Ostomy Resource Center
Printables, question tools, guides for every stage and what ostomates have shared over 14 years. Print what helps, use the tools anytime and pass them along to anyone who needs them.
Printables and worksheets
Print as many as you like, for yourself, a patient or a support group.
New worksheets arrive every month, including trackers patients fill in themselves.
Question tools
Answer a few questions, one at a time, and get the likely cause and the steps that help. Every guide in the library has its own.
Guides by topic
Clear, practical guides, each with standard information and what ostomates have learned along the way.
New to an ostomy
Your first weeks, the basics and what to expect
- Nervous about your first pouch change on your own? A calm, step-by-step guide
- When everything feels unfamiliar: your first month living with a urostomy
- Ileostomy vs Colostomy: Differences Explained
- First 30 Days With an Ostomy
- Ostomy Life After Surgery
- Adapting to Life After Colostomy / Ileostomy / Urostomy
Leaks, skin and pain
Find the cause and the gentle fix
- Pain around your stoma: gentle relief when it won’t let up
- When the skin around your stoma is raw and you just want relief
- When ostomy bag ballooning leaves you embarrassed and worn out at night
- Ostomy Blockage: Warning Signs, Home Care, and When to Go to the ER
- Ostomy Bag Leaks: 7 Causes and How to Fix Each One
- Skin Around the Stoma: Daily Routine
- How to Prevent a Parastomal Hernia
- Prolapsed Stoma: 9 Causes + How To Fix (Includes Prolapse Risk Checker)
Food and fluids
Eat well, stay hydrated, bring favorite foods back
- Drinking all day and still dizzy and drained? Dehydration with an ileostomy
- Missing your favorite foods after ostomy surgery? Bringing them back safely
- High-Output Ostomy: Personalized Output Tracker Tool & Hydration Plan
- Colostomy Diet: What to Eat
- Ileostomy Diet: What to Eat
- Eating Normal Again After Ostomy
- Colostomy Gas: How to Reduce It
Stoma noise and odor
Why it happens and what quiets it
- Embarrassed by stoma noise in quiet rooms? You are far from alone
- Ostomy Bag Noise in Meetings
- Quiet Ostomy Bag: 8 Strategies
- How to Muffle Ostomy Bag Sound
- Why Is My Stoma So Loud? 7 Causes + Loud-Stoma Personalizer
- How to Stop Stoma Noise: Complete Guide + Stoma Noise Decoder
- Stoma Noise Decoded: What’s Normal vs Concerning
- Tips for Managing Stoma Noise: Quiet-Stoma Playbook + Sound Decoder Tool
- Stoma Guard for Colostomy: Impact Protection + Sound Control
Everyday life
Sleep, work, travel, exercise, clothing, swimming, closeness
- Missing the water? Swimming with an ostomy and feeling at ease again
- Scared of leaving the house with an ostomy? Start with one small outing
- Nervous about flying with an ostomy? Your first trip, from security to landing
- Wanting to feel like yourself at the wedding: what to wear with an ostomy
- Afraid of being rejected? Dating with an ostomy and when to tell someone new
- Lying awake afraid of a leak? Finding sleep after ostomy surgery
- Back to Work With an Ostomy
- Outfit Audit: Dressing With an Ostomy
- Exercise After Ostomy: The 12-Week No-Hernia Framework
- Intimacy After Ostomy
- Traveling With an Ostomy
- How to Sleep With a Stoma Bag
Feelings and support
Body image, confidence and finding your people
Supplies, caregivers and bigger decisions
Supplies, helping someone you love, reversal, treatment
- Down to your last few wafers? How to stop running out of ostomy supplies
- Torn about reversal? Making the ostomy reversal decision your own
- When stiff hands or tired eyes make pouch changes feel like too much
- Caring for a parent with an ostomy when you feel out of your depth
- Going through cancer treatment with a stoma when you feel worn thin
- Gifts for Someone With an Ostomy: 2026 Gift Guide + Gift Finder
- Ostomy Reversal: What to Expect
- Ostomy Supplies Near Me: 2026 Directory + Supplier Finder
Stoma guards and protection
Protection from seat belts, bumps and noise
What ostomates have shared
The part you will not find in a hospital brochure: what helped, from 14 years of conversations with ostomates and the people who care for them.
The library is the map. Your Blueprint is your route.
Everything in this library is written for everyone. Your Blueprint takes your own answers and story and turns all of it into one plan, in the order that fits you.
The library
- Answers for everyone, by topic
- You piece together what applies to you
- Blank worksheets and trackers
Your Blueprint
- Your top 3 priorities, with the first step for each
- Leaks, skin, food, fluids, sleep and outings meshed into one plan
- Worksheets filled in for you, from your fluid goal to the foods you miss
- Written from your own story, with a 30-day refresh included
For professionals and leaders
For ostomy nurses
The Nurse Pack: patient sheets ready to print or share, with new worksheets added as they are made, plus a page in every Blueprint written for your time together.
Open the Nurse Pack →For support group leaders
A Year of Meetings is in the works: twelve ready-to-run meetings with handouts, discussion questions and flyers. Ask to be first in line for the first month.
Get the First Month →For caregivers
The caregiver hand-off sheet, guides for helping someone you love, and the Caregiver Blueprint.
Start with the caregiver guide →Be a founding member of the Ostomy Tips and Support Community
A private Facebook group for people living with an ostomy and the people who care for them. Join now and you get:
- A bite-size tip every week you can use the same day
- Every new printable and worksheet first, before it reaches the website
- Answers to the questions you would never ask out loud, with anonymous posting
- A say in what gets made next