BCIR Treatment Brings Freedom for Ostomy Patients

If your conventional ileostomy frustrates you with hard-to-predict, stressful, awkward and sometimes messy maintenance needs, you’re not alone. This is why patients so often seek treatment at The Center for Ileostomy Surgery at Olympia Medical Center. The Center specializes in the BCIR surgery, the BCIR treatment for an ileostomy that has brought improved quality of life to thousands of patients here in the Los Angeles area.

How BCIR can Change Your Life

During the BCIR (Barnett Continent Intestinal Reservoir) procedure, your surgeon meticulously constructs an interior pouch or reservoir from your existing intestinal tissue and connects it to your stoma. This reduces maintenance to emptying the stoma into a toilet (via a catheter) as few as three times daily. Patients choose BCIR because the procedure offers many advantages, including:

• Freedom from the bag: After BCIR, you have no external ostomy bag to worry about, which should lower your stress level and allow you to relax more.
• Freedom from skin irritation:  Following BCIR, the nipple-style valve prevents leakage, so waste doesn’t unknowingly touch the stoma-area skin.
• Freedom from unpleasant odors: The valve also prevents gas from escaping the stoma until you’re ready to empty your pouch in the bathroom.
• Freedom to be more social: Mental health and mood can suffer if ileostomy patients avoid spending time with friends due to anxiety or limitations caused by their external bag. Depression can result when you don’t keep in contact with your support system of loved ones. BCIR makes socializing more enjoyable by relieving anxiety.
• Freedom to participate in more types of physical activity: After BCIR, you’ll be able to get more exercise to improve overall health and engage in fun activities for stress reduction. You can even swim once again when you get your doctor’s ok.
• Freedom to eat more foods you like, even broccoli: You can enjoy spicy cooking with no fear about including the following in your diet: carbonated beverages, sugar-containing snacks and desserts, fried food, beans and cabbage, as well as onion and other spiced food. (Use moderation to protect your overall health, however.)
• Freedom to wear what you want without concerns about hiding your external ostomy bag.
• Freedom to have closer intimate relationships: Sex can be hampered in many ways by a traditional ileostomy. After the BCIR procedure, you won’t need to worry about a leak during an intimate encounter.

Learn More about BCIR

At the Center for Ileostomy Surgery, we are gratified to see the enhanced self-image that patients experience after BCIR. Our goal is to grant you freedom from your external ostomy bag and improve your quality of life. Find out if you are a good candidate to benefit from BCIR surgery. Contact The Center for Ileostomy Surgery at Olympia Medical Center today.