Great topic.
Shortly after coming home from the hospital, my discharge was getting looser but still thick enough to pancake. I was still learning and not confident with appliance changes. Pancaking forced my appliance off. I went to change it, and my stoma exploded... all over me, the bathroom, the bathroom floor, everything within a 3-foot diameter massive mess.
Then, I'm trying to clean up (dumb me, I now know to waste no time getting that thing covered). Naturally, it explodes again before I get it covered. Same disaster zone.
This time I get that thing covered pronto. I start cleaning up the bathroom. The appliance comes off. Probably my own fault.
By now, I'm a puddle of tears. I am so frustrated. I thought, "How am I ever going to live like this?" I was melting down and forgot all about covering the stoma (besides, that can't possibly be anymore in there, right? Right?)
I lay down on the bed to try to calm down. I'm all alone in the house; I needed to get my head straight. Welp, you guessed it!
On the plus side, we found out how great the incontinence pads my husband had bought were. The top sheet and a blanket (as well as the pad) needed to be washed, but the bed survived.
It was my lowest point. That day, I decided I was in charge, not my stoma, and I redoubled my efforts to learn to manage my stoma. There were more accidents while learning, but it never got to me the same again.