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All night long

It's been a long night. 

My bag has leaked 3 times meaning numerous changes of pjs, Glastonbury showers (see my leaking bag and shower rant post for a full explanation) and a general lack of sleep. With all the extra laundry I have to do I should get my washing powder on prescription!

Where the output/poo gets onto your skin it makes it sore. This is because it's very acidic and actually causes it to burn. So all around my stoma is now red raw, inflamed and I'm in agony. Time to fish out the liquid morphine me thinks. 

Not sure why the bags are leaking so much. I haven't really over-indulged the last few days or eaten anything that I shouldn't have...apart from a few quality street and celebrations. 

Chocolate is not allowed on a low residue diet. Not sure why, I think it has something to do with bowel motility (how fast/slow things pass through the bowel).

So whether those few chocolates have caused this (and I do mean a few, like 6 or 7, not what some of my friends would call a few i.e. half a tub!) but I think that today I'm going to fast and give my stoma a break. 

I did a 48 hour fast a few weeks ago when my stoma was going crazy bonkers and it's the bowel equivalent of pressing control-alt-delete on your computer. It kind of resets it and let's it go back to normal; my normal that is. 

I'm not going to be quite so drastic as my last fast as that was no food or drinks at all. I will just point out that this was done under medical supervision and by the recommendation of my dietician. It is safe for me to do as I receive 2.5 litres of fluid every night in my TPN so I don't dehydrate even if I don't drink anything. 

So today I might not eat anything and limit what I drink to give my bowels a rest, minimise what's passing through my stoma and what can therefore leak onto my very sore skin. 

Think I will also give the stoma nurse a call on Monday to let her know and ask her advice although I already use pretty much every extra product available so not sure what else she will be able to recommend. 

I will try to get an afternoon nap in today too, especially as to top off all my night time activity I have had to sleep in Big girls single bed tonight with a small mountain of cuddly toys at the bottom meaning that I have had to lie in a very curled up foetal position due to the snoring of my husband and the possibility that if I stayed in bed with him I might actually kill him!
(The kids are having a sleepover in Big fellas room in the new sleeping bags their grandparents bought them for Christmas.)

Fun and games eh?

NB x
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