Are they dissolving or not??? Seems like they would have disappeared after five weeks if they were going to. The little shreds of suture material won't fluff up around the stoma, but rather they lay flat against my belly skin. Liquid stool travels up the thread and erodes the skin, and eventually causes a leak in the adhesive base plate. The sutures are about every 1/3" or so all around the diameter of the stoma, so there are plenty of little red burning spots. I'd hate to have to return to UCSF on that 3 hour trip: can my local doc remove them?

Otherwise I"m doing incredibly well - eating, gaining weight, cooking, being much more active. So appreciate everyone's pragmatic advice.

Barbara

Is it a temporary stoma?? I had little plastic suchers around my stoma for the 6 months i had it. A couple fell out but the doc said not to worry about it because it wouldnt be there for long.
As for the leaking try different sorts of pastes and seals till you find one that works. The suchers shouldnt be whats causing the leaking

Hi Ashkloff,

I appreciate your advice, but I'm sure it's the sutures. I have a permanent end ileo, so the sutures are the thread type, not plastic clips (I had those with one of my temporaries, too). They are just short of a quarter inch long, and so they keep the barriers, whether Eakin seals or hydrocolloid strips, or whatever I use, just barely off the skin surface. Liquid collects along the sutures and erodes the skin. They've gotta come out, and they must not be the dissolving kind if they are still intact after 5 weeks (all my other dissolving stitches are gone). My primary care doc is uncertain about what to do, and suggested I contact the NPractioner at my surgeon's office. I've done that and haven't heard from her in three days, which is why I was hoping someone here had experience of this sort. My appliance only lasts two days, and there is no other problem, so I'm sure it's the threads rather than anything inherent in the seals.

Barbara

Hi Barbara,

My stoma nurse eventually removed some of my more persistant sutures so I'm pretty sure your doctor or local stoma nurse could to. I would leave it one more week though because they are supposed to take about 6 weeks (or so I was told) to dissolve.

I have to say that the whole area felt so much better once all the sutures were gone. Just remember to put some powder on the holes if your doctor does removed them so that they can heal up nicely.

Good luck.

Shell

Thanks, Shell - once again, calm minds and time prevail. This morning it looks as though some of 'em have disappeared. I'll give it a little more time and know that my own doc could easily remove whatever is left then. Good advice about powdering the holes. By the way, I've been using the coloplast two piece the past two days, and I like it. Don't yet have the right convatek base that you use, but it's coming soon. With the Coloplast adhesive base I only use powder - they say that barrier wipe is unnecessary and may interfere with adhesion, so good to know and less to mess with!

Barbara