showering w/ no appliance

Well done in taking this step!! I hope it went ok for you?
I always shower without my bag on, I've done it since I came home from hospital. But I remember my first couple of times doing it, I was so nervous - I barely let any water touch my stoma, so I know what you were feeling! Now I don't even think about it when showering & feel much cleaner. My nurses have all said that it's really nice for your skin to just let water run over everything.
I hope your kidney & bladder infection clears up soon.
And keep on celebrating the excitement with the little things, they're all big things at the start!! :)

Woot woot!!! It's the best shower of the week for me....I use a lot of water that day! I love it too!

Way to go!

Sunny13
Thank you for bringing that up as I've not had a bare shower for over 3 years or even thought about it tbh , I must try that sometime as I imagine it would be weird but nice.

The first time, I actually put a garbage bag next to the shower (i was already a mess from a massive blowout, middle of the night!!), and took the appliance out in the bathtub before turning on the shower. Less messy sort of. had paper towels and another plastic bag ready for post showering to clean it off and hold the bag over my stoma as it continued to spout. pretty tough getting the new appliance on though. really tough. i like the idea of marshmallows!

Really does feel good, after getting over SOME of my fear/anxiety. I think for me, it was not even so much having the water on it as it was just having the darn appliance off for a bit. Sometimes I feel like a prisoner and that skin will never be free again. But, have to remember that it's certainly better than life was before I had it, and that it really was not so much a choice but a necessity.

I'm too scared to shower without mine ..it's been almost three years

I agree with Eva!! There is nothing to be scared of, the water will feel so nice. You do feel so much cleaner, I don't like when I've to change without showering, I try jump into the shower for even a couple of minutes, just to clean around my stoma. There's no need to worry about getting soap or shampoo touching it either, my nurse assured me that it's fine, it's diluted enough & everything just runs off. And if it does start outputting in the shower, you're in the best place for it! You can just let it run down the drain and then clean yourself off.
If it is extremely active, it does take a bit longer, as Eva said. But just make sure you've all of your supplies set out before you go in, and have on hand plenty of swabs/toilet paper/tissues/whatever you use, along with a rubbish bag to throw it in (if they aren't flushable). You won't regret it!!