Five years ago today I had my ileostomy surgery.  I'm very thankful to have this surgery done.  It literally gave me a new lease on life.  No longer fighting a nasty 10 year stretch with Ulcerative Colitis, I am able to live a much better quality life.  The only downside was managing the ileostomy bag.  Considering how bad of shape I was in before, this was hardly a setback.  I will take that trade off any day, to not live with Ulcerative Colitis again.  Getting back to work was a challenge with the bag.  After trying one of the shields in the market, I found myself modifying, tinkering, and completely redesigning it to meet my needs.  Eventually I started making my own shield.  I started to share my concept with others, getting a lot of feedback in the process.  In less than a year, I had figured out how to make this design work for a majority of the body shapes, sizes, and stoma locations.  It's not perfect and never will be.  We are just all too unique to make one size fits all.  That's why I have the 30 day exchange/return policy.  You won't know until you try it.  Most of the time, I get it right, and the customers are happy.  I sat down and ran the numbers the other day and an astounding 97% keep their shield and don't return it within 30 days.  That level of customer satisfaction (plus the great testimonials) gives me the confidence that I am on the right track.  Hopefully, the StomaShield, will help many more with their "new lease on life" too.