Pressure sore ulcer next to stoma: How to heal and manage it?

I have a serious pressure sore right next to my stoma. I have been trying for the past few weeks to get it to clear up, but it has gotten worse. Usually, I put stoma powder and cake it over the wound area, and if it is bad like this one, I also put a bandage on top of that and put my wafer over it. This one has gone beyond that, and I have had to cut the wafer away from the area and leave it open and exposed, which means I'm housebound as I can't go anywhere with this open area. My question is, what can you do with seriously bad, stubborn wounds next to your ostomy to get it healed? And secondly, how do you keep a bag/wafer on in such circumstances?

Thanks.

Hello kbd. Sorry to hear of yur condition, Can I ask what the medics have said or done about it?  Here in the UK we have specialist nurses who deal with these sorts of hard to heal, open wounds. Usually they are for other parts of the body but they are quite common. My brother-in-law has a rare conditon called amaloidosis and has had these sorts of wounds  in the past. With medical attention and proper, regular treatment,  they have healed satisfactorily.

I hope yours will do the same.

Best wishes

Bill 

Hi, I'm sorry to hear that you have this condition. I had a little white bump next to the stoma for years and used paste powder to cover it up. When I showed it to my gastro doctor, he wanted me to see a surgeon... but I didn't go and just managed the discomfort. An eaken seal might help cover up the area... or "duo derm," which is like skin, can cover a medicated wound and still allow you to put the wafer over the area.

I paid no attention to that "bump" until one day I opened my pouch to empty it, and it was all blood. I removed my wafer and found that that little blister had opened and was spraying blood. I was at a friend's house and her all-white bathroom was sprayed with my blood. I called my doctor, and he had me go to the emergency room and called in a surgeon. They were able to stop the bleeding by cauterizing it. But the doctor also identified it as "Pyoderma gangrenosum," which is actually ulcerative colitis on the skin. If you had UC, then that's a possibility. Best suggestion is to go to a surgeon to see what can be done. I'm a diabetic in addition, so it took a long time to heal. Since then, I've had about 4 more lesions on other parts of my body when the skin gets irritated. Instead of healing, the wound gets deeper. I've had one on my incision and another one from an irritation from the waistband of my pants. The worst one was at the outer edge under the wafer. I too had to cut the wafer away to allow the wound to heal. I currently have a wound that won't heal on my arm. If it was on my leg, they'd call it an ulcer and have me on bed rest. Ulcerative Colitis is an autoimmune condition, and although the main site may be removed (colon), it can pop up anywhere on the body. I hope this helped. Good luck and feel free to write back...

Best regards,

Marsha

Thanks, Bill.

I'm calling my ostomy nurse today and my doctor to see about getting an antibiotic. It is pretty much my worst ostomy nightmare, a bad sore right next to my ostomy. In the past, I could just cut back the wafer a bit and let the sore get some air and heal, but it's impossible to keep this one clean if I leave it uncovered.

Thanks, Marsha.

I'm also a diabetic, so very slow healing. I tried covering it up. I use stoma powder and pour gel wipe liquid over it, add more powder, more gel fluid, build up a covering for it. That always worked in the past, but not on this one. I cover it and the next day it hurts and starts leaking pink fluid. It looks like an ulcer, likely a type of pressure wound, and my stomach pushes on that area. Right now, I have just dusted it with ostomy powder and put a bandage over it. I tried to leave the wafer off of it, but kept getting covered with stool. So I had to cover it with my wafer.

For what it's worth, suggest using an Eakin Cohesive Seal when you change your wafer - if you're not already using something like that. A trick my stoma nurse told me about once was to put some milk of magnesia on the skin surrounding your stoma, then let it air dry (or use a hair dryer on low cool setting). The milk of magnesia helps to change the acidity in the sore, helping it to heal faster. Is your skin irritation directly beneath your stoma? If that doesn't work, suggest you look on this site for a stoma nurse in your area - you don't want it to become worse, of course. :) Good luck!

Thanks, Brave.

  I did get to talk to an ostomy nurse, and with her suggestions, I'm using a Fibracol patch that has collagen in it and a Duoderm waterproof patch over that. I'm also wearing a 4" ostomy belt to hold the wafer against the skin and over this dressing to hopefully help prevent leakage onto the sore because it is right beside my stoma. After the first change, there has been improvement, so hoping this gets it healed soon.

Thanks again.

Good to hear! By chance, were you using a 2-piece ostomy wafer/pouch? I find that occasionally your output gets caught around the pouch ring vs. "dropping" into the pouch. Haha, sounds funny to write that, but you know what I'm talking about. When that contributes to irritated skin, I switch to a 1-piece pouch for a week or so, and that also helps to give the skin a chance to rebound. Good luck!

Yes, two-piece system.  

Thanks!