I had a very embarrassing situation at work today. I try not to change my bag until I get home from work. But today, I had to change at work. The problem is the bathroom stalls are very small and there is no counter space to lay out my supplies, such as my wipes, preps, and clean colostomy bag. So I have to kind of juggle everything in my hands. Well, I removed my soiled bag and threw it in the garbage. Then I grabbed my wet wipes and new bag and oops, my clean pouch fell into the toilet. Oh no! What do I do now? I didn't have any more extra pouches. I still had another hour and a half before my workday ended. But I didn't know if my stoma was going to hold up before purging out poo. I didn't know if I should tell my boss about my ostomy and explain my mishap to him so I could go home early. I decided that would be too embarrassing. So I used the plastic sandwich bag that I keep my wipes in. And I placed the bag over my stoma, hoping my pants would hold it in place. When I got back to my work area, I searched around for some tape. I could feel gas coming out of my stoma and knew what would come next. I grabbed the tape and ran back to the toilet to put tape around my homemade bag. Then I went back to work and kept looking at the clock, hoping the last hour would go by fast. I made it home without anything leaking. But from now on, I am going to bring extra pouches just in case.
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Oh, how I feel for you! I have had a few of those days. I always carry extras with me and have extras to back up the extras. Though, I also have been caught without. The extra clothes are a great idea. I carry a small bag with a change of clothes in my vehicle and have had to use them too. Glad you made it home okay.
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Had a few mishaps in my early days of being an ostomy. A lot of times I got away with not taking supplies, but one time I got caught out. I was in town shopping when I felt something go pop and warm around my bag. I headed for the nearest toilets and had no spares with me. I managed to stuff toilet paper around the edge of the tape and hurried back home to find it had just started to seep through. After that ordeal, I learned never to go anywhere without supplies. I have them in the car and my handbag, and always put extra ones in just in case, lol. A hard lesson I had to learn. Take care, all ambies.
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How do you think your boss would have reacted? I work part-time as a boat master on a passenger boat, so I am on public view at a post where I can't just disappear for a few minutes. One day last year, my bag and person decided to part company while at work. Fortunately, my boss was onboard and he knew about my stoma, so it was just a case of "Cover for me - I need 5 min in the loo." Had he not known, I would have had to explain things, making it more of an issue than it was. It may be worth slipping it into a conversation sometime that you have the bag, then should any problems arise in the future, the hurdle of having to explain will have already been dealt with.
I carry a murse around now with all my supplies. I just got out of the hospital a few weeks ago, but have had an ileostomy on and off at two other times in the past for short periods - now it's permanent. Monday, I was walking into a meeting and realized the clip had come undone and a rush was going down my leg. Luckily, my business partner was with me and I just said that I had to grab a call. I didn't have extra clothes, but I've decided on a couple of ways to deal from now on:
1 - For a few weeks, I'm going to try to wear black as much as possible until I have this down.
2 - I'll take a cup of coffee with me everywhere or plan on spilling one on me if I have a huge mishap like that again.
3 - Make sure your clips and Velcro are locked.
4 - Have a change of pants in your car.
If I came out of the bathroom with water all over my pants, I'd just say, "Oh my gosh, I spilled water all over. I'm so embarrassed." Anyway, the worst is over, now we know how to deal and it wasn't as bad as we thought.
I had the same problems, but they were mainly caused by my dog biting it or tearing it right off. Luckily, one of our local nurses was his dog sitter, and she thought it was funny until one day he pulled it off in her house and shook it.
I always have a small bag; it has about 3 or 4 bags as I never know when I will leak.
I had a very funny (in hindsight) incident with my urostomy starting a leak. Hubster and I were on our way to a fine dining eatery where we had reservations, and I was NOT going to miss that as it is a rare treat for us. The thing is, the place is a bit hard to find, so my job was to be navigator - calling out directions to my husband as he drove. Okay, so here comes the leak. I didn't have another flange with me and no real way to change out things in a moving car anyway. Hubster had his handy roll of duct tape in the car, so I am trying to tape things up, call out directions, keep the leaking in check with whatever fast food restaurant napkins are on the seat somewhere, and cussing like mad! Well, the duct tape repair held through dinner, which we were only slightly late for owing to a wrong turn. We decided that the wrong turn was my fault as my poor husband was looking to take the next left on Oh F***! street! Yes, I keep supplies with me now.
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I know now why I love you guys! I've been in some pretty crappy (lol) situations myself, being a 'bag lady' for 42 years! Hey, here's one right off the top of my head: you can't cry over spilled poop, so just go with the flow!
Yep, I think we all have had mishaps, but sometimes you gotta laugh... if not, you never stop crying. I do keep empty coffee containers with lids if the ileo decides to do too much crapola or gas. I just grab the old paper cups and either, if I need to get out of the car, just empty, put the lid on, throw in the bin, or if near a loo, do the same. Either way, we all learn; always some stories, hey! It's good to get advice too. I like having those spare cups. Some people are like, "Are you going to a party bringing your own throwaway cups?" I just say no, in case I need to empty straight away. xx :) mooza
The first time I had an accident, I was in the car with my daughters. I was driving when the seal let go. I didn't quite know what to do! My daughter opened the glove box and started handing me napkins from various fast food establishments to keep it from running everywhere. When we got home, I ran into the house to get the poo clothes off. The sweetheart started cleaning up my car. I don't know what I would have done without her!
My advice... Keep it empty. Just carry a few Ziploc freezer bags and some Handy Wipes packets with you. When you detect that your bag has anything in it... go to the stall, open your Ziploc bag, open the bottom of your colostomy bag, squeezing it until you guide it into the Ziploc bag... then grasp the top of the Ziploc bag with the colostomy bag inside and squeeze down, letting the emptying colostomy bag slide out, squeezing all the poo into the bag. Then put the bag aside where it can't spill, wipe the end of your colostomy bag with a wipe, and reseal it. Put the wipe in the Ziploc, seal it, and dispose. Voilà, done! Sounds complicated, but I can do this in 1 minute.