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Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
In your bag you've got lipstick,
In mine I've got poo.

Row of Handbags

Row of Handbags

Friday 8 May 2015

My First Blow-Out!

The first of two posts for today.

Shoshi has ARRIVED! She has had her first blow-out!

I had major problems this morning. I woke to find my first blow-out!!! It was very thick, fortunately, and hadn't penetrated beyond my nightie, but it was on my right hand, and one very strange thing – I wear 2 silver rings, one on my thumb and one on the 2nd finger, and both these had gone a dark copper colour as a result of the reaction with Kermit's output, but I've polished it off with silver cleaner and all is well again. When I was in Iceland all my silver jewellery went black from the sulphur fumes constantly in the air there from the volcanic activity, but this was a coppery brown with a few patches of blue-black which looked like blued steel. Interesting reaction between digestive enzymes and silver!

The top right of the bag as I look down had blown out and there was a great splodge of poo sticking out! When I got up and cleaned myself up, I noticed that the moat around Kermit had returned somewhat – it’s worse at the top when I'm standing, where my tummy is sagging a bit forward. So I've gone back with a Salts convex bag again. Thank goodness I'm seeing the stoma nurse this afternoon, so I'll be able to discuss the problem with her. I'm also very glad that each time I've changed the type of bag I'm using, I have kept the remaining ones and not returned them to the clinic.
It's a real pain in these early days when everything is still shifting about and one's shape keeps changing!! Sometimes I wish I was Tin Man and had a nice rigid stomach to stick the bag to.

I think part of the problem was that last evening my skin was itching, not immediately around Kermit (although of course the skin is quite irritated again this morning) but I'd put a banana flange on (Ostofix large frame from OstoMart) and I really don't like them – they are hard to get off even with adhesive spray remover, and they do seem more itchy than the bag, and I had peeled it back a tad so I could have a good scratch, and the edge of the bag came up too – I pressed it all back firmly but the seal in that place may have been a bit compromised. Also, yesterday at lunch time my hubby made us a huuuuge cheese omelette (I keep on to him about portion sizes but he keeps giving me too much food, and I can't get over the childhood injunction to "eat up everything on your plate" lol!) and I think the eggs may have bound me up a bit. The poo was quite thick (good thing, actually, or it would have spread much further) and it had pancaked a bit, and a lot of it was at the top of the bag, and the pressure probably caused the blow-out. So I'm not 100% convinced that the SenSura flat bag was the problem. I was lying down, of course, so it had no reason to flow to the bottom of the bag and keep Kermit clear.

One amazing thing – as I woke up I was vaguely aware of a slight poo smell and thought it was drifting along the landing from my hubby's bathroom. There was barely any smell at all. I am now using a combination of a short spray of 3% hydrogen peroxide and a fresh mint tic-tac in the bag each time I empty, and it really does eliminate the odour!

I am hoping eventually to be able to have the Trio silicone banana flanges from my supplier – these are so fantastic. They have backing paper on both sides, and after you've applied the banana flange, you remove the top backing paper to reveal an ultra-thin, highly flexible and transparent flange which is practically invisible and which moves with your skin. Their silicone products are amazing.

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