My Dad is 86 and had surgery to remove his colon. He now has an ostomy (bag) and I know that he can swim with it, but not sure how to advise him. There is so much to wade though on the web, I was wondering if anyone else has had this surgery and what they are using to swim, what worked and what didn't.
Hi Karen,
I have had an ileostomy since 2002, and have been a Masters Swimmer since 2003.
I can recommend the UOAA.org discussion board as a good place for your Dad to ask questions, I post there (although not as much as I used to). Here is a link to a quite good discussion of swimming with an ostomy (include some posts from me and from Rotorhead who is a big time surfer).
As far as what to use, any ostomy appliance that works for your Dad will be something that will work for swimming. If the edges tend to lift, he can use tape to picture frame and keep them down. I generally recommend filling a bathtub and sitting in it for a half hour or just to see what happens (if anything), before going back to swimming.
I haven't ever had a problem while swimming with my appliance, and I have done open water swimming, starts at meets, body surfing and plain old lap swimming.
Hope this helps.
