First leak ever on my five month anniversary

Liz, Sounds like you did great..... and as upsetting as an experience like that was, it's not something that you have to fear in the same way anymore -- you know you can handle it. I understand the weird pride.

Hope you can figure out something so something like this is less likely in the future, though.

Sounds like you handled it great! I'm sure it brought back some bad memories tho! How many times have we all been in a full blown attack or bad accident in a single stall restroom with people impatiently editing outside? Yikes! But you got through it and kept things together!

Wow Liz I am impressed...you did awesome!

It is so much easier for the gals with larger purses to keep a change handy. I am not always with hubby to tote a fast emergency change for him. He tries to wear the weekender cargo type shorts with all the pockets and can keep a set up in there. I am afraid he may get caught one of these days alone since it is over 2 1/2 years and he has only had one or two leaks in the early stages and was home at the time. You tend to become a bit careless as time goes on and not even give it a second thought. We have a change in the car in the off chance he or I don't have one on us and try to remember to rotate it so it doesn't disintegrate...lol

Thanks guys :) This was really the Cadillac of emergency change bathrooms. They had a big tray of really soft paper towels laid out on the counter next to the sink... just like I set up for a change at home, LOL. Of course in my haste I placed the wafer wayyy off center so once I got home I had to do a SECOND change. There is a ring of irritated skin around my stoma, I crusted it but it was tough because my stoma decided to spit out a lot of pure liquid while I was working. I feel horrible because I feel like I've visited her so many times and wasted her time over and over, but I may go see my WOCN again tomorrow so she can evaluate things and do a GOOD change.

BTW I just realized I have my surgery dates in my signature and yesterday was obviously NOT my five month anniversary, hahaha. My mom made fun of me so much for not being able to do basic math. It was actually my 20 week anniversary, so I translated that into five months... not exactly right.

blueglass- I'm hoping it was caused by my newly thickened output combined with too tight jeans I had upped my Imodium dose up to the max (eight per day) so I am going to experiment today with slightly fewer (maybe six or seven instead of eight). Everyone told me by this far post-op I couldn't expect any natural increase in thickness, but that might not be so.

UC wife- I'm SO lucky, I went so long without needing that spare change that I've considered taking it out of my purse to save room many times. It was only last week that I realized the wafer was still pre-cut to the size of my old stoma (way too big) and swapped it out. My brother wears an insulin pump so he has to carry lots of supplies too and he always wears those cargo shorts I tell him they are out of style, but I have to tease him because I'm a little sister... Anyway, I am repacking my spare change bag and I think from now on I am going to carry an extra black tank top, a thin one that folds up very small, just in case I ruin my shirt. I got a few stains on my shirt yesterday, luckily it was black and the cafe was dim so I don't think it was noticeable.

UCw- Nope, no reheating! I think they were pretty mad at me for monopolizing the only toilet... oh well, good riddance. While you're sleeping sounds scarier I almost sent my boyfriend away last night because I was so nervous I would leak on him during the night, but instead I just woke up out of stress like every hour to check for leaks. Haha.

Say hi to your mom for me and thanks!! Argh, you reminded me I really need to update my blog... too much writing here, not enough there

Closing the loop on this one... Just came from visiting with my WOCN. She thinks that the blowout was most likely caused by a partial blockage, resulting in a bolus of output being pushed out with force, hence the major blowout. She said she's never seen any leakage on my skin (today's change included -- seal was holding the line like a pro) so it was almost definitely something pushing out with force, not a slow seeping sort of thing.

Incidentally I had another partial blockage yesterday morning (had to lay around chugging apple juice for a while after my output stopped for about five hours) so I think there is definitely something going on. I'll admit I haven't been following the low residue diet to a tee (I've been eating 'lightly cooked' veggies like tomatoes on panini, etc) but didn't expect it to cause blockages like this. Might be too much Imodium, might be adhesions. I'm easing off from eight Imodium per day to six for now. As annoying as the liquid output was, I never had a leak and I didn't get dehydrated either, so maybe that's preferable. I'm also going to try wearing the dreaded belt until I feel more 'secure' again...

And that's the end of that!

Aw, that is very kind of you to say Kim. Believe me, I was not always like this -- sometimes I think God gave me UC to make me an optimist, as backwards as that sounds. You've gotta laugh so you won't cry, right?

Good luck next week -- please start your own thread and let us know how you do!!

Liz I can't help but notice you saying you are taking Imodium... Is this something I should be taking? I have an ileostomy and am just waiting to have my second of three surgeries to create the j-poch. I kind of thought Imodium would be for after all three surgeries were complete to thicken BM's once using the j-pouch ?..... Sorry just very new to the world of ostomies and am not sure LOL

I have only done step 1 of 3 (and for now indefinitely- eg forever- just sticking it out with the end ileo as I dont particularly want a jpouch) but I am using immodium, not to thicken the stool though (my consistency is generally good- thick mush the way I like it, even though it means more squeezing when I empty) , but simply to reduce the frequency of having to empty it. Right now I have settled on 3 immodiums a day, evenly spaced out- seems to get me the desirable (well, desirable vs say 10-12+) 6 or so emptyings a day, including sometimes (but not always- it depends on if I eat a lot late at night) one at night and, of course, one on waking in the morning. The night one never bothers me because I am usually up at least once in the night to pee, a product of my aggressive hydration.

Post Edited (Probiotic) : 6/12/2013 1:06:44 PM (GMT-6)