help with ulcerated stoma problems

[janette]

My mom has had her stoma for about 8 months now and it is very ulcerated that she cant even touch it, and the pain is terible.She got no help from the specialists because when they helped her the bag would always leak. She did it to where it wont leak herself. Any help or suggestions? She is supposed to be reconnected soon and we are scared about that to. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[Molly]

Janette-

I don't have an answer for this one (hopefully someone will), but please post this on the United Ostomy Associations of America site as well, if you haven't already. www.uoaa.org

Good luck.

[Loopy369]

My mom has had her stoma for about 8 months now and it is very ulcerated that she cant even touch it, and the pain is terible.She got no help from the specialists because when they helped her the bag would always leak. She did it to where it wont leak herself. Any help or suggestions? She is supposed to be reconnected soon and we are scared about that to. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Hello Janette,

I hope the ulceration is fairly new as I've had some minor problems with my 7 week old stoma. I'm guessing it's the skin around the stoma that is the real problem.

My first suggestion would be to try and get samples of as many different sorts of bags with different flanges on (different adhesives). It may be the shape of her skin has changed and she may need a convex flange.

It's really important to clean the skin and make sure all traces of glue are gone - this is horrid when you have skin which is blistered and raw having become macerated (I know from experience) so it may help for her to sit in a bath with the bag off, catching any output in some sort of container, after cleaning and let the air get to it. If the stoma is quiet, perhaps lie on the bed on a towel & waterproof with dry wipes wrapped around the stoma to catch any spills.

Does she use barrier wipes/sponges/sprays? I use this every time and also I have to use a sticky ring which is pliable and acts as a collar around the actual stoma then the bag sticks on top.

I did manage to try a two piece bag system which meant the base plate or flange (sticky bit) stayed on for 4 days but could change the bag and check everything was still in place. Continually changing the bag every day will just rip the skin off and make things worse.

If output is watery this doesn't help (mine is now due to chemo) but you can get sachets of gel which make the output more solid and keep it from seeping under the flange.

There is really no excuse for professionals being unable to help - they can supply your mum with pastes too to promote healing and she should NOT be left to suffer.

I hope she can sort this out soon, it really is miserable and I do feel for her.

Re - take down. There are quite a few threads if you search on here, but I would say to bear in mind that people come here for support so if you see more negative than positive stories - it's probably because those who have no problems don't tend to post so much? I'm hoping to have mine in March/April 2008.

All the best - hope you can print this off and that it's not repeating everything you both already know