Barrier leakage...what am I doing wrong?

Ever since I tried using the rings instead of the paste things got messy. The ring caused stool to leak out under the barrier and my skin became irritated. Then I started using the stoma powder and was told to use it along with StinGone protective barrier wipes. Hollister said not to use the wipes as they interfere with the adhesive. I also noticed that Coloplast's barrier isn't very wide. They did give me some barrier tape. Guess I should start using these.

So how do I take care of the skin irritation and leaky barrier?

I had to change a bag twice today as the adhesive came loose at the bottom and stool started leaking out! This was interesting as we were 20 miles from home at a restaurant! We hurried through dinner and made a mad dash to Target for scissors and water proof tape to use as a temp fix. Guess I'll be carrying this in my purse for now on! The embarrassing part was while in the ladies room, people kept opening my stall door instead of first knocking or checking under the door if it was occupied! Those lock aren't very good in those doors and I was trying to balance cutting tape with stool leaking from my barrier all at the same time! I didn't have an extra hand for the door being pushed in!

So any one else have any embarrassing stories to add? lol

My stoma sticks out just fine. While I was changing I was standing over a bucket and missed some stool coming out and it dropped right in the bucket! Also the stool is peanut butter / applesauce thick.

Also my stoma is starting to shrink. I started out a 1 1/4...last week I was 1 1/8. Now I barely fit 1 in. I feel I still need the wiggle room of the 1 1/8. I'm sticking to the paste for now as it's more flexible in filling in the gaps as my stoma size changes. Gee...how long does it take for the stoma size to stabilize? How often do you check the stoma size?

If you have skin irritation from leaks you must take care of that before it gets worse. What works for me is to put on stoma powder, blow it off, and then pat it with a barrier wipe. Only doing this where the irritation is. You can "crust it up" by doing this several times.

Also did you put the rings onto the wafer or directly onto your skin. I have had far greater success by putting the rings or seals.. directly onto the wafer and smashing them all around. Also there are several kinds of rings you may have better success with one verse another.

Lastly... stomas seem to change shape for about 2 months post surgery. So keep measureing weekly.

And ALWAYS keep a kit with you.. just in case. wafer (pre-cut it), bag, papertowels, hand sanitizer, tape. Also look iinto brava barrier strips. A bit easier to use than tape for when the wafer edges start to pull up.
good luck

What you are describing is all normal for this early, stoma-shrinking phase. I think mine lasted 3 weeks, and then it was more or less smooth-sailing with just a few leaks here and there. This is what I did with the eaken ring: I widened the inner hole to be a bit smaller than the hole I cut in the wafer.Then, I put the rink on the wafer and pushed the endes up into the hole, forming a kind of turtle-neck, so that it pretty much sealed off the base of the stoma and a bit upwards. This helped me a lot because it took up any empty space and compensated for stoma movement. Good luck and don't worry, you will figure out what works for you and the system will become stable for you.

By the way, whoever pushes a bathroom door open without knocking or asking,  deserves whatever they hear from the person inside, which appropriately would be in the direction of eff-the-eff-off.

P.s. I did a whole blog post on my "process". It is lengthy b/c I describe EVERYTHING and provide very minute detail (my non-ostomate friends wanted to know how everything works!) you can see it here http://detouredfashion.blogspot.com/2012/09/q-what-is-process.html

Aloha Peace&Harmony,

I've had less than 3 months with my uro-ostomy, so I'm still learning. So far I know that using less is best. The rings were also sorta messy for me.

I find myself going back to paste & cut to fit (still changing size). I use a mild soap & washrag to clean the parastoma skin & stoma sides, shave/cut hairs, rinse & dry skin, stoma powder, brush off excess, apply paste to wafer, apply to stoma, hold in place with both hands for a minute.

A major problem is keeping urine off the clean/dry skin. If it dribbles or pisses, I clean & dry & apply stoma powder again, especially the sides of the stoma (don't want to get mucus under wafer/paste when I put it on).

This last appliance has been on for nine days. I'm ether lucky or finally getting the procedure correct. Four to 6 days was my best as I started to get active again.

Hang in there,
Joe

I had same problem before they revised my stoma and I used a convex wafer without rings. I used stoma powder skin protectant and layered it 3 times...used paste around stoma before placing wafer...my wafer have a place for a belt which was absolutely neccesary before my revision.

I clean my skin very well and dry it carefully. I apply the powder every time I change the appliance and use paste on the barrier. I've never used the barrier wipes. I've had my stoma 6 years and never had so much as an abbration on my skin.

Sometimes I think there's a little matter of quality control when these things are manufactured. I have had 2 fail in one night - that can't be just me - that's got to be a design flaw or manufacturing foul up. IMO