My first leak ever....and it was a doozy!

So I have been pretty proud of myself since getting my ileostomy--I had not had ANY problems with the bags of wafers I was using at all. My wafer stuck well for up to a week, the bags I use worked well, etc. No One leak ever since getting my bag!

Well, last night I made the mistake of eating a big bowl of ice cream before bed (I couldn't resist). I am usually a VERY light sleeper, and always seem to wake up whenever my bag gets about halfway full in the night so that I can empty it. However, yesterday I was so exhausted from working late the past 3 days in a row, so when I went to sleep, I slept hard through most of the night until I suddenly woke up--

Picture this: I am still half asleep and laying on my left side, and I reached down to feel if my bag was full out of habit--but THERE WAS NO BAG THERE! A shot of adrenaline went through me as I realized I was feeling just my little stoma through my shirt and Nothing covering it!! I wanted to jump out of bed, but I very carefully (did not want to make any more of a mess) turned on my light and saw that the entire bag had detached, and it was sitting on the bed and leaning against my belly VERY full and as I said, NOT Attached! It must have literally blown off due to too much gas built up in it!!!! (A few times, I have woke up with my bag like a balloon, and I always wondered if it would/could ever truly pop off....well, it can!)

The good news was that the bag actually stayed sitting upright (which I still can't believe), so not much actually leaked out onto my bed/sheets. I somehow managed to carry the bag by the top of it to the bathroom without spilling anything on the floor, but all my clothes I had to trash....I also had to wake up my husband and say "babe I need to change the sheets!" at 4:00 in the morning. :( He joked about it and helped my change them. He is a wonderful man. :)

Summer--I read in one of your posts that you have a waterproof thing under you when you sleep--I just got one today to give me peace of mind! :)

I can't believe I go from no leaks ever to my whole bag being blown off in my bed...! I actually keep laughing to myself--mainly because of how horrified I was when I woke up--about the whole thing. :) What are you going to do, you know?

:)

Just had to share here, because there is no way in H*** that I would ever tell this story to anyone else!

-E

Post Edited (LittleE) : 12/12/2008 7:32:07 PM (GMT-7)

LittleE--Yikes! sounds like it could have been worse...how did we all get so lucky with such great husbands?! I have only had to wake mine up once and he was SO great about it too!!

You also just reminded me why I only eat three spoonfuls of ice cream at nite!!!

i dont think anyone should eat that many blueberries, lol.

Blue stuff is awful and it makes the worst smell, like if you eat blue icing or something.

Little E that is quite the story! That would be so distressing, there is noway i would be able to sleep after that.
I bought a set of cheap white sheets (that's what color is almost always on my bed) and cut them to fit the pads and then sewed it on top of pad, so that it would be like sleepign on the sheet and i wouldn't feel it at all. It is much more comfy that way. I washed those sheets a bunch of times before i sewed them on so that they would be softer, i didn't wash the pads anymore than necessary. And sew the sheets on a little bigger than the pad, i'm not sure how this happens,but the sheet seems to shrink like after a while.

Erin,
The way you told that story was so funny! Reaching down and the pouch was gone... Oh my... I'm glad it has only happened to you once and that you can laugh about it!
Cecilia