What the heck did I do? Wafer Failure!

I have been thrilled with being able to eat foods with fiber....so, for dinner last night, I ate sweet potatoes, 2 servings. YUMMY....

I was dozing off to go to sleep at 10pm when I felt a stinging sensation around my stoma. I checked and noticed that the output was thick and piled up right on the stoma, but I figured it would eventually just fall down.

Well, I was so wrong. I continued to feel stinging and went to the bathroom and just in the nick of time. The output had piled up to such an extent that it pulled the wafer completely off of my skin. Poop was pouring out of the side of the wafer and was shooting all over the bathroom floor and my feet and legs. YIKES. It was a sight. ****

As I was cleaning myself up, over and over again due to a very active stoma, YUCK, I noticed that my normally very tall Stomee, was getting short and stubby during peristalisis. So, I put a convex wafer on to see if this would prevent this from happening again.

I was just wondering if ya'll thought the convex wafer was the answer or if I should just cut down on the fiberous foods? Has this happened to any of you before? Because this is the 1st time it has happened to me.

I often have a thicker output that piles up. It's random and I'm not even sure if it's fiberous or not but I would be interested to know if that was it. I get the stinging sometimes too and always simply thought that was normal.....

The only time I have thick output is when I don't drink enough.  If I don't drink alot of fluids then I too get the stinging feeling when my stoma is active, especially if I have eaten alot of carbs. If has made me sit up straight a time or two.  For that reason alone I always try to make sure I am drinking as much as I can.  I know that I drink more since my ileostomy than I ever did.

Sometimes it just may be that the wafer decides not to stick as well as it usually does. I never waste energy trying to work out the 'whys' - there's too many unanswerable 'whys' to answer in the ostomy world lol I just accept it as it happens, not worry about it and move on to the next wafer after years of experiencing the 'whys' :)

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Ileostomy for 34 years due to UC. I had my surgery at 10 years of age.

Moderator of the Ostomy and Psoriasis Forums
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I'm not a complete idiot - some parts of me are missing!

hey Trace! i had the same thing happening to me couple weeks ago - i was at work and at about 2 pm i felt the stinging feeling and it wasn't only stinging, but was really hurting. i went to the b/r and saw that there was a bulge of thick stools sitting on my stoma. gosh, just like you i figured it should just slide down soon. but it didn't. the stinging went on untill i went home at around 5 pm, and just on my way home i felt a warm feeling spreading on my abdomen (well luckily my work is only a 10 mins walk from home). when i got home i saw the wafer was off of my skin too and the stools was all over me and my cloths....

i immediately hit the shower, took all the appliance off and i also noticed that my stoma has gotten so flat at the same level as my skin, but only the lower part. the upper part was still sticking out as usual. but i got so freaked out, b/c just 2 days earlier i had the incident of pushing on my stoma - remember that?? when i posted that i thought i ruined my stoma?? well i got really freaked out and called the stoma nurse and histerically told him all that has happened and that i thought i ruined my stoma. i also had a bit of a skin burn just under the flat part of my stoma.

but i must mention that all of that leak happened b/c i was wearing hollister's appliance - i had many troubles before with hollister, that's why i shifted to coloplast. for me hollister holds for about 2 days, 3 max. with coloplast the wafer holds much better and much longer - up to a week.

the lower part of my stoma is flat now, so i started with convex too, i think it helps.

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Hodaya
06/05/2007 - STARR procedure
colonic inertia w/pelvic floor dysfunction
08/16/2009 - total colectomy w/ileorectal anastomosis
07/08/2010 - loop ileostomy

I had that all the time when I used Hollister:( Since I've switched brands I haven't had that issue:) I eat a lot of fiber during my day (so I don't have to take supplements) but have learned how much in one sitting is TOO MUCH...I think you just figured that out:(

Our bodies are individual so maybe more water while eating would be better for you...or maybe not...you have to experiment. Like Shaz said there are too many 'whys'!

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Crohn’s dx 1989
some terrible years before my
temporary ileo in 2001
Proctocolectomy w/end ileo in 2008
...wish I knew then what I know NOW!

Dear Answers,

The same thing happened to me with broccoli. I think the stinging was the stool getting under the wafer and eating at my skin. I've since learned this stinging feeling is a precursor to a wafer leak and possible blowout like you described if I don't get it taken care of quickly.

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crohn's since 1983, many surgeries later finally got a perm ileostomy & proctocoletomy in August 2009 (a life saver). meds: 6 mp, lomotil and immodium, vitamins. LIFE IS GOOD!