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Dear Patients and Interested Readers, Before I come to the history of the development of stoma-belt, just a few brief words about myself.
I was born in 1966 and work as an industrial businessman for the Tübingen textile group salomé-rökona / Gerhard Rösch.
The history of my illness began more than 10 years ago. In 1992 I was diagnosed as having increased liver values and polyarthritis in the large and small joints. This was followed in 1993 with a diagnosis of Crohn's disease. As the result of carcinoma of the large intestine, my large intestine was removed in 1999; the small intestine was attached to the rectum. Finally, in 2000, massive inflammation of the rectum led to my having a terminal ileostomy
Once I had conquered the initial problems in coming to terms with the stoma, I nonetheless still felt restricted and unsettled by wearing the stoma pouch both day and night. At night I could no longer sleep properly because I was frightened that the least little movement could make the flange leak. During the day I was always bothered that the filled pouch would be noticed by those around me or it could even come away from the flange if I made sudden, jerky movements.
I was constantly thinking about my stoma.
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I began to wonder how I could overcome this problem.
Unfortunately, at this point in time my stoma care nurses were also unable to give me any further tips. The stoma belts available in the shops didn't seem to me to offer a satisfactory solution. Even a made-to-measure product from an orthopaedics shop was less than perfect. It's true that the flange was pressed against my body, but the pouch could still move freely and hung away from my body. To disguise the pouch a little I bought a kidney warmer from an orthopaedics shop. Unfortunately this belt was far too warm, especially during the summer. Then a specialist led me to understand that a belt for stoma patients was being developed at the University Clinic in Tübingen.
Highly optimistic that this might just be a sensible solution I went to the clinic and asked them to let me have a prototype. I was handed a tubular belt made of a thin, elastic material with a sewn-in pocket. Result: the belt curled up against my body and the pocket didn't hold the pouch properly as it was only sewn on on two sides and at one point.
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