3 weeks ago my stoma bag started leaking roughly twice a day, everyday, mostly when I was at home, but once or twice when I was in the car on my way out for the day, not very nice. My Grandad, Dad and me were going to Grassington, I had checked the bag before setting off, all looked fine but I did put some extra protection around it in case of leakages (fat lot of good that did).
We nearly got to Grassington and the bloody bag leaked, I couldn’t believe it and at the time I was upset because unfortunately I had just eaten 2 McDonalds burgers and the site was not pretty. My Dad didn’t know what to do, he was trying to console me and I was trying to clean up my stoma, It was a site let me tell you.
I can look back on it now and laugh but at the time it was embarrassing because every traffic light we stopped at we had an arctic lorry next to us who could look down and see what I was doing, he looked mortified another classic example of not understanding, but that’s not to say it is wrong, I didn’t know what a stoma looked like before having one, so it wasn’t his fault. I couldn’t help but laugh though, his face was a picture!
The stoma nurse came out to see me to check my stoma a day or so later and was a little concerned with my skin around the stoma as it was very red and very raw, due to the bags leaking and having to change them daily did not help the skin at all.
The liquid is easier to seep under the bag and cause sores, but it is a vicious circle if you don’t eat properly and the bags consistency is more liquid than porridge substance, it is going to leak, but because you are worrying the bag is going to leak, you don’t want to eat properly, so the cycle starts again.
We nearly got to Grassington and the bloody bag leaked, I couldn’t believe it and at the time I was upset because unfortunately I had just eaten 2 McDonalds burgers and the site was not pretty. My Dad didn’t know what to do, he was trying to console me and I was trying to clean up my stoma, It was a site let me tell you.
I can look back on it now and laugh but at the time it was embarrassing because every traffic light we stopped at we had an arctic lorry next to us who could look down and see what I was doing, he looked mortified another classic example of not understanding, but that’s not to say it is wrong, I didn’t know what a stoma looked like before having one, so it wasn’t his fault. I couldn’t help but laugh though, his face was a picture!
The stoma nurse came out to see me to check my stoma a day or so later and was a little concerned with my skin around the stoma as it was very red and very raw, due to the bags leaking and having to change them daily did not help the skin at all.She gave me different options of bags, deeper convex ones that should push my stoma out more and therefore stop liquid escaping, and products that would help my skin, but the biggest reason why the bag was leaking was because I wasn’t eating properly and because the consistency was quite liquid like.
The liquid is easier to seep under the bag and cause sores, but it is a vicious circle if you don’t eat properly and the bags consistency is more liquid than porridge substance, it is going to leak, but because you are worrying the bag is going to leak, you don’t want to eat properly, so the cycle starts again.The stoma nurse was worried I was dehydrated because of not eating and drinking enough and told me to increase my diet and to start again on the isotonic drinks. The other reason she thought my bags were leaking because my stoma is flush to my stomach which is making the liquid easier to seep through.
You are very brave, keep smiling.
ReplyDeleteLots of love always. xxxx
The reality of what I am facing is setting in. Thanks for sharing even the terrible terrible stuff.
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