostomy, you might have to get up in any part of the night to empty your ostomy pouch. Aside from emptying your pouch before going to bed, you may have to follow some dietary precautions to avoid the pouch overfill. The dietary adjustment may involve avoiding eating at particular times to prevent the stoma from functioning during the night. You can discuss this situation with your doctor to get some additional tips regarding the dietary adjustment to improve the quality of your life. As far as ostomy care is concerned, you will want to discuss it with an ostomy care nurse. He or she will give you suggestions regarding the ostomy pouch management to improve sleep quality.

Adjusting to life with an ostomy can take time, but once you adapt to this bowel change, you will be able to live to the fullest.

 

Canoe trip with an ostomy

There are a few trips that have really defined my life.  Well they put a solid stance on what I like to do for vacation at least.  Luckily, I was blessed with the chance to go to Canada for a multi week canoe trip twice. These trips were amazing and so very hard.  They were originally just meant to be fishing trips and one of them turned out to be an all out survival trip.  This is something I was still able to do while having an ostomy.  Being out in the wild all out of touch with the rest of the world for weeks at a time is amazing.  Cell phone signals didn't reach us and we didn't use GPS because that was not widely available.  It was a situation where if you did not arrive at the right time they would send people to look for you.  Otherwise you were all alone for weeks.

One may think this is an unwise move for a high school student with an ostomy, but that didn't slow me down.  Instead, I planned well, took extra gear and didn't look back.  It was a good choice because my ostomy did not give me any trouble out there even when things got hard. I want to focus mostly on my trip that turned into a survival trip because that made me learn many lessons.

On this trip we planned to canoe an average of 10 miles to 15 miles a day.  Now we camped for several days in the same place where the fishing was good and made up the time on other days in the miles.  This was all still amazing because we did it with half our gear.  It all started when our first day ended up in a massive storm.

The morning was calm and we actually got 15 miles in and had set up camp in the middle of a giant lake on a small deserted island.  We then set off to fish around 4:00pm and that is when the storm came.  A massive storm front of black clouds rolled in and 120 MPH and above winds came through.  Now we were all in canoes and with the insane waves and stinging rain we all flipped.  Almost all the gear in the canoes was lost and we all swam for dear life that day.  Then we had lost half our food and fishing gear due to the storm blowing it off the island and into the lake. The seriousness of the situation never crossed our young minds because we were all alive and still had fishing gear. I used my bottom half of my real rod and found another person's upper rod. They connected and I used that the rest of the trip. I had 4 fishing lures and steel liners and used those for the rest of the two weeks.

 Each person lost a lot of gear, and our tents were shredded. Luckily, my ostomy gear was safe and I learned to always keep a spare set and in two different places after that catastrophe.  A tornado ripped through and tore up the island and about 40 miles worth of forest afterwards.  We saw the destruction for the rest of the two weeks. My body was pushed to its limits in the water trying to swim and hold on to the canoe and paddles. But we all made it and I still suggest that even with a ostomy you should still adventure.