Comfizz Blog

This post has an image of a naked stoma surrounded by output. I wouldn’t be doing my role as an advocate any good if I didn’t talk about leaks that stay contained. These happen to many ostomates and affect me probably the same as an “explosion” leak. Leaks either way they happen can be incredibly upsetting to the person experiencing it. The leaks that explode out from underneath the baseplate are ones you have to think fast before you need to wash more than just your clothes. The contained leaks are the slow burners as to speak. These ones are the ones that do the most damage to your skin. The ones that start with a sharp itch, but sometimes its...

Naked stoma in this post. Last week I spoke about some of the struggles I had been having with regards to my ileostomy and I try to talk about the good and the bad. Sometimes I hate my stoma. Actually scratch that I hate the things that make life with a stoma more difficult. Like hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) and eczema. – with the hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome my stoma has started to fall in on its self; which is easier to deal with than a prolapse or at least I think so. But it allows leaks to happen as there is now a gap between my skin and the bag.– the eczema often ends up in me scratching my bag off....

Recently I have faced quite a few struggles with my ileostomy and they have taken quite the toll on my mental health; this comes after having my ostomy for over 4 years and having little to no issues prior to this. Some of the struggles I have been experiencing are: leaks – I do suffer with leaks but these have been happening far more often than usual sore peristomal skin itching increase in retraction swelling blockages soreness stoma cramping – this is probably my bowel kinking or becoming caught on adhesions and my goodness it is some of the most debilitating pain I have ever been in! To an extent I have experienced all of these before but not to this...

Hello readers & welcome to my first post in my ‘Chatting Crohn’s with Comfizz’ mini series. Over the next few months, I will be talking to you about a different aspect of Crohn’s Disease, starting today with the basics. What is Crohn’s Disease?   Not my image. From Google search. Crohn’s Disease (often referred to as Crohn’s) is a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The other main form of IBD, which you may have heard of is Ulcerative Colitis. Unlike Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s Disease can affect any part of the digestive system from the mouth to the anus and causes inflammation, but most commonly affects the small intestine and sometimes the large (colon). Ulcerative Colitis affects the large bowel....

I spent a very long time being poorly and adjusting to life from a preteen being exhausted and thinking about where the nearest toilet was. Most people that now have an ostomy for whatever reason I’m sure have experienced that as well. Even though after my first surgery I had a little bit of remission I wasn’t able to fully enjoy my life as I went from having constipation to diarrhoea. I wanted to appreciate some of the things I can do now with toilets being the least of my worries!     Enjoying time with my kids; okay so Button came along after my ileostomy but Ra-Ra didn’t and she didn’t have much of a mum for those 2.5...

Yes gardening is exercise if you are thinking “hmmmm why is it in the exercise category”! However I don’t blame you for questioning whether or not it deserves to be in this section; but during lockdown I certainly learnt it is hard work! 00Steve and I embarked on the back garden project where we entirely redesigned one corner of our garden. So we went from a lawn that slowly sloped up to holly trees to having two ponds, a rockery, a sunken trampoline, decking, two living walls and a raised bed herb garden! I started off by “supervising”, providing refreshments, keeping him company to actually getting stuck in!     We tried to share the workload, well as best as we could...

Understandably, when people first discover Comfizz’ stoma supportwear, they often have questions they would like answering before they consider buying. They also often don’t know that you can get certain Comfizz garments on prescription. In today’s blog post, I am going to answer a number of those questions for you. Some questions are ones I also had myself when I first discovered Comfizz back in 2011 when I had my surgery for my permanent ileostomy, which was done via a large incision down my stomach. Will it stop my stoma working? No, it won’t. If you have issues with your stoma not working when wearing the garments, it may be that you have the wrong size. The only time I...

Ostomy belts! Do you know what they are for? Do you use them? They are something that my stoma nurses remind me about when my stoma is being flush or a bit awkward (which at the moment is more often than I’d like!) The general idea behind the belts is they that help create a sort of vacum which pulls your stoma further into the bag. Every convex bag I have ever tried which is a fair few as part of my ostomy bag roulette series; has some clips on the side which is for the belt to attach too. All of the belts are adjustable and come in varying widths – I personally prefer the wider ones as they cut into...

Recently I decided to take advantage of a sale Aura Clothing were having and bought myself a bikini and a pair of jeans. I just wanted to highlight their company for any lady who may be looking for a pair of jeans with ostomies in mind and fancy looking swimwear (that isn’t support wear – please don’t get them mixed up) Like with most small companies they may seem expensive but buying from them allows them to eventually pass the savings back to you in the long run. I am a big advocate of buying small and local when I can as once the company becomes established things become cheaper for them to make and then in turn the product becomes less...

Pet therapy is a well known concept and I wanted to talk about how it has had a place in my life and to introduce my new dog Kobe! So I have worked in health care in a variety of settings for all my adult life and I have seen first hand how this kind of therapy can help many people be distracted from the pain they are in. Around the time that I started getting sick my parents got our dog Maxie she was a much loved little tart who loved a belly rub; she was never going to be a good guard dog although being a yorkshire terrier cross jack russell she knew how to bark. She used...