When my firstborn turned 40, he complained about being "OVER THE HILL" to me. 

I told him your choice is to have a happy or sad birthday. I said listen to what everyone is blessing you with. We wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

Same goes to all of us. 

The one thing that I retained after living in Houston is "Y'ALL HAVE A NICE DAY"

Our choice .

From living in Oklahoma ya'll have a great day. :)

• From Spokane Washington, but descended from the General, Robert E. Lee, ya'll have a great day, hear?

Dear Kerby and Barbara  ,

Sho' nuf !

Z

I am glad that we are having this conversation.  

I got NED when I lost my rectum to cancer. I am grateful.  For the last three years,  i don't have the pain and disturbances that I  suffered through for years. 

Pain is a v er y p er sonal experience. No one can feel my painful experiences 

Yet we are able to share and relate and relax with each other . Yeah,  Welcome. 

My hope is that I will be able to see past NED into you and you and to you, Too. And you would be able to see the real me.

Changed perspective. 

I have wanted my Ostomy for a year before I got it because my Crohns had not responded to medicine for over three years and I was getting desperate. I have only had Cherie for two weeks now and it has already improved my life very much.

I have more energy, less pain, less frequent toilet visits (if you are used to 30 times a day with lots of pain this is an improvement) and am able to feel younger after being sick for 15 years. I am only 30 and hope that continues. I can already change my bag myself and that gives a great freedom that I appreciate, like taking a shower with the bag off. It´s been great for my skin.

I do have some worries now and then though, my ostomy has been moving around quite a lot and currently is a lot smaller than it started and I am afraid it will retract sometimes. Hopefully this is just the normal starting process.

And while I have no problem seeing the poo in the loo (been seeing that for years) I do have an issue with pancaking, the ostomy tends to fill up in the top area and makes me have to manually move the stool down which I find off putting. I notice that this does kind of make me feel upset sometimes, it can just look so off putting. But I guess I will get used to that too. 

I was having a bad pancaking issue also. I was using Coloplast SenSura Mio appliances. The only thing that worked was Eric's hint about putting a sticker over the filter and using a lubricating deodorant. The down side was having to burp the pouch more often, but it got rid of the vacuum problem.  I recently changed to convatec appliances and they don't pancake nearly as bad.  

Hi Windigo, I great to hear you are doing so good, every day from now on you will see yourself getting better every thing from weight to skin. Always keep an eye to the size keep measuring and cut accordingly. Also don,t over think things! what I mean is a lot of the fears we have are things that may never happen. Pancaking that's a real pain and can be caused by a number of things. Barbara has mentioned a few above! An old ostomate tip can be to put a rolled up ball of loo paper into the pouch helps with the vacuum effect. May be underwear or clothes are restricting. Eric has a good piece on both pancaking and clothes. Plus starchy foods make the output thick. ye will see again on hear what will thicken or loosen. I have said before when ye get a car it comes with a manual, when ye get an ostomy it comes with VO.

Oh wow. I am so glad that you recognize the benefits of being an ostomate  over being sick and tired and out of control.  

My theory about pancaking is that the bags and wafers are designed to be used VERTICALLY.  Of course,  we are horizontal a good part of the time. Personally,  I sleep on my right side and have the bag hang down vertically as much as possible. It usually works long enough for me to get 4 hours of sleep. Also, I make sure to drink a 16 oz. glass  of water before bed. This loosens up my effluent  (nice word) so that it doesn't pancake so much. 

During the day,  I make sure to stand up every hour or so. Usually , to go and empty out. But that's life! And it is a lot better now than before.

Keep your spirits up, you have been through HELL and now you are on the other side. Keep moving forward !

Keep in touch.

Z

Thanks for all the great advice guys! I am feeling a bit under the weather because of a bladder infection right now, but when I am rested I will reply to each of you :)

Barbara?  Are you talking about both the Wafer and pouch?  Or just pouch?  Thanks

Both. I use convatec 2 piece with adhesive connection

Thanks..