Hi! Today my stoma is one week old, however he still remains nameless. I had a lot of problems with leaking in the hospital, my bag leaked 4 times in 3 days and had to be changed. The appliance that's on there right now has made it a record 48 hrs, i used a smaller flange and eakin seal and i think that has made a difference. I noticed this morning that I can see the seal kind of poking up and around my stoma in a ring, does this mean that it's just melting and getting pushed out a bit or does it mean that it's breaking down? I can kind of feel a tickling sensation every now and then but I'm not sure if this is normal or if it means maybe something is leaking a bit? My outpit is really watery for the most part but I haven't been eating very much so I think that may be why. I know that it's supposed to be fine to tuck the bag into your clothes but it makes me really nervous for some reason, i feel like it might obstruct the flow and cause a leak, i've been wearing the pouch outside my clothes and a really long shirt but i'm thinking this is not really practical. I think I just need to get a little more used to things, at the moment I get paranoid every time I feel my stoma being active that it's leaking. I'll try to relax Sorry for the long post!

Hi Pixie,

I don't have much experience with how the eakin seals break down because I use moldable wafers which don't need them but I'm sure someone will be along soon who can advise you.

As for the tickling, does it feel like it's coming from the skin around your stoma or the stoma itself? If it's a sort of tickle when the stoma is active it may just mean that you are sensitive to these new sensations of your bowel moving. If the tickling is more of an itch and coming from the surrounding skin then that sounds like irritation caused by stool leaking underneath your wafer.

Wear whatever it takes to feel comfortable. However I would suggest that you try wearing your bag tucked into your underwear (have you got any with a high waist panties or boxers with lycra?) as this will help to support your system and stop the wafer from pulling on your skin (thus undermining the seal) when your bag starts to fill. Try wearing the bag at an angle across your tummy as it makes tucking it into your underwear a little easier and also helps to spread the load.

You'll soon get the hang of this and find what works best for you. If you have any problems just yell, we are all here to help in whatever way we can.

Take care and good luck.

Shell

whenever I used Eakin seals they always kinda "melted" and molded around my stoma. Kinda made it look like he was wearing a turtle-neck
I got 7 days between changes with the seals and often had very water output so I know they don't break down that fast. You could still have a leak, but I'd think you'd notice. although I didn't get a tickling sensation, if a little stool was on my skin or my skin was irritated I always got ITCHY and knew it was time for an appliance change (sometimes I'd still put it off a day or so! )
hope that helps

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katie

Well, i did my first complete change today! I think it went okay, even though it was morning my stoma was being a bit active which was mildly annoying but I think everything went fairly well. My skin looked a bit red and there were some little areas of irritation but I used a bit of powder. I can still feel the tickle every now and then, I think I'm just uber-sensitive to what it going on down there!