Posted 4/21/2014 3:54 AM (GMT 0)
divo,
even though my wife is a very qualified nurse, even she had a serious learning curve at first, becoming my stoma nurse. most stomas are "outies", and most of the devices are designed with that in mind. always having to be different, lol, mine was an "innie", because the surgeon miscalculated the length of the conduit for the Urostomy.
finding a suitable device for a convex stoma was difficult, and took a lot of trial and patience. in the early days, if we could a device from leaking for 2-4 hours we were lucky. even our assigned stoma nurse, who was so great and caring, became frustrated.
Hollister made the perfect device for me, and ever since then, we use the same thing. on the average, we change it out every sunday. perhaps 3-4 times a year, it will fail after 3-5 days without reason. I have learned to replace them myself, but its much harder, because I have to stand in front of a mirror, and try to balance and line up everything correctly. plus instead of being round or mostly oval, my stoma is almond shape, which means my wife has to pre-cut the hole ahead of time, and since the stoma can change size, sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller, each device has to be cut custom each time.
sounds like you are doing well on your end, and I hope Pete continues to see steady, even if it is slow, improvement with his new life as an Ostomy patient ( a double one in his case). Urine is so corrosive, that it can eat through a device pretty quick.
another minor tip, if you don't know this already, is to buy some of what they call "pink tape". its perfect if a side or edge of a device starts to loosen up or just doesn't fit right, and it will not come loose if it gets wet or moist. don't use it often, but I keep a roll handy, especially in the hotter months when moisture in general is more common.
Happy Easter to you and yours as well
David