Skip to main content

Leaking bag and shower rant

It's 5.30am and I'm wide awake but exhausted. 

I've just got back into bed after having to sort out a bag leak.

I must have been in a deep sleep cause usually if I get a leak I will wake up before it gets too bad but this one had lifted the base plate of the stoma bag, covered my knickers and pad and soaked right through my pj bottoms. The only good thing is that it didn't go on the bedding otherwise I would be changing all that too. 

One of the large bowels job is to absorb water from stool. Not having one means that my output (another word for poo) is much more liquidy as a result. 

So when your bag leaks it means that you can end up covered, and I mean COVERED, in shit. 

The other problem is that being hooked up to my TPN with its pump and rucksack I can't have a shower to get clean so I had to have a Glastonbury shower instead... a good strip wash using a packet of baby wipes!

Times like this do really piss me off. The simple act that most people take for granted of having a shower is something that I have to meticulously plan. Having a shower means that:

1) I have to change my stoma bag which can take anything from 5 minutes to goodness knows how long depending on how recently I've eaten and drank. If I've not long eaten then stool can be pouring out (imagine when a baby boy wees when the nappy is off and you will get the  picture) and then trying to change the bag is impossible. My all time record is 2 hours! Maybe I could get into the Guinness book of records?? 

2) I have to change the dressing that covers my Hickman line. This has to be done in a sterile way so it involves laying out a sterile table to clean and redress the line. 

3) My hair is falling out something terrible at the moment, something the doctors think may be due to either the medication, a vitamin deficiency due to not being able to absorb things properly at the moment or the trauma of being so poorly for so long on my body. So if I wash my hair I end up with handfuls of hair, the plug hole completely blocked and me wondering if I will need to call my friend who has recently finished chemo treatment for breast cancer and ask if I can borrow her wig now that she's no longer using it!

All of the above means that having a 'quick' shower can take anything from 30 minutes to a good few hours. 

Sorry, I'm feeling a little bit sorry for myself. Every now and again it just gets too much and I wish I could just go to bed for the night without having to deal with all if this. 

Now I've got that all off my chest I will try and get another hour or 2 of sleep before the kids wake up. Only problem is that hubby is snoring away oblivious to me being up and the chances of me getting any more sleep are slim to say the least. 

I sense an afternoon nap later. 

NB x
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holiday from hell

My first week in Cornwall was amazing. Me, Hubby and the kids spent the week near Porthleven along with all Hubby’s family in a big house with its own pool and hot tub. The kids had a great time with their cousins, we celebrated Big Girl’s birthday, went to the beach, ate together, played games in the evening and just generally had a wonderful time. It was the holiday I had dared to dream about while I was in hospital amd I couldn’t believe I was well enough to enjoy it. No, I wasn’t able to eat and drink but that was a small price to pay to be making memories with my loved ones. At the end of the week we packed up the car and drove to St Ives where we had booked a fisherman’s cottage one minute from the beach with my parents. My sister and her husband would be staying nearby and Big Girl’s boyfriend and his family were also staying in St Ives at the same time. I’m good friends with his Mum so I was really looking forward to having a great second week with even more of my favourite peo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Disability benefits cuts

So in Rachel Reeves spring statement earlier this week it was confirmed that there will be massive changes to the benefits system including the way that PIP is assessed and changes to the health element of Universal credit.  As someone who is receipt of both PIP and ESA disability benefits I find this whole situation…  🔲 terrifying  🔲 baffling  🔲 rage inducing  🔲 disgusting  🔲 [all of the above] I honestly cannot believe that a LABOUR government is looking to balance the books of the country by taking money from some of the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. This is the sort of thing I would have expected the Tories to do but when I voted Labour I honestly thought that not only would they look after and protect the neediest but they would actually make things in our society better and fairer. How wrong I was. Looks like I’m going to have to get some ‘Fuck Labour’ merch to go along with my ‘Fuck the Tories’ stuff I already own!  Now I do b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dexa Scan

The highlight of my day, possibly my week, was leaving the hospital this morning for an appointment at the Treatment Centre, all of a few hundred metres away! I was diagnosed with endometriosis last year after a scan on my bowels picked up an ovarian cyst. For those who don’t know what endometriosis is it’s where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in places it shouldn’t. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/endometriosis/ I didn’t realise I had it because any pain below the waist I always attribute to my bowel problems. The gynaecology consultant said that they would normally carry out a laparoscopy (keyhole surgery) to formally diagnose and see the extent of the endometriosis but because of all my previous bowel surgeries this wasn’t an option. So the decision was made to give me Decaceptyl injections to put me into an early menopause. Doing this stops the womb lining from growing and from contracting when you have a period and therefore helps to reduce the pain. I have the injec...
Post a Comment
Read more