How Do You Empty Your Stoma Bag?

I recently realised that I’ve been emptying my stoma bag wrong

Now, I am the first to admit that I’m a little ditsy, so it will no doubt not surprise you to hear that the other week I suddenly realised that I’ve been empting my stoma bag wrong.

My chosen method is to sit on the toilet, unroll the outlet neck between my legs, just below the underside of my thigh. My output then empties quite high on the side of the toilet bowl. The fact that my output lands on the side of the toilet bowl has frustrated me for the last 9 years. I often have to double flush so that the toilet is left completely clean. I spent a lot of time and money finding a new toilet for our home that had a strong front flush, and even considered importing one from the USA!

I can’t remember how I came to the decision to empty my stoma bag this way - I think it must have been the way the hospital Stoma Care Nurse showed me. Although the internet was pretty prolific back then, the discussion of stomas, so publicly, wasn’t. Thankfully so many ostomates have changed that!

The light bulb moment

But, last week, l suddenly had a light bulb moment. I realised that, if I shuffled back a little on the toilet seat and aimed my outlet neck more centrally, my output just dropped straight into the water at the bottom of the bowl. Genius!

How do you empty your stoma bag?

I know some people empty their bag by standing or kneeling, facing the cistern and empty their bags that way, but I have two concerns with that method (which may be unfounded). The first being splash-back and the second being that, if you kneel, what do you do in public toilets?

I popped the revelation of my newly discovered method on twitter and was surprised to hear about the method that @xoCaz uses. She sits on the left hand side of the toilet and leans to the right to empty hers. And this got me thinking: how many different ways can a stoma bag be emptied? Let me know how you empty yours in the comments below, so we can all compare notes.