On top of all the new emotions and routines that come with the surgery, getting a colostomy leaves you with a whole new set of decisions to make about products. One of the keys to successfully managing your colostomy is finding the right products that work with your skin, your stoma and your lifestyle. With a good system in place, a colostomy can save you time and improve your overall health, while a problematic setup can lead to spiraling problems.

Mark Fuglevand became intimately aware of this when he got a colostomy. Now he is using his own experience and experiences shared with him by community members to design products that empower colostomy users. “My goal is to create simple solutions that can make living with and managing a colostomy easier,” says Fuglevand, a C6 quad and the founder of adaptive solutions purveyor Abilitease.

While there are probably more ostomy-related products and options available now than ever before, Fuglevand noticed that very few of them incorporate quad-friendly design or were developed with the insights that only an active wheelchair user can provide. With two young sons, a wife, and a company to grow, Fuglevand doesn’t have time to be fumbling with ostomy wafers and pouches. To that end, he’s developing three 3D-printed colostomy-related tools that he hopes will help others and get more users to think about how to improve the process.

Product No. 1 – StomaSecure

The most refined of Fuglevand’s devices addresses two common ostomy needs: sound and protection. With a colostomy, the stoma can be loud and embarrassing, and the skin around the opening can easily become irritated. Most wafer and pouch systems offer little protection from abrasion or unexpected gas noises.

“Some people with ostomies have a difficult time with the skin around their stoma, and the area can become raw and sensitive to touch. Clothing, seatbelts and even binders used in wheelchair sports not only rub against the stoma, but prevent output from flowing into the pouch,” he says. “There are numerous products available to protect a stoma, but they aren’t cheap.” Those products address the problem, but not key concerns like cost and ease of use. “You either have to apply Velcro on the top of your ostomy pouch every time you change it or wear an institutional-looking belt around your stomach with a cover,” he says. “They simply don’t make sense.”

Fuglevand’s solution is a removable plastic cover with a loop handle, that slides behind the floating flange on a Hollister wafer and covers the stoma, creating a little protective dome. The cover has a curved opening on one end to allow output to flow. The cover is open on both sides so you can turn it while it’s on the flange to match up with the orientation of the pouch. He is currently lining the inside of the cover with felt or neoprene to help mute the noise coming from the stoma, but hopes to find a more effective damper.

Fuglevand notes that you still have to monitor the volume of output and gas but believes his solution improves ease of use and comfort. “It’s nice and easy. You literally can just slide it on or off whenever you want to use it — no straps, no extra crap,” he says. Once on, “You forget that you are wearing it because there’s not a tight strap holding it in place.”

Product No. 2 – PouchCollect

For all the benefits of the colostomy, there’s no getting around the fact that emptying or changing ostomy pouches can be a stinky, unpleasant experience. Regardless of whether you’re using a one-piece drainable or two-piece closed-end pouch system, quad hands and limited dexterity only complicate the matter.
“Every time I remove a full pouch, and I have to hold it up with my teeth instead of my hands during the change, there’s the smell of poop going into my face,” says Fuglevand.

To address that situation and help minimize some of the potential for making a mess, Fuglevand is working on a removable kidney-shaped tray that attaches to a Hollister wafer the same way as the StomaSecure. The tray is designed to sit comfortably on the stomach and catch any potential loose stool when removing and emptying a pouch before it oozes onto the dressing or your clothes. The device can also secure a disposal bag, making it easier to keep it in the right place while you detach and dispose of your ostomy pouch. “My tenodesis works really well, but detaching a full pouch and emptying it into a toilet or placing it in a disposable bag without making a mess can be difficult,” he says.

Product No. 3 – PouchAssist

Fuglevand’s final design focuses on making it easier to attach and remove pouches on a two-piece closed-end system. This includes being able to “burp” gas that accumulates in the ostomy pouch. Many pouches on the market have filters that allow some gas to pass through, but it’s often necessary to slightly separate the pouch from the wafer and allow gas to exit. How easy this is depends on your wafer, system setup and dexterity.

For people who can’t easily apply or separate the pouch from the wafer, Fuglevand has tested a plastic applicator that attaches to the side belt tabs of the Hollister two-piece, closed-end pouch. With semicircle tracks that fit snugly around the pouch flange, the applicator will help the pouch line up with the flange on the wafer to secure the pouch. “This device also allows you to turn the pouch to the desired position and separate a portion of the pouch to burp it when necessary,” says Fuglevand.

Looking Forward

All of the products Fuglevand is working on are designed to work with the Hollister products he relies on. He chose to use Hollister because he was already familiar with their catheters and he found that one of their wafers worked well with his stoma. “I love the flexibility and how quick I can pop a pouch on and off on my Hollister stuff — it’s very easy. And I’ve gotten so comfortable with it,” he says.

He’s open to working with other product lines to devise bespoke solutions. He wants to empower users to be more independent, and hopes to inspire industry leaders like Hollister and Coloplast to integrate more user input in their designs. He’s already focusing on what’s next, including products that could make flying with an ostomy easier. “It’s simple, really,” he says. “I think about what I’ve learned, what I need and what works, and then I go to work.”

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