Washing Machine

… in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death & taxes.

Benjamin Franklin

Until you have an ileostomy, and then you can be sure of one other thing – the occasional leak. This morning’s leak was small, but did result in a change of bed sheets. Thankfully it was at about 7.30am rather than the middle of the night. So what do I mean by leak, and how does it happen?

Well what I mean is that the base plate or flange of the bag has come away from the skin, allowing the contents to escape. This could be because the bag has been on too long and the adhesive has failed, hair has not allowed the adhesive to bond to the skin (I have to shave around my stoma regularly) or the bag has got too full and heavy either with stool or gas has pulled the flange away from the skin.

As I said, this mornings was just a small leak. When you get a big one, it can mean whole bed changes, or, if it happens in the day time, full clothing changes – although usually in the daytime you can feel it’s happening and rush to the toilet to change the bag!

Hopefully they won’t be too regular a feature…

This post is part of a series telling my #StomaStory. Please share it, and if you’d like to donate to Crohn’s & Colitis UK and the Ileostomy Association, you can via http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RichardHarris19