If you are about to get an ostomy, chances are you have a lot of questions running through your mind. I know from personal experience that it can be a very crazy time indeed. I had a lot of anxiety and uncertainty going into my surgery, and once I learned that there would be a stoma joining me on the other side, I made sure to do all the research I possibly could. One of the big things I was worried about was clothing. Would I have to change my whole wardrobe in order to accommodate the addition of an ostomy bag clinging to my body everywhere I went? This was a huge concern of mine. Afterall, I am an incredibly fashion conscious person, and am always following the latest fashion trends. The last thing I needed was a big old medical pouch hanging off my side and sticking through my clothes through my day to day life. To my relief, and surprise, dressing with an ostomy pouch is actually not all that bad. There are a lot of things you can do to make it easier to hide your ostomy pouch as well. I wanted to write this article for people like you who may have questions about what to do when they wake up with a big whole in their body where there was no one before.
The biggest piece of advice I can give you right now is to not freak out and throw all your clothes away. It may feel like nothing in your wardrobe will fit properly or look good once you have that ostomy bag hanging off you, but I promise things will get easier. Even for a few weeks after surgery, it might be hard to imagine fitting into some of your old clothes with the addition of your stoma and ostomy bag. Well, the good news is that many people have had the same thoughts and have ended up being just fine and were able to wear all their favorite clothes again. For the first little while after surgery, you are probably just going to want to hang around the house in some comfortable clothes like sweatpants and a hoodie. However, that first trip out of the house is going to be an important one, because you will be setting the tone for your self confidence and how you will be perceiving yourself moving forward.
If you are looking for ways to make your ostomy pouch appear more discrete, or even not be noticeable at all, then you are in luck! There are lots of different types of ostomy pouches, and some of them are specifically made to be more compact and fit closer to your body. Many of these are called one-piece pouches, which basically means that the skin barrier and the actual pouch do not detach from each other.
The benefit of these one-piece pouches is that they are much easier to hide and can fit under some decently tight clothing. The tradeoff, however, is that these bags are much more annoying to change out on a regular basis because you have to remove the entire skin barrier in order to replace it with the new one. There are also wraps and belts on the market that make it harder to notice that you have an ostomy pouch.
