Night time bag blow outs

Hi Wilma

I'm sorry to hear that you are having problems with the dreaded leakage caused by pancaking.

Have you discussed the constipation issue with your oncologist to see if there is another brand without the side effect.

As the term pancaking means that our output instead of dropping to the bottom of our pouches it is so thick that it stays at the top around the stoma and spreads outwards building up until eventually it blows the pouch away from our bodies and of course night time is the worst as we are are lying flat and gravity can't work its magic and our output doesn't drop down.

I know you have an ileostomy but I'm unsure if you had the usual solutions mentioned to you in the past, so I hope you will forgive me if the following is a repeat of the things you have tried.

1. Before applying a new pouch, blow into it to separate the sides.

2. Cover the filter with the little sticky patches to stop air escaping. Unfortunately this may cause ballooning but you can cause always release wind by undoing the tail.

3. Insert a Stoma bridge to every new pouch (you may have to ask your supply company or stoma nurse for samples.

4. Apply a gel to the top of the pouch Brava Lubricating gel or Respond Lubricating gel

5. Many people use baby oil to the top of the pouch but it has been reported that this can reduce the wear time of the pouch.

6. You could try a pouch with a larger base plate which would allow for a greater area to be attached to the skin.

7. If using a one part device try a 2 part device, which would allow you to remove the pouch and clear away any excess output round your stoma.

8. Physically pushing everything downwards to keep the top clear.

9. Keep your fluid levels up and think about your diet and the type of fibre in the foods you eat Constipation and fibre (soluble fibre)

I hope that the above might be of some help but please do speak to your stoma care nurse today and as soon as possible to your oncologist.

Wilma would you mind keeping me up to date with how your discussions with the stoma care nurse progresses today and hope that you a solution can be found very soon.

And please Wilma never apologise for doing a "long rambling post" we are all here to help and support each other to resolve these major problems, you don't have to suffer on your own we are all in this together.

Keep in touch

Ian

By clicking on any of the green text will open up new pages for you

Thanks Ian. Have rung my oncologist and waiting for a call back. Seeing the stoma nurse at 3.30pm so will update when I get back. 

I've not really had this problem before as my output before the tablets was much more on the watery side. I'll give your suggestions a go and hopefully it'll help. I have already tried the stoma bridges but, and i don't know if I'm just not putting them in right, they come out of the bag on the first empty. I do change my bag in the mornings post shower, but maybe if I did it instead just before bed? I am interested in maybe trying the 2 piece but worry about the base plate sticking with my skin problems. I'll ask my nurse whast she thinks. I do really like my current bags, coloplast brava, and did try loads out before I settled on these, so not sure if there's anything out there with a bigger base plate? I've even got the XL flange extenders but it blows them off too.

On the whole I'm pretty fed up. After 2 years of ovarian cancer treatment (one tumour, op and chemo, psoriasis going eurythodermic, then 6 months later it reoccured with another tumour, big op, stoma and more chemo) I had been thinking I was getting back to some kind of normality and then my skin goes berserk again and now this. I see myself as a really positive smiley person who just gets on with things but this has knocked me and I'm feeling pretty sorry for myself today. All I really want is to get back to work and on with my life, but life has not got the same plan for me. 

Thank you again and I'll update you later on the advice from the stoma nurse.

Hi Ian, 

As promised here's the update to my 'issues'

Spoke to my oncologist and, as I'd suspected, there's not an alternative to the tablets, but we did discuss things and I'm going to take the tablets in the mornings rather than last thing at night as this may help. 

The stoma nurse gave many of the same suggestions as yourself, (yes, you are that good!  ) . She's given me a different bag. It's a Moderma Flex- One-Piece Drainable with a CeraPlus Barrier. It's got ceramide in the adhesive which, hopefully, will help with my skin and an extra tape border for security. 

It seemed to do the trick last night, so very hopeful for continued success. Going back in 2 weeks to see if is made any difference to my skin. She took photos to compare. 

Ann xx

Hi Ann

Firstly please accept my apologies for calling you Wilma in my last reply.

I'm glad that you were able to have a conversation with your oncologist and a change of time for taking the inhibitor let's hope that this simple compromise will make a difference.

It makes a big difference when you have a good stoma care nurse that you talk to and discuss problems and she is able to suggest alternative products which hopefully will help and you can go back to some normality in your life, we have enough going on in our lives to have to cope with the additional stresses of pancaking and leakage not forgetting the extra pressure of having to keep washing the bed linen.

I don't know if you use a barrier film on your skin before attaching your pouch. The stoma care nurse at my hospital suggestion that I use this https://www.ipl.uk.com/independence-fusion-stoma/

I have been using them for 3 years now and have no skin problems whatsoever. The product serves two purposes one to product the skin and secondly to make the skin sticky to help with the adhesion of pouch wafer.

Thanks for your comments about "being that good" I appreciate them.

Please do keep us informed how things go in the next few weeks.

I hope that you start to see improvements very quickly and you regain back some quality of life.

Regards

Ian 

Keeping my fingers crossed for you! Xx

I get inco sheets large ones at night I use two at night I get them from amazon