colostomy

Thursday – August 13th, 2015

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oops. It’s been a while again. Sorry. I’ve been super busy catching up on work, getting stuff in the office done before my next surgery in A WEEK from today, AND trying to close on a condo. STRESS. I had a pouchogram yesterday up in Chapel Hill. Let’s talk about that for a second. Basically you lie down, they stick a catheter up your bum bum and they squirt contrast in your pouch. They have you move from side to side and snap some X-rays and you’re done. For all of you about to get this procedure done and are told it’s just a bit uncomfortable……that’s true. Kind of… The contrast is not bad at all. You barely feel it. And being someone who’s dealt with a lot of enemas in 10 years of fighting this thing, it’s bearable. Unfortunately, I don’t have 10 years of sticking a catheter up my butt. (Insert inappropriate jokes here.) not exactly sure what unit of measurement they use as the diameter, but let me set up the situation. One butt Doc says to the other butt doc, what size you want? To which head doc replies, “the 22.” Now, at this point I don’t know what that means. I have nothing to compare it to. Is 22 big? Or is 22 small? Secondly, why the hell are there different sizes? Right? I mean, can there not just be one size, the smallest a tube has to be to squirt liquid into a butt? that’s what’s going through my mind. BUTT what do I know? I’m no doctor. So, I lie on my left side, as directed, on a rock hard cat scan table. 2 minutes in and already my hip feels as if Mike Trout just took batting practice into it. Head Doc proceeds to stick 22 catheter up my Butt. This sucks. The first thing he says to me, “relax those muscles…don’t clench.”

….uhhhhhh. Don’t clench?? Relax my muscles?? Dude, you literally just stuck a 22 (still have no idea what unit of measurement this is) catheter up my ass, and you want me to relax my muscles. Dumb. I’m a pretty tough kid, I can deal with pain, getting blood is nothing to me, physical soreness and pain from the surgeries, though bad and uncomfortable, I can deal with. Internal pain, and butt stuff…I don’t like. Can you blame me? So Head Doc, after about 7 or 8 seconds of maneuvering the thing trying to get it far enough in, decides for whatever reason it’s not working…so he takes it out. Good right? NO WRONG. Now I know he’s got to start over, go back in. So, before I can even recoup and psych myself up for the next go, head doc is already at it. And again, for whatever reason, unsuccessful. He pulls it it out again. There are two other people in the room. Another doctor, who was squirting the contrast, and a nurse making sure I was comfortable and doing the dirty work. Taping the catheter, holding the bag of fluids, walking me to bathroom. She was super nice. Anyway. Head doc pulls out a second time. And the second doc says, “should we try the 18?”

!?!?!?!Uhhhhh. Yes we should try the 18. Why in gods name did we not start with the 18??? I don’t know much about this procedure, but I do know it’s not a race. So will contrast not drain through as fast now, or as much at once?? So what? I can’t see how that could matter. I’m going to go a bit off subject here, but this related and reminds me of this exact situation.

A very funny spoof movie on Comedy Central, WINDY CITY HEAT, basically about a gigantic prank on one man. He thinks he auditions, and gets the lead role in a feature film, and shoots a whole stupid movie, without knowing that it is all completely setup. He is the only one not in on the joke. All his friends are behind it and make it very stressful for the guy. I couldn’t even begin to explain. Anyway, there is one scene where the main character is tied up being held captive. In the scene one henchman is to grab a bat and hit him with it. The director puts two bats in the scene. A red bat. And a blue bat. The important instructions for the henchman that the director shares in front of our lead man, “the blue bat is rubber, the red bat is a real wooden bat. So do not use the red bat.” Of course they start scene and the first two takes the henchman grabs the red bat and goes to wind up and tee off on our main characters head, until the main character speaks up and goes “NO NO WAIT” he gets super super angry and after about 4 takes where the henchman continues to mistakingly grab the wrong bat, he ends up screaming, “WHY IS THE RED BAT EVEN THERE!?”

Ha. A classic. All that set up for the last line. And the point of the story. I couldn’t help but think of that as she asks, “should we use the 18?” “WHY IS THE 22 EVEN THERE!?”

Haha ok. I think I’m overtired. To sum this up. With the 18 it was completely fine. They got it in fine and once it’s in its not painful at all. It took about 4 minutes and they took it out, let some contrast drain out of my bottom and then that was that. I went to speak to surgeon. All good things, on track for surgery as long as the results from that test were good, (which they were) and CT Scan tomorrow is good. I’m crossing my fingers it will be. I have to wake up at 630 to start drinking gross contrast. Appointment is at 830. Then a full day of work. And then the weekend. 4 more work days until surgery. Surgeon did say although they aren’t going inside me and that the surgery isn’t quite as involved as the last two, it is a lot more painful. They’ll be putting the ileostomy back inside my stomach and in doing so will be stitching up the muscle there. Ouch. On top of that the gas pains are pretty severe from what I hear as everything starts working. As long as nothing goes near my bottom I think I’ll be ok. My friends Osty and Morphine will get me through the pain. And you guys too!! Thanks for stopping by. I’ll let you know when I get results from CT scan. If you have any questions feel free to comment or email. Oh, and one more thing. As for eating and drinking with the ileostomy. It is certainly true that it’s much more sensitive to foods than the colostomy. You have to be much more careful. There’s no pain, but it can get real watery, and frequent. And it’s just not worth it. Leaks at night and changing the bag at times when you shouldn’t be, is an absolute nightmare. I haven’t really drank any soda this period and I had two tonight with dinner, and a salad. And I paid for it. I had to empty my bag three times in an hour and am super nervous that I’m gonna leak tonight. I took Imodium and put two absorb packets in my bag to harden the stool. I usually only put one in, but playing it safe. I don’t know what I would do without those. They are a MUST if you deal with very liquid output. Alright! That’s all. If you take one thing from this post, it should be, watch WINDY CITY HEAT.

Tuesday – June 16, 2015

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It is not quite 9 yet. I am in bed. It’s been a long two days. Finishing up some projects at work, packing, and realizing that there’s much more time between now and surgery. Ever since I started taking Imodium on a consistent basis, things seem to be getting better. No leaks in 3 nights. I changed it Sunday mid-day. My skin is looking better. Not 100%, but close. 9 more days and I’ll be on my way to Florida for a family cruise. I’m about ready to get out of Myrtle for a week. I plan on packing enough supplies for me to leak every night. You can never be too careful. As I pack for the vacation I’m simultaneously moving all my stuff back into my parents. I will recover for a few months there and then find a new place to live. So I guess starting July 9th, I’m homeless for a little bit. Once again I have a bachelor party and wedding to motivate me to heal quickly so I can enjoy myself. The bachelor party will be over a month after surgery and the wedding will be two months after. Atlantic City and then wedding is in New York. Should be another fun one. Which reminds me, I’ve got to go get fitted for my tux. I’ve still got 10 more pounds to gain. I was hoping to have gained everything back before the next surgery but that’s not looking so good. I’m more nervous going into this surgery. Not sure why that is. It’s just a very deflating feeling to know I have to go through all that stuff again. Walking again. Catheter. J-drain. Pain. I’ll have to watch what I eat more carefully this time. I hear there’s more pain internally while I try to pass gas for the first time. Ugh. It’s enough to make me want to disappear on one of those islands in two weeks and not come back. Don’t worry I’ll still blog from Coco Kay if that’s where I end up. It’ll get real messy when I run out of bags.

 I’m going to watch Chappie, and fall asleep. Shouldn’t be a busy day in the office tomorrow. When I get home I’ll continue to pack some stuff.  Thanks for continuing to read, hope what insight I share is helping if that’s what you’re here for, and remember, I’m one click away if you have any questions or advice. 

Monday – June 8th, 2015

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I just finished putting on new sheets… at 5:30 AM. Work at 8:30. Why would I change my sheets at such an unreasonable time, I am sure you are wondering. Is it because I woke up remembering I just bought new sheets and literally could not wait one more second to use them? No, no it wasn’t. It was because… and excuse my french, my bag FUCKING leaked, AGAIN. Yep. This time, enough to get the sheets involved. I woke up at 4:30. I took off my belt (not my stealth belt) just the one that wraps around my waist and connects to each side of the flange. I filled my sink with water, cleaned with soap and let it soak in the water. Then I took my bag off. I knew going in what a nightmare it was going to be. I could hear before I had even taken the bag off that diarrhea was still “in progress.” Excuse the graphic nature of this situation, it’s gross, I know. It took me 35 minutes of just shitting there before I could begin. **I’d like to note that that shitting was a typo and meant to be sitting, but I enjoy irony so I figured I’d leave it. It was gross. I am half asleep and can’t afford to be lazy when it comes to holding the sheet after sheet of paper towel to keep the mess “centralized.” I laid a towel on the ground and one on my lap too. The skin under my stoma was bad, again. I was just getting that back under control. As I slowly began the process (mostly one handed) because one was keeping tabs on my OVER ACTIVE stoma at all times. Finally, I got the adhesive around the stoma and placed the bag on. DONE. Oh wait, wrong, not done. I forgot to take the plastic casing of the back of the bag off… back to the whole half asleep thing… so I had to pull it off, and of course it was sticking to the moldable ring enough to pull that off with it! YAY! So, I   put another on, took the damn back piece off the bag and I was done. A nightmare. So now it is 5:45 and I will undoubtedly wake up for work feeling like a zombie and like I need at least 3 more hours of sleep. I’m almost afraid to sleep because if it leaks again I honestly don’t know what I will do. I threw my belt in the dryer so that’ll be ready in the morning.

Backtracking a bit, the last few days have been alright. I woke up saturday and around noon I noticed there was a leak and had to change then too. The weekend though, I seemed to have gotten my poo back to a good place and everything was okay. I even drank a bit saturday night and was still okay. Although it seems I am paying for it now, as most of Sunday it was back to loose. Keeping up on the benefiber and imodium and will continue to eat Peanut Butter, Bananas, and anything else that may end this diarrhea.

Wednesday is my last appointment at Chapel Hill before my surgery that is a month from tomorrow. I can’t wait to get this stupid thing off my body. I’ll check in soon. Thanks for reading. Goodnight.

Monday – April 27th, 2014

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It’s been 4 weeks since surgery. The days following surgery seemed to drag. I remember thinking a few times that I just wanted to fast forward a few weeks so I wouldn’t have to deal with all of this. Now here I am. I’m a little less tired than I was last week.. granted it’s nine and I am in bed. I am definitely moving around much better. Bending up and down and lifting my legs are still tough… not because of soreness or pain, but because I am just weak. Also, it feels a bit uncomfortable to bend down, especially when I have a belt on and it’s right up against the bottom of the bag. I am still waiting on the stealth belt. No real problems to report bag wise. Everything seems to be going okay. I weighed 111 pounds at my 2 week check up… I weight 120 pounds now, at least that’s what the scale at my house reads. (not 100% reliable) The point is, I am getting some weight back. It’ll just have to take time unfortunately. I have been waking up at night at least once to release the air from my bag. I am now realizing that there’s no reason to get a bag without a filter. With a filter you can avoid having to open the bag to release the air. With a filter it takes care of it for you and is odor free. A huge plus. Why they even have bags without the filter is beyond me, but is certainly something I wish I knew before I ordered 20 bags without one. My nurse (mom) is going to call for me tomorrow and see if we can get a sample of a bag or two with the filter. That would save me a lot of middle of the night wake-ups and trips to the bathroom to let the air out myself. We’ll see how it goes. I am ready to be back to normal. I also have not tried to drink yet. After work tomorrow will be my first experiment. One Captain and Coke. Wednesday I’ll do two, thursday three, and so on until my bag explodes, or until I do… I’ve got to test my limits. Also, if I can’t swing a golf club soon I’ll certainly lose my mind. The weather is getting real nice here… I need to play. My next bag change isn’t until Thursday morning.. the day of my trip to Boston. I’ll check back in then! Oh, one more thing.. tonight I dumped out a bottle of LIALDA and 6MP. That sure did feel good. Also, I’ve been off Prednisone for a week, and I’m feeling real good!

Wednesday – April 22nd, 2015- Home At Last

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It has been exactly 40 days since I left my house in Myrtle Beach. It’s crazy to think how much has happened in that 40 days. I have been at work for the past three days. I get in around 930 and have been leaving later than I had anticipated I’d make it- around 4:30-5. Getting up and down is super tiring and by three I’m pretty wiped. Today the bag was more “apparent” than I feel it usually is and I am not sure why. It feels heavier to me, or just pulling more even when it’s empty. I had ordered a stealth belt a few weeks back and am hoping that arrives soon, I feel like it will be a big help. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the stealth belt, there is a link to their site in the side bar on the right, check it out.

After a busy day at work my parents met me down in Myrtle and took me and a buddy to dinner. They also had a car load of clothes, supplies, etc… all things that I’ve accumulated over the past month. After dinner I headed home, driving for the first time, My movement still isn’t great and I had to rely on my mirrors more than I’d like to admit, but it was fine. The getting in and out of the car is the hardest part.

My buddy helped me bring all my stuff in and I finally made my way to the couch. I could have fallen asleep right there. It sure is nice to be home though. We chatted for a bit, watched a little TV, but by eight I was wiped. I headed upstairs, put a few things away and hopped into bed. After I finish typing this up I am going to throw an episode of Homeland on (I’ve got some catching up to do) and then I am going to fall into a very deep sleep. Although I am progressing nicely, I just wish it was happening faster. Yes, I am getting stronger, Yes I am getting healthier, but the zero muscles in my stomach thing is getting old. Getting out of my chair is still a chore. Laughing or coughing, still impossible. Do you know how frustrating it is to not be able to laugh hard? Also I am still more sore than i’d like to be around my stoma. Everywhere else on my stomach is okay. Bending down to put my socks and shoes on simply put, sucks. I know you can’t just gain back 40 pounds over night. I know that I was extremely sick a month ago and time is the only cure to all of this. But I am ready. I head to Boston for a Bachelor party a week from tomorrow, and I hope to be 10 times better than I am today. I am being optimistic. I haven’t told Osty I’ll be leaving home for a few days, so keep that between us, that’s not an argument I feel like having tonight. God, I have to get a life. Okay, until next time….oh wait, I also saw a cool shirt today on an ostomy site with the phrase, “LIFE TAKES GUTS” I thought that was cool.. Clever line. Okay, I’ll report back in with how I am doing in a day or two. Thanks for reading and obviously HAPPY EARTH DAY.

Monday – April 20th, 2015 – Three Weeks Down

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It has been three weeks since surgery. Although after a long day and a stressful night, it’s pretty crazy to think how far I’ve come. Let’s start at 8am. A song by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals woke me up for my first day of work in almost a month. I was excited to get out of the house (sorry mom….and Osty) I had a pile full of stuff ready to go. It was the first time I had to actually wrap a belt around my waist…. not the most exciting thing. Always make sure you have extra supplies with you at all times god forbid something goes wrong. You never know. I got to the office a little after 9. It was nice to see people I hadn’t seen friday and everyone was super nice and supportive of me being back. A lot of, “take it easy’s” and “don’t over do its” were sincerely mentioned by more than one person. I am lucky to have a super cool boss as well that has been great through this whole thing. Work can be a stressful thing, especially the news. I was able to focus on my recovery and not worry about work related issues this whole time. That was really great. He didn’t burden me with much today. He understood I might have to duck out early if I was too tired or just wasn’t feeling up to being there. I made it until 4:30. But boy was I wiped. My mom drove me to work because I still don’t have the strength or flexibility to confidently drive a car, but that will change in the next day or two. Mom arrived at 4:20 to pick me up. After a whole day of walking around and getting up and down I was tired. A little sore, but more tired than anything. The getting up and down part is the hardest. It just takes a lot of work to pull yourself up with a still very weak abdomen.

By the time we got home I was pretty exhausted. Overall there were no major hiccups. Everything went to plan. A successful first day of work. All the supplies I had ordered had arrived today. Included in the shipment was a wrap. Something meant to wrap around the stomach keeping the bag in place allowing for my support and comfort. We decided to try that out after dinner….this was a mistake. Let me try and explain…

As time goes on I am learning and understanding more about different pouches and why some are better than others. two piece pouches consist of, yes, you guessed it, two pieces. One being the bag itself, and the other being the “flange” or circular piece that has the adhesive part on one side that sticks to my stomach with a hole in the middle for the stoma. I take the protective piece off the sticky end and carefully lower and stick to my skin. (stoma goes through center hole) Now, I take the bag that has a hole the same size of the flange and place that over the stoma and snap it to the flange. That, in the simplest of explanations, is a two piece system. Now I can safely go to the bathroom into the bag, without anything getting on my skin. The other bag I tried last week, that I did not like as much because of the amount of sticky adhesive was on the flange, had a much better “snapping” mechanism. On that bag you just had to snap the top and you could twist the bag vertically or horizontally as you saw fit. (without having to take apart the two pieces and exposing the stoma. This pouch, for those of you wondering, was the colopast pouch. The one that I am currently wearing, a Hollister Brand, must be snapped off. Here is why I am explaining this to you. Thie wrap that I got today, requires that the bag be put horizontal so that it can easily be tucked into the wrap. That means I have to unsnap the flange and pouch. I was a bit uncomfortable doing this for a few reasons. For one thing, I am still a bit sore there and pulling the pouch off the flange will require a bit more force than I am comfortable applying at this time. Second, anytime you play around with that part, where the adhesive is, you cause more likelihood of a possible leak occurring. Thirdly, it could be messy if I didn’t do it quickly, and it was my first time so I was unsure how it would go. I took the bag off, a bit slow at first and was nervous once it was off that I wasn’t going to get it back on. It stressed me out and aggravated me. I finally got it on.

At this point I am tired. Almost a full days work, certainly the most I’ve exerted myself physically and mentally (besides a few jumbles and Jeopardy) in a long time, I was in no mood for this. The wrap to a second to get figured out. Where to snap what and how far and where the bag went. Finally I got it. When all was said and done. I wasn’t happy. I didn’t feel more comfortable or more support at all. In fact I was more paranoid now because although I could probably sleep on my right side I didn’t like the fact that I could easily look down and see if my bag needed emptying, or if there was a leak. Moral of the story… this wrap wasn’t for me. It isn’t to say it isn’t for everyone. I just don’t like the whole horizontal bag thing. Not yet at least. I have been searching forums online and haven’t found a decisive yes or no on whether it is even possible to empty a bag that is on sideways. If you have any insight into this, feel free to comment below! Another belt I have on the way, a “stealth belt” (link is on the tab to the right) is supposed to be much better and I believe my bag can stay vertical and I just tuck it up and into the belt. We will see. I got into bed feeling frustrated. Quite frankly I am ready for these four months to be over. I just want this all to be behind me. We’re all entitled to a few bad nights right? I’m going to bed. Day two of work tomorrow, let’s hope I wake up a little bit stronger and without any leaks.

Saturday – April 18th, 2015

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i fell asleep last night at 3 am. I cannot seem to fall asleep. I woke up at 9, suprisingly awake given the amount of sleep I got. I’m still tapering off the prednisone, and am currently on 2.5mg for a few more days. It’s really killing my joints. Only in the morning really. My fingers today are the worst and my right elbow and hip. As the day progresses it gets better, but really drives home the fact that this medicine is terrible and needs to be out of my system.

 I took a shower and then sat down in the bathroom for my next bag change. I decided to go with the original bags, though see-through, definitely more comfortable. It took a bit longer to get this bag off because the piece that sticks to my skin is a bit larger meaning more to peel off of my skin. No fun. Also, my stoma was a bit….active…throughout the whole changing process and I had to allow for that. (I was pooping a lot) Usually by changing in the morning you can avoid that but today was a different story. On the whole my skin looked pretty good. There was a tiny bit of red on the right side of the stoma that I thought might be a bit of irritation so I used some powder to try and fix that. All in all id say it was a successful change even though it still is taking me about 30 minutes on average. Practice makes perfect. I ate some breakfast and took a nap for an hour. It’s rainy and crappy here today so I haven’t been out for my daily walk. Just being a bum sleeping and watching Netflix. 

It finally cleared up so I took a walk around the cul de sac before dinner. I’m noticing I’m moving around much better than I have been. Pulling myself up is still tough. Not painful, just tough. Again, no muscles there. You don’t realize how much you use those ab muscles until they’re not there. Its 9 now so I plan to watch some TV and get to bed soon. I’m feeling tired so hopefully tonight won’t be a repeat of last night. Tomorrow is my last day of lounging before I attempt to get back to work. Getting up and out will be a good step in the direction of getting stronger!

Until next time, thanks for keeping up and I’ll be back soon!

Wednesday – April 15th, 2015

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I woke up feeling not so refreshed to Hozier’s, Cherry Wine at 7 on the dot. Another not so good night of sleep of which I am getting quite tired of. (pun?) 

We were off to Chapel Hill for the first check up since surgery. Osty stayed home… he wasn’t feeling great (I think it was something he ate.) I was excited to hear first hand that I was progressing in a timely manner. That all the small hiccups along the way were normal and to hang in there.

The three hour drive went fast with the help of some Pandora and Nick Offerman’s book Paddle Your Own Canoe. 

The doctor came in (30 minutes late) with nothing but positive things to say. He actually is a real good guy and definitely helps put my mind at ease regarding the speed of my recovery and everything that goes along with it. They sent my colon out to make sure it was in fact colitis and not crohns… The results were what we expected, it was in fact a severe case of colitis. No crohns. No cancerous cells. All good news. The stitches were removed…this hurt. Way more than I expected. He reinforced the fact that I was real sick and that it would take time to get healthy again. That patience was important. We scheduled an appointment for a month from now to check progress and discuss the next surgery. That was that. We left and I decided I needed to empty my bag. This was the first time I’d be emptying my bag outside my house. A bit intimidating, especially given the fact I didn’t have any wet wipes with me. In short, things were fine. It just took a bit longer using just toilet paper…don’t forget your wet wipes..ever! 

 

Half way home now. I just had to blow my nose for the first time… I didn’t have the strength to blow, so there’s that. I’m going to try and sleep. When I get home, I’m going to stuff my face.  I’ll check in tomorrow or the next day. Until then, thanks for continuing to keep up with the recovery. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out! 

Tuesday – April 14th, 2015

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I woke up feeling pretty good. I had a bit of a headache again as I tried to fall asleep last night. I was tired of not sleeping, so I took an Oxy. It took a little bit for me to get to sleep but once I did I stayed asleep until 6. I had to pee. My bag was fuller than I had expected given I emptied before bed… so I emptied it too. I went back to bed and woke up around 9. I received sample bags yesterday that were a bit different than the bags I’ve been using since surgery. This one is more aesthetically pleasing as it is not see through, I liked the idea of that. I was worried about throwing a wrench in what was already something I wasn’t 100% comfortable doing. The instructions made it seem like it was similar enough process that I was confident it was worth giving it a try.

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Before we get to the changing of the bag, I’d like to mention one thing I have not yet mentioned that is important. I’ve read on multiple forums and online more than anyone had mentioned to me in the hospital about passing “mucous” from your rectum sometimes. This is absolutely true. It happens. Almost every morning I have the urge not to necessarily go to the bathroom, but I know that I have to sit down on the toilet. There’s no need to push or force anything, just sitting a bit will allow it to drip out and that’ll be that, but it does happen more often than I had thought it was going to happen, so be prepared, and don’t worry if it happens.

I got out of the shower, and began. It took me a bit longer than I had hoped to get the bag off with the adhesive remover. I figure this is because it hasn’t been that long since my last bag change and the adhesive is still stronger than it would normally be. I can tell I am getting a bit better about handling and touching my stoma, but definitely still have a long way to go. Eventually, the new bag was on. My initial opinion. Not happy. I had to lie down for a second once it was on because I felt a tiny bit dizzy, and was trying to avoid another passing out episode…I couldn’t risk waking up to my dad in his underwear twice in one week. It passed, but I still was a bit uneasy about how well the bag was stuck to my skin. One of the most important steps is to push firmly around the stoma to make sure the circular part of the bag that sticks to the skin is pressed hard against the adhesive to avoid leaks. Because I cannot see through the bag it was hard to get my fingers in and around the stoma completely. I did my best and covered the stoma with my hand for five minutes to allow for the adhesive to melt a bit. The only other thing I’ll say about these bags is that the adhesive that sticks to the skin is much more uncomfortable than the other bag. It’s a bit bigger so it sticks to more skin and the material seems to be a bit stickier, what I fear may be a bit more painful when it comes to take it off… we’ll see.

i ate some breakfast, waffles, fruit loops, and a bagel, and went back to bed for a few hours. I wanted to sleep a little more today than usual because sleep is important and I feel I haven’t been getting the amount of rest I should be. I woke up at around 2 and was feeling pretty good. My stomach around the stoma was a bit sore and I never know if that is just from the surgery or me being at it more than usual today. That will be something I ask the surgeon tomorrow at my first check up since surgery. Also, because I’m paranoid of a leak every unfamiliar pain or feeling when I maneuver I am scared is a problem. Ugh! The Stress. I’m looking forward to the appointment and hopefully getting the stitches out of my incision. It will be nice to hear from him that things look good, that I am progressing nicely, and all my concerns are normal concerns that will fade with time. That’s tomorrow though, today I’ll continue to worry, it’s just my nature.

Saturday – April 11th, 2015 – Second Bag Change

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I went into this bag change in a much better place than the first time. I was going to take a shower before I changed the bag but as I was emptying I noticed a tiny leak in the top left side of the bag. As the adhesive thins away and the days go on it becomes more of a possibility for that to happen.

Just make sure you keep an eye on it and change  as soon as you notice a leak. I sat down on the chair we placed in the bathroom and with my home nurse (mom) at my side, we got to work. In short, things went better,  much better. It took only about 30 minutes, if that. There was some slight redness on my skin above my stoma. Nothing too serious but I put a small amount of powder on to make sure it wouldn’t get worse. All of these supplies will be mentioned and given to you before you leave the hospital. You’ll feel confident you have everything you need. I did notice a tiny line that kind of circled around the top of the stoma that looked like a bruise. For the rest of the day I mentioned a couple of times that my stomach felt a bit more sore than usual around the stoma. I figured it was because it was just because I was pressing around the area more than usual. It was nothing terrible or unbearable, just a bit more than usual. I hopped in the shower and this time took a shower that actually was refreshing. I was still a bit careful getting everything wet, for no reason other than I was just nervous because it was the first time getting the bag so wet. I got into some comfortable clothes, walked downstairs (by myself) and found a place next to Osty on the couch. I continued eating and drinking and let time do it’s healing.