@llholiday I agree - it isn’t the Velcro that pokes my leg, it’s the corners that are caused by rolling up the bottom of the pouch. I find that wearing my appliance on a 45 degree angle eliminates that problem altogether. No more pokes in the leg.

Laurie

@goatherder...yes, unfortunately if your not noisey already its really only going to be  a matter of time! Considering one sample used the quieter plastic in the back & the noisey on the front, that too will change to both noisey. I'm concerned about the materials for the wafer.  The samples they sent have a harder and lighter colour material. I'm actually afraid to try them!  So I'm thinking I'll put a sample on my left side also & see how that works with my skin.  But if the plastic is the same noisey plastic and it seems to be,  why change to a different pouch in the first place?  

@veganostomy...I know!! Lol!! It was rather hilarious. My hubby got a good laugh out of it too & said he'd avoid the line of fire from then on! lol!

The thing is, there seems to be a lot of force behind some movements.  On changing my pouch I have had Rose shoot output a good four feet away leaving a disastrous splattered  mess to clean up!! lol!!  Its been a whole new learning curve from the start. 

@tigerlily Thanks - just put on a new pouch, remembered to angle it a little. Sitting on the couch right now and it hasn’t poked me yet!

@dlkfiretruck

The smaller, skinnier wafers I was sent seemed to be different material than the larger fatter ones. I wondered if it was just me....

I got my supplier to send me fat ones as replacement because I was having so many leaks with the thin ones. They seem harder, and when I tried reshaping one to be thicker, it didn't seem to stick to itself like the thick ones. My husband dubbed the thick ones 'plumber's putty' when he was taught how to change my appliance at the hospital and fortunately it does work like that for me, at least most if the time. 

Also, found running my pouch sideways for the stealth belt eliminated my getting poked by the plastic at the velcro. Thanks Eric  @veganostomy for that tip! It also prevents the pouch from getting choked off at groin level when I sit and from my panty leg elastic.

What would I do without all you fine folks out there?! Thanks!

Posted by: @tigerlily

@llholiday I agree - it isn’t the Velcro that pokes my leg, it’s the corners that are caused by rolling up the bottom of the pouch. I find that wearing my appliance on a 45 degree angle eliminates that problem altogether. No more pokes in the leg.

 

Laurie

I would angle mine, but need it to straight down as I use my bidet to empty it, by shooting water up the neck. Rinses nice and clean in seconds that way. If I angled it,, it wouldn't reach the nozzle.

OK new leak story to tell:

My bag was full, but I was in my back field needing to trim a tree branch that was hitting me in the head when I was on my tractor. It will be a quick simple job I told myself, one cut with the saw, I give the goats the branch to eat and go potty.

I stood up from my wheelchair and raised my electric pole saw over my head to cut the branch, and my pants dropped down around my ankles, snapping my bag off my base plate and dropping it to the ground.

Got my pants pulled back up and dashed to the house for a shower and bag change before finishing up the tree trimming job. I was laughing myself blue in the face from the event. *I never take myself too seriously!  :)

OH.MY.GOSH! Mine is my first blow out to happen in a public restroom and it happened just yesterday! I've been a colostomate [colostomy] now for 7 months. I've had 2 prior major leaks but they happened at home and were like in month one of my journey. Every thing has been going along pretty swell these past six months - changing my pouch every 4 days. I use Coloplast one piece with an inner ring and I also put barrier strips around.

Well last Thursday I changed my stuff all by myself for the first time. Oh I can hear you now, "what, you haven't been doing it by yourself these past months?" My only excuse is that my sweet partner in life has been helping me 'cause I've been afraid to change by myself. I'm a grandma with a grandma tummy and my stoma is on the left kind of lower down and it's hard to see the darn thing! Anyhoo I got brave Thursday and changed it myself. I was so proud I nearly gave myself a gold star. However I had to admit to hubby that I'd had one teensy problem. I got the inner ring down okay. Then I positioned my pouch over it [doing all these contortions so I could see in the mirror] and placed it on the ring. However I forgot to peel off the protective film from the pouch. ???? So I had to pull the ring off my skin and off that stupid film. Put the ring back on my skin, peel the film off then put the pouch on. Then apply the barrier strips. Geez. I mention this because we think my taking the ring off and putting it back on my skin probably weakened its adhesion which then led to the most mortifying occasion of my 72 years to date.

Now we had headed out Friday morning for a 2 1/2 day trip - convention in another city. In my emergency bag in my giant purse I keep to pouch changes [pouch, ring and barrier strips] plus 2 trash disposal bags. I use the brown one that comes with my Coloplast pouch supplies and then I'll put that in an odor proof bag I found on Amazon. I also packed more clothes than I needed. [Oh, more info than you need but I also include an extra pair of undies in my emergency supply bag.] So we were due to be gone all day Friday, Saturday and home again Sunday today. We went with my daughter and granddaughter so we had 2 vehicles. [it was a Lego convention and my husband and 11-year old granddaughter had built this marvelous layout to display. -- sorry this post is so long but as I write I'm kind of reliving the trauma!

Anyway yesterday was the main show. I was doing well. Helping out here and there, being the one to go outside the convention room to get sandwiches from the food trucks, that sort of thing. On Friday I hadn't needed to empty my pouch until we got back to the hotel - so that was okay. But yesterday. Must have been about 3ish and I could kind of tell that my pouch was getting full in my Stealth Belt. So grabbed my walker [other current health issues necessitates using one] and purse and headed off to the largest of the restrooms - it had a really large accessible stall. Now I want to proclaim here and now that angels of mercy were watching over me because the whole time I was in there wrestling with this blow out no one else came in the restroom! A miracle! But folks, this blow out was horrible, just horrible. The output was a lot and very thick. It had pushed out under that inner ring, filled up the Stealth Belt and squeezed out the hole of the belt and was all over me. I just stood there a moment in intense panic and not knowing what to do. Well with tears streaming down my face I decided to get on with it. I used the seat of my walker as a little table, opened up my supply bag. Grabbed another small bag I keep in my purse of flushable hand wipes, made sure I could reach the toilet paper while standing and got to work.

All in all I must have flushed the toilet a trillion times, used half my hand wipes, most of a roll of toilet tissue. I ended up having to take that pouch off, put it the garbage bags I had, do as much more clean up as I could. I'll admit, I also had to put those clean undies on too and use the second trash bag for the soiled ones. Then I used one of the two new pouches I had in my supply bag and stuck it on. I had already precut the hole for my stoma. I didn't use the ring or barrier strips. Cleaned up the toilet area, got everything back in my purse then went out to where my family was and asked my daughter to take me back to the hotel right away. Once I got to the hotel I took off the temporary pouch, thoroughly cleaned up then put all new stuff on with the second pouch in my supply bag. Whew! When we got home today we took that off, my hubby checked my skin and stoma to make sure I didn't do any damage, and put all fresh stuff on. Oh my gosh. Such a deal! Oh and just when I was about ready to leave the stall a couple of teenage girls came into the restroom and one said very loudly "It stinks in here!"

So what did I learn? Have at least 2 more pouches and accoutrements in my suitcase. Try not to cry because it is very hard to see through tears. Thank God for angels. Ignore teenage girls.

Thanks for listening.

@granddayout Thanks for sharing that!

You might find it easier to use a 2 piece system, as it's easier to see what you are doing with the barrier before you snap the bag on. I have a magnetic hand mirror in my emergency kit so I can stick it on the wall of the restroom at the level of my stoma and see what I'm doing. I've had my colostomy for 8 1/2 years and have thankfully, only had one "out of the house" blow-out. That was at a Walmart while I was in line to pay for something.  Helps to keep a sense of humor about it all!

@granddayout Thank you for sharing that! As horrifying as it must have been at the time, you were prepared and were able to take care of business like a pro! I'm proud of you!

@veganostomy thanks; however I do have a question for you. I was blessed/fortunate in this instance that my outer clothes were not soiled. I had extra clothes back at the hotel. Should I also have taken extra clothes in the vehicle? If I had needed to also put on clean jeans if there was a bag in the vehicle I could have texted/phoned my daughter to bring me the bag? How do you really know just how prepared to be "just in case" the unthinkable happens? What if my daughter wasn't there - could my husband have come into the ladies to give me a change of clothes? This new life of mine sure seems complex.

@granddayout I keep extra pants and a shirt in my wheelchair van for a lot of reasons, including wafer blow-outs! ????

@granddayout That certainly is a good question, which I don't think has a straightforward answer that works for everyone.

There's obviously a line to be drawn between "prepared enough" and "prepared to handle ANYTHING", with the latter coming at the expense of weight/bulk/convenience.

Some people do keep a change of clothes available, either in their vehicle or in a carry bag. I used to in the beginning, but almost never bring a change of clothes with me these days. Part of it is because my appliance tends to be so reliable that I don't expect any catastrophic failure during the day. I do still bring basic supplies with me to do an appliance change or to patch up a leak long enough for me to change my appliance at home.

If I were in a situation that was different from usual, I might prepare differently.

For example, some of my summer bike rides could have me six hours away from home. During those rides, I'll bring enough supplies to handle an appliance change (or two), roadside bag emptying, and will bring a light change of clothes just in case. Just as I bring enough bike tools to cover minor incidences, I'll bring enough ostomy supplies to cover the most likely problems.

Some ostomy accessories, like a StealthBelt or wrap, can also act as a buffer to protect clothing in the event of a minor leak. But you'd still have to deal with the leak, so having a basic kit is still advised.

There's no harm in being over-prepared, provided that you're OK with the extra supplies. If you can optimize your kit, you'll be able to bring more using less space. ????