Hi Bob,
Sounds like you're going through the same BS we all do in the beginning. Seems they don't provide much information to ostomates before we leave the hospitals these days and then you find yourself at home saying WTF? You're going to need to sort through the various brands and products to find what works for you and what to avoid. There's a lot of details regarding your skin, stoma placement, etc. that need to be taken into account to get you to the right products. If I were you, I'd call around to your local hospitals and talk to their Wound Care departments and find an ostomy nurse to talk to and go see. I'd also call each of the major ostomy suppliers (Hollister, Convatec, and Coloplast) and talk to each of their ostomy nurses so they can send you the right product samples to try. Nothing is a slam dunk with this ostomy crap; it's really about trial and error. But an ostomy nurse should at least get you in the ballpark and will probably have access to a variety of products to try while you're waiting for your samples to arrive. To answer your question... yes, there's a difference between the products of the major suppliers. That's because not everyone's skin reacts the same to everyone's materials. And yes, if your stoma is now flat, or even with your abdominal skin... you need a convex barrier. How convex really depends on your situation. If the minor convex barrier fails... try the more convex barrier. But look very carefully when you remove your failed barrier and see where exactly the leak is coming from. Are you not cutting the barrier so it fits tightly around your stoma, but not so tight it strangles it... do you need barrier paste to fill in any dips or rolls in your skin before you apply the barrier... etc., etc. It's important you figure out WHERE and WHY it's leaking, and not just that it's leaking. Once you know WHY it leaks, you can find products to address that issue. Finding an ostomy nurse just makes that whole process much faster and foolproof. One last thing... you mentioned using 1/2 moons. Those are not to prevent a leak... those are to keep the edges of the barrier from lifting from your skin, like when you swim or sweat. If your barrier is leaking but the leak doesn't get past the 1/2 moons, you're still in a heap of trouble, as the skin under your barrier is awash in output, which is really bad. You don't ever want your output getting under your barrier, and just because it can't escape at the very outer periphery, where you have those 1/2 moons applied, it's still a leak. Find that ostomy nurse... or talk to our resident one on here if you can find her. Until then, we can try to talk you through it if you give us a lot more details on what's going on.
;O)
Bob
