Today was the first day I changed my bag without the OT nurse. I had a fair amount of dried blood and fresh blood around the top of the wafer, in fact, it had caused the wafer to loosen from the skin. When I took the wafer off, more blood on my skin and the wafer was kind of crumpled looking. Should I be concerned, or does it look that this is just some kind of leak? I sort of panicked, got the new bag on wrong, didn't get the seals together good and IT leaked. So I am just sitting back and trying not to panic here. Any advice or is this a normal thing? I was on day 4 of the wafer.

Many people change their wafer on day 4 so that isn't anything you should be concerned about. When you cleaned up your skin how did it look? I'm assuming that the blood was from your skin being irritated. What sort of system are you using? If your skin is in bad shape I think that changing your wafer MORE often would be best, then you can keep and eye on your skin, keep it cleaned up, let it breathe a little.

If you're very concerned, DON'T PANIC but do give the ET nurse a call. Usually (well for me it was) a kind of service where they are on call and make house calls so they can come out and help/advise you even though its Saturday.

Keep us updated!

--
katie

Thanks Katie...the skin around the site looks really good. The bleeding was actually from the stoma, I think. It was at the top of the stoma and near my belly button. It didn't take any effort at all to get the wafer off, just kind of fell off and before I had to work at it. I still am not used to the slight blood that I see when I clean around the stoma so it does panic me. I use the Holister 2 piece system skin barrier with floating flange.

Hello. Everytime I changed my wafer there was always a little blood. Some came from the stoma. Although the stoma has no nerve endings there are many small capillaries and therefore the stoma itself can bleed very easy. As far as the skin, mine was always irritated. It was mostly the skin closest to the stoma. I tried my best to get the wafer opening to fit just right, but it always seemed to be irritated. For me I found the best results when I gave the area some breathing time. I would lie in the bed without the bag or wafer on (with extra cleaning supplies of course) Then I put on a lot of powder and then the spray barrier. You have to be sure you let it dry enough before you apply the wafer. I then applied the wafer and applied pressure for about a minute. The heat from your hands helps activate the adhesive on the wafer. I always could tell when I needed to change the wafer. I changed about every 3-4 days. I could always feel a little bit of pain around the stoma which indicated to me that stool was seeping through the opening. I was very nervous the first time I changed on my own. It does get easier and you do get more confident. Talk to your nurse as she can help you in a number of different ways. They can also supply you with different samples so you can try things without buying them. Good luck
Amanda

Yes, stomas do bleed easily and it should be nothing to worry about unless the bleeding does not stop. Probably the wafer was cut a little tight and was rubbing against the stoma causing it to bleed.
We use the same system - must be a CC thing
I'm glad your skin looks great, that can be very painful. As long as the stoma looks OK and the bleeding does stop I think you're gonna be fine! Keep your eye on it though.

Take care - Happy Easter!

--
katie

I had an allergic reaction to the adhesive on the wafer and that caused my skin to get all weepy. The wafer basically fell off. My ET nurse helped me deal with all that and we finally found a wafer and system that worked for me. The whole point of this is that if airing things out and other methods don't work, do not hesitate to call the nurse. They know best (at least mine did).