I guess I have been extremely lucky in my experience with cancer and the subsequent dealing with an ileostomy. Starting in December 2011, I noticed that going up the stairs, I would run out of breath making a long story short. On April 12th, 2012, I was in the operating room for 8 hours and ended up with an ileostomy after removing 4 masses of cancer. I was shown once how to change the appliance and had few problems doing so afterwards. I never worried much about having embarrassing accidents. But I did have a few. To prevent this from happening again, I now use gauze tape to tape the flange, either Hollister or Coloplast, before using the gauze tape, made by 3M amongst others, I use the Eaking ring and the paste on the flange and use a spray to condition the skin. I also use ostomy powder; all this seems to do the job very well. However, in addition to the above, I use hockey tape or sports tape to add extra protection to ensure that the closure doesn't come undone. I tape the bottom of the bag horizontally with sports tape; then use Velcro dots from the dollar store and place one on the taped part of the bag and the other dot on the end of the tape which is attached vertically under the horizontal tape to the back of the bag.
Then I put some baby powder on the exposed sports tape to prevent it from sticking to the closure part of the bag. This prevents the clip (Hollister) or the Velcro closure (Coloplast and Hollister) from coming undone. Note: The Hollister clip is prone to come off when used initially on a brand new bag. The bag tends to be slippery when first used.
My experience with chemo and radiation has been unusual (I think). I kept telling the cancer centre (Canadian for center) to stop giving me placebos and to turn the radiation machine on. The only side effects were a bit of tiredness with radiation and I could not sleep because of the steroids given on the first three days of chemo. Occasionally, I would start to experience the oncoming of nausea and I would eat something which would stop the nausea.
On the positive side, I have been very lucky. I never had so many good looking young women come into my bedroom (home care nurses). Also, the experience with everyone involved in my health care has been exceptional and since I have had very little experience with the medical professions prior to this, I have nothing but good things to say about them. As an example, my surgeon went into the MRI department personally at 8:30 AM and I had an MRI at 12:30.
Should you require more information, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Ed
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