Opus 2014-226: Healthy Insights: Stoma Saga, 6 of 7, Our Solution

Our solution was suggested by accident by a visiting nurse when our regular nurse could not make it.  His theory didn’t work any better than anyone else’s but we were able to take it and develop it. We had to take what he did, think about it and figure it out for ourselves. 

We realized that what we needed to do was cut the hole in the barrier/wafer smaller and slide it on from the side so that the flat surface would move under the point of the stoma.  When we got done the up side of the stoma looked like the pictures but the down looked like we have pushed it 1/4 inch into the stoma itself.  In reality we had simply put it under the lip.  Once we did this the barrier was strong enough to keep the tip from burrowing in and the waste began to slide down into the bag instead of under the barrier onto the skin.

We began to see improvement at once.  Keep in mind that the improvement is slow.  It takes time for the skin to heal but we were on our way.

Weeks later, when the skin was healed and the bags were lasting the recommended 3 to 5 days we got a little too excited and started pushing the edge up too hard and caused a tear in the under side of the stoma but the stoma nurse said that was not unusual and no problem.

That is what helped us.  I remember reading the cries of a woman who had posted years ago.  I wish I could turn the clock back and share with her because what she described was what we were going through.

I realize this is a nitch thing but I hope it helps someone.

This is the focal point of the series but since I am on a role,  I will continue.

To be concluded...

homo unius libri