Hi all, hoping someone has some suggestions.

I've had a temp illeostomy for about six weeks now and I'm having huge problems. I’ve never had a typical leak (output on the skin) but I seem to dissolve the material that the barrier is made of. The liquefied material starts to work it’s way down and ooze out the bottom of the tape. I then end up changing the whole thing.

The stoma nurses were pretty mystified but then thought it might be fluid oozing from the area underneath my stoma - the skin doesn’t come right up to the stoma and there’s a ‘gap’ there. I agree with them as whenever I take off the appliance it looks as if the barrier has been melted in this area. Although by this time, as the skin heals, I assumed it would have started to dry up.

I’m using barrier wipes, convatec durahesive moldable barriers an Eakins ring and a belt. I’ve tried convex moldable barriers (once) no noticeable difference, I tried coloplast sensura(once) and clear fluid oozed out the bottom after several hours. I tried stoma powder in the area and that seemed to make it ooze more. After putting on an appliance I usually lie flat and use a heating pad for about 15 minutes.

In a good week I can get 3 days out of an appliance before the oozing starts but this weekend I’ve had to change 3 times and I’m starting to ooze again.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance

Eric

A loop has two openings. On my sons ostomy one of them is flush with his skin almost at the bottom of his stoma. I wouldnt have even known it was there if someone hadnt told me finally. It oozes a clear liquid and was causing his wafers to leak a lot. We now use an eakin and actually leave a little space between the inside of the eakin ring and the mucous fistula (second oepning). This way the fluid comes out and goes over the ring and into his bag instead of under the wafer. Hope this helps some.

Hi Laura,
That sure sounds like what's happening with me - oozing clear liquid that works it's way out the bottom of the wafer. I just assumed something was taking it's time healing underneath the stoma.

Thanks so much for the suggestion about the Eakins seal - I'm going to try it in about 15 minutes when I change this thing again(I almost made 24 hours this time)

Eric,

I can't wait to hear how you made out. I hope it helped.
We went from a very well behaved end ileo to a loop and i never understood why no one thought to mention that it has 2 openings to us. I had no idea where this "stuff" was coming from either. Very frustrating until i experimented with using the eakin and now we are doing pretty well. BTW, my son also sits on the toilet and passes the same clearish "stuff" (he calls it "butt stuff" ) via his rectum.