Long update on me and several questions/need advice!

Ok so its been a while since I posted so forgive the length!

So I'm back at home at last! After 3 weeks in the hospital and another 4 and a half at my parent's place (my poor poor fiance) we are back at our apartment safely 100 miles away, lol. I still have one very malodorous jackson pratt drain in my rear from the original abscess that sent me reeling into the hospital for two and half weeks. However its showing great signs of improvement, especially now that I'm officially off prednisone! There are some downsides however: I've picked up a lovely yeast infection according to my WOCN nurse. She gave me a script for some powder that will treat the skin (which is so itchy I've scratched until I've bled in my sleep). I've applied it once and so far it gave me relief for about a day, oi. Anyway, I'm also trying those new moldable wafers by convatec, and so far I'm not really impressed. Sure its nice not to have to cut, but I've had two leaks in the past week within 12 to 24 hours of its application. It may be my own doing however, seeing as I still warm the wafer by hand after its applied; I also might have ordered a size to large, seeing as I can only mold the tiniest fraction of an inch around the circle before the hole becomes to big for my stoma. I still have pain in my rear from the drain, and in my abdomen, but its much improved in the last two weeks.

All this aside, I was able to attend an Obama rally the other day. I must say it was amazing being able to stand/sit in line for over two hours and not have a panic attack because there wasn't a bathroom in sight! I also was able to sit through the whole rally without having to sprint to the can, which was AWESOME. Hehe, its the little things right? I do have some questions though, now that I'm more mobile and active:

1) How do you guys position your seatbelts so they don't choke your stoma from being able to output? No matter what car I'm in, the seatbelt always seems to sit right on it. In my own car I just have a rag that I place near the bag and it props the belt up...but I'm at a loss as to what I should do in other cars.

2) My wedding is coming up and I'm schedule for a massage on our honeymoon. Has anyone figured out a way to lie on their stomach completely and not feel uncomfortable? Especially for a massage!

3) This kind of goes with number 2. Sleeping at night seems like a big deal these days. After laying on propped up on my back in the hospital I can finally sleep on my side, and very carefully (with lots of pillows) partially on my stomach. However all of my leaks have happened at night. Right now I'm trying to stop this by using the bathroom everytime I wake up (about 3-4 a night) and eating something like bread or marshmellows when I'm done using the bathroom (to keep the bile and acidity down aka: "the green stuff" that appears in the morning when you haven't eaten all night). This stuff seems to eat my wafer alive, and causes the leaks at night. I can't describe how frustrating that is, but this system will only work until school and my job starts up. Anyone have any suggestions on sleeping positions or how to keep the watery acid stuff out of my bag at night?

ps: I know my signature is out of date but I don't feel like rewriting this after changing it! :p

heyhey.  the seatbelt--i found some plastic dealie at an automotove store.  basically it clamps onto the belt at whatever location you choose.  i have it clamped so that there's lots of slack on the part of the belt that goes across the stoma.  it cost $4.99 for two i think.  works great.  even with that, i've noticed i rarely even wear my belt since i had the surgery....but that's just me.

--matt

I used to just move the seatbelt under my stoma, sometimes it would move back up, just you just need to loosen it a bit and re ajust it. With the massage, ask if they have a pregnancy table, it's a table with a whole in it, that they use on pregnant women for the belly to lay in. That way your stoma won't get flatenned and you will feel a lot more comfortable.

Carlow, I read in an Ostomy Brochure, that you should wear the seatbelt either below your stoma or over the top.

As for the leaking, I did have trouble with the moldable Convatec too. I thought it was a fantastic invention, but it definately molded too far up my stoma. My stoma sticks up about a 1/2 inch, but I still went with a light convexity, pre-cut flange. It works wonderfully - no more leaks! Coloplast makes a terrific 1 piece or two piece called Sensura. You should contact Coloplast and get a free sample. Do you know your stoma size? If you do, you can order pre-cut ones and never have to worry about cutting. With the light convexity, it will push the stoma count a bit more and the drainage will go more into the bag instead of sitting near your stoma. This will help prevent the leaks, especially at night. Belts help with leakage problems too.

i haven't even noticed a problem with the seat belt. But, as a suggestion, there is this thing, called the "tiddy bear" (yes that's is real name) i saw it on ellen, and it is sort of a cushion thing for your seatbelt, it might help you.
I sleep on my stomach and lay on my stomach in the tanning bed, like they said though, that won't work with a full bag. At night, i sleep on a pad, i sewed a sheet on to the top of it, and it feels just like the bed, only it's waterproof and it makes me feel secure so i don't worry about leaks

Ok,

So I went and bought a whole bunch of clothespins and they work wonders for the seat belt issue! No more blocked stoma! However with every small victory something has to go wrong to accompany it. While the yeast infection looks better, I still get some itchies throughout the day which are not so bad...but at night I find myself really trying not scratch after having to get up to empty my bag. I'm still getting up every three or four hours to prevent a leak b/c I'm still using the stomahesive convatec wafers. The durahesive wafers are here and I tried two samples with disastrous results yesterday. It seems my stoma is just a shade to big for the smaller size I ordered and it has also reduced in height on two sides. So, the convexity and small size has led to the wafer "turtlenecking" up and over my stoma it seems... causing it to leak. For now its back to the stomahesives, hopefully the pharmacy will take my unopened box back and I can switch them out quickly as I'm down to two wafers. Anyone need some durahesive convex moldables in the smallest size? lol. Oh, and this jp drain is still hanging out, driving me crazy w/o any help from my ostomy issues. Who knows when its coming out. Soon I hope. Finally, my fiance bought me an I-pillared leg pillow the other, its great for side sleepers who hate using bed pillows to prop their leg up at night. I highly recommend them to anyone who has this problem!