Hi everyone. My name is Sue and I live in NJ. My husband had a temporary colostomy on August 2nd due to a ruptured intestine and a bad abscess from a bad diverticulitis attack. Unfortunately, at the time, we did not have health insurance, so when he was leaving the hospital, we received a quick 5-minute lesson on stoma care and were sent home. The doctor would not approve a home health care nurse to come check on us, so we have been "winging" it on our own. For the first 6 weeks, all was as well as can be expected. 3 weeks ago, the "RASH" came to visit and has been here ever since.
After a visit to the wound nurse who we saw in the hospital, he was told it was a fungal rash from not shaving around the stoma. Unfortunately, I was not able to go to the doctor with him, so I did not get to hear all the details. He was prescribed a powder to treat the rash and sent on his way. The first time we put the powder on that night, it was a nightmare. We put the antibiotic powder, then a barrier powder the nurse said we should have been using the whole time, but neglected to tell us in the hospital. Next was the skin prep followed by the skin tac glue. We put the flange on, sat there a minute, sat up, and the whole thing fell off. We started over, left the antibiotic powder around the stoma for an hour, wiped it off, put the skin prep and skin tac on, and the flange stuck well. After the second application of the antibiotic powder, all was better. Until yesterday, the "RASH" is back again. It oozes and we cannot get the flange to stick. It's so frustrating and expensive. We do have health insurance now, but it will not cover the flanges, bags, paste, etc., since it is pre-existing. So every time we go through a flange, it is expensive.
Does anyone have any suggestions since I am obviously doing something wrong? It is so frustrating to do the whole process and have it fail time after time. Are there other steps that I do not know about, since we really have no idea what we are supposed to do for the stoma care? Please help.
Thank you,
Sue
After a visit to the wound nurse who we saw in the hospital, he was told it was a fungal rash from not shaving around the stoma. Unfortunately, I was not able to go to the doctor with him, so I did not get to hear all the details. He was prescribed a powder to treat the rash and sent on his way. The first time we put the powder on that night, it was a nightmare. We put the antibiotic powder, then a barrier powder the nurse said we should have been using the whole time, but neglected to tell us in the hospital. Next was the skin prep followed by the skin tac glue. We put the flange on, sat there a minute, sat up, and the whole thing fell off. We started over, left the antibiotic powder around the stoma for an hour, wiped it off, put the skin prep and skin tac on, and the flange stuck well. After the second application of the antibiotic powder, all was better. Until yesterday, the "RASH" is back again. It oozes and we cannot get the flange to stick. It's so frustrating and expensive. We do have health insurance now, but it will not cover the flanges, bags, paste, etc., since it is pre-existing. So every time we go through a flange, it is expensive.
Does anyone have any suggestions since I am obviously doing something wrong? It is so frustrating to do the whole process and have it fail time after time. Are there other steps that I do not know about, since we really have no idea what we are supposed to do for the stoma care? Please help.
Thank you,
Sue