Appliance Question - What are we doing wrong?

I don't know a whole bunch but from my uneducated guess I would say he definitely needs something that is convex. I don't have that problem....mine sticks out. There are people on here that use the flanges with convexity and I am sure they will provide some better advice.

Do you think you should just use the convex wafer and no additional ring...I am assuming you are also using an eakin seal or adapt ring? Maybe just the convexity of the wafer with a flush stoma will work better?

LOL... am I just not making sense? :D I am asking about the adapt ring that appears to be swelling into the stoma opening (as seen in the picture). Are we not supposed to use the entire ring? Should you roll it in your hands and make it into a string? We have just been applying it as is and fitting around the hole on the wafer.

I don't see how you could use the bag without the adapt ring... when he lays down and sleeps all the stuff would just sit up at the base of the stoma and wouldn't it still irritate the skin?

His skin isn't awful at this point... we have been treating it and it starts to get lighter pink but then today when he leaked, it got to a new area of skin and then made that red.

How would we even go see an ostomy nurse? We had a home health program when he got out of the hospital but they discharged him and we don't have access to them anymore... can you just go to the hospital and ask to see the ostomy nurse?

Also, does he use water to clean out the bag at all? I know you aren't supposed to and I used to but i noticed it would make the ring swell up more.

Aloha Amythyst,
I think that you should get professional help. The stoma is so close to the belly button, you don't have much room for the ring.
Joe

Your surgeon should have a WOCN or at least be able to put in a referral to one for you. In my situation if you don't have a referral to the WOCN they will not see you - you can't just call up and make an appointment basically, but each insurance is different.

That seems like a LOT of barrier ring coming through - how big are you cutting the hole on the baseplate? It shouldn't be that much larger than the stoma - I am 7/8" and when I draw my circle I cut on the OUTSIDE of the line I've drawn and that gives me just the right amount of space.

I know each body is different but I think you will find many here say that "less is more" when it comes to products. I took that advice and haven't had an issue in so many months I can't even count - knock on wood. The rings didn't work for me so I got rid of them and just use a small ring of paste around the opening and it's good to go.

I hope you get it figured out, I know how frustrating the early days can be - but know that it does get better!

Ok, we just changed it ... his skin actually looks a little better today... its more pink than bright red. We cut the opening of the wafer a little smaller this time. Only to the 25mm line and didn't go past it at all... maybe we were making the hole too big.

Also, we took the ring and cut in half and I rolled it in my hand into a string and then put that around the hole on the wafer. When we took off the bag from yesterday the ring had just swelled way too big...so maybe we were just using too much of it.

So, hopefully this will work better...we shall see. :)

Ummm.. not sure about the color code but I believe it is the smallest one. When we had the home health nurse, he said we could cut past the "do not cut past" line. But, today when we changed I did not cut past the line... his stoma appears to have shrank enough that it fits fine now.

The ring has come inside his wafer hole again...but not nearly as much as last time, its just slightly covering his stoma now. His output is coming out just fine though and its nice and thick for a change.

I'm thinking we may need to put the ring just a little farther back from the edge of the wafer hole... does that sound right? Then when it expands, it shouldn't come inside the area by his stoma so much. Only using half of the ring seems to have worked a lot better though.

Hi
The barrier rings,eakin seals, whatever you want to call them always turtleneck up through the hole and around my stoma. It used to freak me out, but it has never caused a problem- knock on wood-. If output is getting on the skin, maybe the hole is too large around the stoma. Sometimes the ring totally covers my stoma after a couple of days, but the output always gets through. I have an ileostomy, maybe a colostomy is different

amythyst.. seems you should probably remeasure his stoma and then cut the wafer hole opening according. Sure looks like that wafer hole is way too large. So use the paper thingy with the circles that comes with his ostomy supplies. Find the size of circle that fits over the stoma close, but not tight. The paper edges should almost touch the stoma. Then that is the size of the hole you need in the wafer. His stoma has proabably shrank since surgery. It usually shrinks about the first 2months.

You can buy pre-cut wafers for the exact size of the stoma opening you need. Makes life way easier than cutting each time. Let me know if you need help with codes, etc.. for ordering. It looks like you are using coloplast and I have mastered their coding, color system!

Then with the adapt rings or eakin seals, not sure which ones you are using.... smash one of them to the back of the wafer. Stretch the hole of the ring to come just to the edge of the whole of the opening on the wafer, and just every so slightly up into the rim/edge of the wafer hole. Just every ever so slightly. Then take that whole thing and put it on. You want the ring to come up and "turtleneck" a bit as that is what is going to give him a good seal and prevent leakage.

Then put the bag on. Heat up the wafer/rings contraption with a low setting on the blow dryer for a few minutes. And you are done.

So to summarize... the most important thing to do is to remeasure that stoma and get or cut the appropriate opening size into the wafer.

Post Edited (ddd45) : 12/5/2012 7:23:01 AM (GMT-7)

Thanks guys! He does use Hollister and he has been using a belt since the beginning. We have also been using convex for the last two months. The convex and the belt do help a lot... I notice that when we apply the wafer and then the belt that the stoma just magically pokes out more. So, yea they are really handy!

I do think we were cutting the wafer hole a little too large... I scaled it back a bit on the last change we did and so far no leaks...yay! I'm hoping we can go till Friday without changing. We hated that bridge he had in there...but I guess we got used to it because it seems his pouching was much easier when he had the bridge!

We also cut back on the amount of adapt ring that we used ..instead of the whole thing we only used half of it and this time I rolled it in my hand into a string and then put it around the wafer. It still turtlenecked a little too much into the wafer hole but I think if we move it back just a bit from the edge of the wafer hole, then it should turtleneck less.

I thank everyone for their suggestions! I'm hoping his skin looks better when we change it next...that will be the test!

Thank you!