Second night at home

So, since my stoma is now from much closer to my stomach, its output is really really acidic. Like, REALLY acidic.



I spent the night in agony trying to put sudocream on the skin around it that had been burnt so badly skin was peeling off. My dad's girlfriend (who works in a hospital and knows a lot about these things) happened to have anesthetic that goes on skin, we put on some of it and it burned even worse. It was meant to be totally numb afterwards but it didn't seem to do anything. Eventually I had to give up and just put on a new bag, my dad gave me some strong sleeping pills and my painkillers from the hospital. I wasn't able to turn on my side because then it would burn more, but eventually I got to sleep.



Today my stoma-nurse came and gave me some powder and paste that should help over a few days, Fingers crossed!



xx



Noodlepip

Hope you feel better soon, Noodle; but something's missing from the picture you present. You are in agony and your caregivers are your dad's girlfriend and the stoma nurse??? Where's your surgeon in all of this? You should not have been allowed to leave the hospital without proper meds (or even powder or paste) for easily anticipated problems. Also, why is your output so acidic? Did you get any dietary guidance from the hospital nutritionist or from the stoma nurse? I think you deserve better care than what I see you're getting. You need to be your own best advocate and hold your providers more accountable. I have been around too long to settle for anything less than responsible and effective medical treatment that inspires reasonable confidence instead of crossed fingers. Best wishes!Prime

Awww hi pip, im so sorry your in so much pain,ive been through this myself having such sore skin, to the point of burning sensation of acid that comes from the stool. The powder should work, but i can make a sujestion try lavender osteoguard wipes,they are very gental on sore skin, and will heal and sooth,and your bag will stick on ok..I ues these all the time as my skin was really bad,but now is healed and staying that way.. If you mention these to your stoma nurse she may be ables to let you try them. Hope things start to ease off for you soon ..thinking of you .tc ambies..x

It sounds to me like your problem is that you're not getting a good seal around the stoma and the output is irritating the skin. I've had my ileostomy for 32 years (way before you were born..OMG) and I've never had a problem. Try this...clean and dry the skin well. Soap and water is all I use followed by a quick drying with a small hair dryer. If you have time. keep the appliance off for a little while and let the skin get some air. Then I take some 2 Stomahesive stips and I cut four 2 pieces and place them on the skin around the base of the stoma as clolse as I can get it to the stoma. It's like a small picture frame. I put the Convatec face plate over that and finally I take another stomahesive strip (about 3), fold it in half the long way and then wrap it around the stoma over the face plate. So now I have three layers of protection and absolutely no skin is exposed to the output. The stomahesive strips are about 5 long so I use 2 for each change. One I cut into 3 pieces of equal length and the secong one I cut off one more small piece for the picture frame leaving the remaining length to fold and wrap around the stoma. My experience was not to expect too much management advice from my surgeon. He did the cutting and then left me in the hands of the nurses and the enterostomal therapist.Good luck and keep us posted!

Gosh, I feel your pain! I have had so many problems since I had my surgery almost three years ago. There was a point that I was having so much leakage that my skin was raw like hamburger meat and I had formed an ulcer under my site which started to grow quite large but I still had to adhere my ostomy bag regardless, it was really hard. I fortunately had really good medical care which is key and was going to the wound center twice a week for a while and I did everything they told me to do to take care of myself. The hair dryer is a really good idea. I used medicine on the wounded skin and let it air dry, I know it's time consuming but it works, my skin around site was weeping so I let it scab over as much as possible and then put on wafer and repeated regiment as needed. I also changed my diet so it wasn't so liquidy and changed my osomy products which has helped me immensely and I have not had to return to the wound center in five months! ;-) Just hang in there sweetie and be strong!!! Santabelle

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I had exactly the same problem for 16 months,tried different things nothing worked,then by chance seen a different nurse,only to find out that my nurse had me using closed bags instead of drainable.I was changing it so many times a day my skin was really sore and had open wounds,I started using drainable bags 2 weeks ago with stoma powder and creams and my skin is healing and so much better already,can't believe how the stinging as eased.All that pain and misery because a nurse didn't provide the right bags and I didn't know any different.

You must have an ileostomy now, the small intestine is filled with acids to break down protein before entering the colon, so if you leak in just a short time you will have skin breakdown, very painful I know! Rings worked for me whatever ostomy company you use should have them. I use Adapt rings from Hollister, may want to give them a try.good luckeddie

P.S. Just notices in my last post, apparently the quotes sign I was using to denote inches did not appear. Oh my! So wherever I typed a number, I meant inches..2 inches, 3 inches etc.

Are you in the UK ? Coloplast barrier spray is brilliant. My DH had what looked like raw meat around the stoma and the barrier spray sealed it without any soreness and it healed dramatically quickly.

Hi Noodlepip (love that name), I hope this doesn't sound too obvious, but have you or your stoma nurse checked the size of the stoma recently to be sure the pouch hole is the right size? When I first went home from hospital with my new ileostomy stoma it was 40mm diameter but within a week it was nearer 30 and now - 3 years on - it's a steady 20. I learned the hard way that it's essential to have a snug fit of the wafer round it so there's no skin around it to be burned by all that nasty acidy waste. Maybe I've just been lucky, but all I do when changing is clean the stoma with water, wipe the surrounding area with a SkinSafe wipe and stick on the new bag. The only problem now is the horrible yucky new closing that Hollister have introduced - but that's another subject. I do hope you've managed to find a solution to your problem and that things are getting better.

I use Adapt Stoma Powder from Hollister, it helps a lot to skin burn around stoma area, it doesn't bother me much when I had my colostomy.I am struggling in handling my new ileostomy which is 8 weeks old, got up couple of times at night to empty it which making me tired. Good luck.

If your stoma is flush or recessed you need Convex Fit. This pushes skin around the stoma in stoma protudes. All manufacturers have them. Request sample. Good luck