Can we make a pact?

I've been on this site for a couple of years, and I've had an ostomy for 20 years.  My local ostomy society considered it a faux pas to use the word "bag".  We always referred to it as a pouch.  I've been conditioned to NEVER call it a bag.  And, for those of you that have read my posts over the years,  I've been pretty consistant.  Can we all make a pact to not use the word "bag"?

 

summerstorm said...
LOL you know i remember when i signed up on here however long ago, years, i remember you telling, me it wasnt a bag, it was a pouch!

Told 'ya!!! 
Hearing the word "bag" is like finger nails on a chalk board to me!

OMG that IS my pet peeve I have always called mine a 'pouch'...it just sounds like something nice...like my ostomy

I even try to instill that word with people I meet that are new to the ostomy world...I hope it's catchy!

Sounds good to me! Since we all have pouches, we could call ourselves the Kangaroo Club.

---

Dx'd Crohn's in '99 at age 28. Proctocolectomy and permanent ileostomy in '06.
Disease-free and medicine-free since surgery and very thankful to be healthy again.

So why don't we make it official...to NEVER call it a bag, and politely correct those that do???

Vette guy,

Congrats on 23 years! That gives me hope I may stay OK with my POUCH Thank you for your polite correction. Rosemary (permanent ileo)

i can't figure out what's so offensive either......
bag, pouch, collection device, poop holder, fecal repository, turd trapper....
it's allll the same thing.

---

Chassity
28 yrs. old. married with one beautiful daughter (born 11/20/07)
-diagnosed with severe pancolitis u/c 2002 had total colectomy 12/19/08; emergency surgery due to abscess-had to redo ileostomy and switch to left side 12/25/08; 2/15/09 found blood clot in superior mesenteric vein (prob. from inf. and surgery inflammation)
i only take vitamins now, when I WANT to. :)
(temporary ileostomy....maybe)

"Things turn out the best for those who make the best of the way things turn out."

I've called mine a bag for nearly 34 years. I'm not sure I can change a habit of a lifetime now lol (Besides which, it IS a bag - bags hold stuff - my bag holds poop :) )

---

Ileostomy for 33 years due to UC

Moderator of the Ostomy and Psoriasis Forums
_______________________________________________

I'm not a complete idiot - some parts of me are missing!

As a future J-Poucher (if all goes well), I use the word bag for my ostomy and pouch for my j-pouch. It's the easy way that I can differentiate without a long and difficult explanation. I have no issues with the word bag in addition to the fact that it's the word that non-ostomates are familiar with. It's plastic and like Shaz said - it holds stuff - sounds like a bag to me. However, I will do my best to respect your wishes and refer to it as a pouch when I post.

---

Ducridr - 36 - female

Diagnosed w/ severe pancolitis 11/20/2007
Asacol - 6 (400mg) 2x/day, Xifaxin 2 (200mg) 2x/day, Prednisone 15 mg (started at 40mg Nov 08 - off June 09), multi-vitamin, calcium and vit d supplement, potassium supplement, B-12 supplement, Junel FE (BCP),metamucil capsule (1/day) Coumadin (for blood clot) 5mg/day, 1st Remicade treatment 2/4/2009, 2nd - 2/18/09. Currently getting Remicade every 4 weeks.

J-Pouch surgery #1 of 3 on 8/21/2009!!!
Surgery #2 scheduled for 1/4/2010

Post Edited (ducridr) : 12/15/2009 9:14:38 AM (GMT-7)

Shaz032 said...
I've called mine a bag for nearly 34 years. I'm not sure I can change a habit of a lifetime now lol (Besides which, it IS a bag - bags hold stuff - my bag holds poop :) )

And so do pouches!!!  Hey, I don't expect people to change their vernacular for my sake.......do it for our sake!!!  The word "bag", as in "colostomy bag" has been used over and over and over, with such negative connotations by ignorant morons time and again.  As I said in a previous post, it even says pouch on the box!  After recieving my ostomy, my ET nurse corrected me when I used the "b" word, and the local ostomy association that I used to belong to also corrected those that used the "b" word.  I've been conditioned to use the word "pouch".  The "b" word repulses me, as it should you as well.

Actually, the USA Ostomy Associations would now prefer we call it a prosthetic due to problems getting insurance companies to cover ostomy products. They're trying to get insurance companies to recognise our bags, pouches, etc as a prosthetic (as in some people have a prosthetic limb, we have a prosthetic bowel) so they will cover them.

---

Ileostomy for 33 years due to UC

Moderator of the Ostomy and Psoriasis Forums
_______________________________________________

I'm not a complete idiot - some parts of me are missing!

With all of the issues we have to deal with now we're gonna get all PC with the terminology? For crying out loud people.... I say let's agree that we can each call our "?????" a bag, a pouch, or whatever the he** we want.

Until recently I had not been to this site for a couple of years. During the last few months of me coming here a one off experience I had here made me feel like I was such a bad person. I was shot down in flames for using the B word. In the same post that I had used the B word I had made an attempt at some humor too. I had used humor to try and make the situation we were all in (Having an Ostomy) to try and show the new or about to become new Ostomates that having an Ostomy doesn't in most case have to be seen as a negative thing and that regardless of our individual situations we were still People with individual personalities and we could still enjoy life and have fun. The person that responded to my post responded in a very negative way and made me feel like I must be stupid to refer to the pouch as a B and that I should know better.

The person that had responded to me in that way also said something extremely hurtful to me about the fact that I had used "baglady' as my forum name, insinuating that maybe that must be what I am(Someone living on the streets etc) I tried to not take those words too personally due to the other member possibly misunderstanding my intentions plus the fact I realised that they may be having a tough time with illness or ostomy or whatever at the time and were lashing out and I happened to get in the way.

I live in England and I have always used the word bag because thats what it was called in hospital, my Ostomy nurse used the term and I felt and do still feel comfortable with it.

vette guy, In your reply to Shaz you said..... " The "b" word repulses me, as it should you as well" .... Although I respect your opinion and feelings towards the word I can not agree that 'WE 'SHOULD' ALL' find the word repulsive because the reality is that many of us don't find it repulsive and if thats how we feel about it then thats just the way it is.

On saying that I do respect your opinion and I will keep that in my mind when I post but I am not going to promise never to use the word again because no doubt I will use it without thinking sometimes because it is natural for me as I am so used to it.

The capitals by the way were not me shouting I was usuing them as a highlight ;-)

Suzy (I tried changing forum name to just Suzy but it wouldn't let me so I have to be Suzy2 lol.

---

</DIV>

Post Edited (Suzy (used to be known as bag lady)) : 5/21/2010 2:21:19 AM (GMT-6)