UOAA Discussion Board

I was having a real rough time of it with the intense burning leaks caused by drinking coffee. I think what was occurring was the body was just flushing it out through the stoma without much regard to raising the pH from stomach acid levels to about 8 of the lower intestine. Since now just drinking tea I get my caffeine fix without the severe burns.

My other problem, caused by me doubling my efforts to keep a tight bag on to prevent leaks, was over tightening my otosmy belt which caused wafer irritation and a graneoluma to form. I solved that by floating thick paste around the stoma, waiting for hours for it to set up, using a larger width of it and plenty of barrier strips, then no belt. Also sleeping only on my back from now on because with the belt on it was pulling on the wafer. The graneoluma has almost disappeared now and I didn't need to treat it with silver nitrate sticks.

Another issue I had was using WAY WAY to much skin protectant, then using generic Flonase because it did eliminate the pain of the stomach acid caused burns. However since off coffee now overdoing with that is no longer necessary.

Another issue I was having was the liquid antibacterial soap I use in the shower was causing the burns to hurt, so I rubbed a little bit of conditioner in to stop that and then washed it off the surface. Well it was causing the paste etc. not to stick very well. So I stopped that.


So where am I at now?

Just water around the stoma while in the shower. No sting paste 1/2" wide (not quite so high because the graneoluma went down), the wafer, barrier strips around and the belt, not on too tight. Oh just a little piece of cardboard covering belly button because the adhesive grabs the scar there. Sleep on my back only using a pillow under each arm. I adjusted my car seat as to sit more straight up and bend at the waist more, but I do feel the stress on the lower paste area around the stoma but because of the better adhesion with using only paste, it held and didn't leak.

I think I'm going to try rubbing in olive oil based skin lotion just on my scar tissue BEFORE going into the shower. This way it gets absorbed down first and then washing the surface with soap.

It's been a hard road folks and I really feel like a fool for clogging up the boards here with my long winded posts of my struggles, guess I was hoping someone else would see my plight and say "Hey". because those coffee caused stomach acid burns were really bad, causing depression.

I look at it this way, hopefully people will learn from my experience and help others.

So forgive me because I was desperate..

Oh and I'm focusing harder on horizontally weakening the bubble of my convex so it bends, especially at the most important area, the bottom edge of the stoma where I can feel it stressing and later leaking.

Everything going good now, even driving again.

Glad you're doing better. Sounds like you got the "less is more" figured.

Have you tried soft convex? I use Hollister's but Convatec also offers it (though slightly smaller than the size I need).

Coloplast and Convatec convex bubbles are both stiff, but they can be weakened, there is a new flexible convex bubble from Hollister I aim to try samples of after I get settled down. Getting in some much needed travel and vacay time.

I've improved my method for my near flush stoma with belly fold and it's been working flawlessly for days at a time.

Shamrock, I am pleased that you are doing better now. Just one correction in your previous message. You have had "granulation tissue" and not "granuloma". (It is important to distinguish them because of the treatment needed. Granulomas are formed from the immune system surrounding invasive germs to wall them off. They are internal in organs like the lungs or liver. Granulation tissue results from the healing of injured tissues and can result from damage to a stoma when putting on an appliance. It is a first step in the healing process and is heavily vascularized (which means it is loaded with tiny blood vessels and bleeds easily). So, simply cutting it off would result in a lot of bleeding. In an office visit my surgeon tied one off with surgical thread and told me to come back in a week to 10 days. This cut off the blood supply to the granulation tissue and made it shrink. When I came back he removed what was left of this tissue with a silver nitrate stick. It was painless and it worked. (Don't try this yourself at home, kiddies!)

Thanks for the heads up, I've managed to make it shrink to almost nothing so I can feel it, sometimes It does act up, but it's just a very slight irritated area and not even a bump anymore.

I think if I keep babysitting it, it should go away entirely.

I appreciated your posts. I have had an ileostomy for 40 years but have been lucky to have had few skin issues until this past month. Had a case of the flu. Diarrhea caused leaking that caused skin irritation that caused leaking, etc spiraling to the point the entire area under my pouch faceplate was red, raw and oozing and there was infected areas next to my stoma. The doctor gave me antibiotics and said to keep it dry. But as you point out that is nearly impossible in that situation. I had never thought of the hair dryer process. I tried it today before and after putting on my pouch and then again when I feel the oozing happening. So far it has been a huge help. I was beginning to think I would never be painfree and able to leave the house again. Thank you for the tip!

I had a bad condition like that when I first got out of the hospital, I was drinking these Solent nutritional meals because I was too weak to cook. And didn't realize it caused runaway dirrarea and I couldn't put a bag on to save my life.

I wound up going to the hospital, a really good one this time. And they sanitized the area, dried it well and still the wounds were oozing so they just loaded down hard on the stoma powder, stuck a wafer on, extra large barrier strips and a otosmy belt.

I knew it wasn't going to hold and it didn't, but it lasted all night and the next day they changed it again regardless, after 10 days my wounds were finally healed and I was able to go home.

So unfortunately you may have to do the same, just keep replacing the thing more frequently until things heal up.