This sounds pretty trivial but I suspect it's going to be a bit of an expensive issue for me. So far since coming home I've been waring jogging pants as they are loose-fitting and haven't put any pressure on my poor wounded stomach but clearly I am going to have to wear some smarter trousers sooner or later.
I have always worn trousers with a pretty tight waist as I feel most comfortable in such but I doubt if I will be able to from now on. The stoma is just at the wrong height to make that simple. It's just too high to allow the whole thing to be just below the top of my trousers and if the trousers pinch just below the stoma then they will constrict the bag and are likely to lead to embarrassing leaks.
I have been advised that I may have to stop wearing a belt to support my trousers and instead use braces. I remember braces from when I was a little boy and I hated them back then so I am not happy that they are my future. How stupid will I look in a summer shirt, no jacket and damned braces???
The other thing is, of course, that I may have to replace all my current wardrobe by trousers with a size larger round the waist and that could cost time and money.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Friday, 19 November 2010
Out And About
Today I had my longest expedition. I had previously taken a short walk of some 200 yards and had made a trip by cab to our village shops about a mile away but today I was more adventurous.
I took a cab into Sale, bought some fish, walked about a quarter of a mile to the bank to withdraw some cash, walked about a hundred yards to my bus stop, waited (standing up) for about five minutes and then caught the bus to the nearest stop to home. Finally I walked the couple of hundred yards home.
I was exhausted but I felt a sense of triumph and this trip has given me great confidence.
I took a cab into Sale, bought some fish, walked about a quarter of a mile to the bank to withdraw some cash, walked about a hundred yards to my bus stop, waited (standing up) for about five minutes and then caught the bus to the nearest stop to home. Finally I walked the couple of hundred yards home.
I was exhausted but I felt a sense of triumph and this trip has given me great confidence.
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
It's In The Bag!
This is a bit out of sequence but I think it's time I explained how one manages without a bladder. Two tubes normally connect your kidneys to your bladder, one on each side. When the bladder is removed these ureters connect to a urinary diversion instead which is made from a short section cut out of your bowel and pushed out through your abdomen to emerge a few inches to the right of your navel.
There is no storage device in this arrangement to replace the storage capacity of the bladder so the steady dribble of urine from the kidneys is collected in a urostomy/stoma bag attached to your skin over the "stoma" which looks a bit like a small raspberry. This bag fits neatly over the stoma and has quite a large surround of adhesive material to hold it in place. This bag can be emptied through a drain in the bottom plugged either by a bung or a tap according to the patient's choice.
This bag holds about 300ml which isn't much more than half a pint so needs emptying quite frequently but there is a way of increasing storage capacity by use of a "leg bag". Leg bags come in a few variations but the ones I use fit to the inside of my calf and are attached by two strips of velcro which hold it firmly against my leg. A tube connects to the drain on the stoma bag. The two bags together give me about 1 litre or about 1.75 pints of storage capacity which is quite useful if you are going to be away from a bathroom for several hours.
There is a third type of bag called a "night bag". This one sits on a stand beside your bed and is again connected by a pipe to the drain of the stoma bag. I forget exactly how much this one holds but it is pretty large and I reckon would probably handle a night in the pub quite well.
The hard thing to understand is that you never feel the need to go to the bathroom so you have to get in the habit of checking that your bag or bags are not too full fairly frequently. The large night bag is important as otherwise it's quite likely you would sleep past the time when the stoma bag filled up and you finished up lying in a pool of urine - an uncomfortable and embarrassing experience.
The leg and night bags can be used for a week before disposing of them but the stoma bag is best changed every two days. The rule here is that you will not be discharged from hospital until the "stoma nurse" is satisfied that you can change your bag.
The first step is to remove the old bag which is stuck to your skin quite firmly and removing it can be somewhat uncomfortable though I am told that after a time the skin toughens up and you hardly feel it. Next you use a wipe to wash the skin so as to remove all the remnants of the adhesive from the old bag and then dry the skin well with another wipe and finally a tissue. Remember that while you are doing this the stoma can discharge some urine so speed is quite important as is having something to clear up any escaping drops of urine.
Next you peel the backing off the new bag and place the hole that has been cut in it over the stoma then press down the adhesive so it sticks to your skin. The trick is to start pushing it down near the stoma itself so as to prevent any uring getting under the adhesive and then press down the outer edges. It appears that a better job is done if you then keep rubbing and pressing the bag with your warm hand to get some heat into the adhesive so it holds more firmly. I reckon that the change takes me about ten minutes though no doubt I will get faster with practice.
I have to admit to a few disasters some of which were not entirely my fault. The first accident was in hospital when the nurses were fitting my bags for me and emptying them, too. A physiotherapist had turned up to take me for a short walk and neither he nor I thought to check how full my leg bag was. So we set off along the corridor, off the ward and up a flight of stairs. He was pleased with my progress and as we set off back downstairs the full bag was putting me off balance and felt very awkward. We had just got back on the level again when the damned bag came off my leg and somehow I was trailing a stream of urine behind me as we headed back to my room. I was thoroughly disgusted and that was the first pair of pyjamas ruined that day. The lesson is always to empty your bag before going for a walk.
At home I disconnect my leg bag at night and connect a night bag directly to my stoma bag so gravity does its job without any fuss and all the urine drains smootly into the night bag. In hospital they were worried about a leg bag not being connected overnight and insisted on my using all three bags with the night bag connected to my leg bag. This just did not work for me for one reason or another and twice during the night I found myself lying in a pool of urine. In that one 24-hour period I got through 4 pairs of pyjamas.
After that I did not go to bed at night but just sat in my chair. This was not ideal but I simply could not get comfortable norcould I relax in that bed with the only plumbing arrangement they would allow. Since I came home I have not had one overnight mishap though I have had a couple during the day. Thank heavens for modern automatic washer-dryers!
I had changed my bag on the Monday just before leaving hospital and that one should have lasted until Wednesday however at about 11pm on Tuesday I became aware that I was leaking and that I would have to change bags. This was to be my first bag change at home and unsupervised and I was tired and had drunk a couple of stiff whiskies so the timing was not ideal. However I did the change and got into my pyjamas but decided not to go to bed for about an hour just to make sure that everything was secure. It wasn't as half an hour later I had wet pyjamas and had to do yet another bag change. This one did last me until Thursday morning when I had a visit from a stoma nurse who gave me some very useful hints on how to maximise the adhesive qualities of the bag. Sadly that bag too lasted only some 36 hours before leaking and I had begun to wonder if, in my case, I would need to change my bag every day. In fact since then I have obviously improved my technique and have had no leaks and the last two bags have easily lasted two days.
I think I can do this!
There is no storage device in this arrangement to replace the storage capacity of the bladder so the steady dribble of urine from the kidneys is collected in a urostomy/stoma bag attached to your skin over the "stoma" which looks a bit like a small raspberry. This bag fits neatly over the stoma and has quite a large surround of adhesive material to hold it in place. This bag can be emptied through a drain in the bottom plugged either by a bung or a tap according to the patient's choice.
This bag holds about 300ml which isn't much more than half a pint so needs emptying quite frequently but there is a way of increasing storage capacity by use of a "leg bag". Leg bags come in a few variations but the ones I use fit to the inside of my calf and are attached by two strips of velcro which hold it firmly against my leg. A tube connects to the drain on the stoma bag. The two bags together give me about 1 litre or about 1.75 pints of storage capacity which is quite useful if you are going to be away from a bathroom for several hours.
There is a third type of bag called a "night bag". This one sits on a stand beside your bed and is again connected by a pipe to the drain of the stoma bag. I forget exactly how much this one holds but it is pretty large and I reckon would probably handle a night in the pub quite well.
The hard thing to understand is that you never feel the need to go to the bathroom so you have to get in the habit of checking that your bag or bags are not too full fairly frequently. The large night bag is important as otherwise it's quite likely you would sleep past the time when the stoma bag filled up and you finished up lying in a pool of urine - an uncomfortable and embarrassing experience.
The leg and night bags can be used for a week before disposing of them but the stoma bag is best changed every two days. The rule here is that you will not be discharged from hospital until the "stoma nurse" is satisfied that you can change your bag.
The first step is to remove the old bag which is stuck to your skin quite firmly and removing it can be somewhat uncomfortable though I am told that after a time the skin toughens up and you hardly feel it. Next you use a wipe to wash the skin so as to remove all the remnants of the adhesive from the old bag and then dry the skin well with another wipe and finally a tissue. Remember that while you are doing this the stoma can discharge some urine so speed is quite important as is having something to clear up any escaping drops of urine.
Next you peel the backing off the new bag and place the hole that has been cut in it over the stoma then press down the adhesive so it sticks to your skin. The trick is to start pushing it down near the stoma itself so as to prevent any uring getting under the adhesive and then press down the outer edges. It appears that a better job is done if you then keep rubbing and pressing the bag with your warm hand to get some heat into the adhesive so it holds more firmly. I reckon that the change takes me about ten minutes though no doubt I will get faster with practice.
I have to admit to a few disasters some of which were not entirely my fault. The first accident was in hospital when the nurses were fitting my bags for me and emptying them, too. A physiotherapist had turned up to take me for a short walk and neither he nor I thought to check how full my leg bag was. So we set off along the corridor, off the ward and up a flight of stairs. He was pleased with my progress and as we set off back downstairs the full bag was putting me off balance and felt very awkward. We had just got back on the level again when the damned bag came off my leg and somehow I was trailing a stream of urine behind me as we headed back to my room. I was thoroughly disgusted and that was the first pair of pyjamas ruined that day. The lesson is always to empty your bag before going for a walk.
At home I disconnect my leg bag at night and connect a night bag directly to my stoma bag so gravity does its job without any fuss and all the urine drains smootly into the night bag. In hospital they were worried about a leg bag not being connected overnight and insisted on my using all three bags with the night bag connected to my leg bag. This just did not work for me for one reason or another and twice during the night I found myself lying in a pool of urine. In that one 24-hour period I got through 4 pairs of pyjamas.
After that I did not go to bed at night but just sat in my chair. This was not ideal but I simply could not get comfortable norcould I relax in that bed with the only plumbing arrangement they would allow. Since I came home I have not had one overnight mishap though I have had a couple during the day. Thank heavens for modern automatic washer-dryers!
I had changed my bag on the Monday just before leaving hospital and that one should have lasted until Wednesday however at about 11pm on Tuesday I became aware that I was leaking and that I would have to change bags. This was to be my first bag change at home and unsupervised and I was tired and had drunk a couple of stiff whiskies so the timing was not ideal. However I did the change and got into my pyjamas but decided not to go to bed for about an hour just to make sure that everything was secure. It wasn't as half an hour later I had wet pyjamas and had to do yet another bag change. This one did last me until Thursday morning when I had a visit from a stoma nurse who gave me some very useful hints on how to maximise the adhesive qualities of the bag. Sadly that bag too lasted only some 36 hours before leaking and I had begun to wonder if, in my case, I would need to change my bag every day. In fact since then I have obviously improved my technique and have had no leaks and the last two bags have easily lasted two days.
I think I can do this!
Coming Round
As I came round in the recovery area my first thought was that there was no pain. You have no idea what a huge relief that was. I felt quite good, all things considered, though the oxygen mask over my nose and mouth was a damned nuisance as it was very noisy and made hearing what was said to me difficult.
It seemed as though I had wires and tubes sticking out all over my body. There was a central line into my neck, another line in my hand, a drain for the operation wound and, of course, a bag to hold my urine draining into a larger vessel beside the bed.
was soon being wheeled down to the high dependency unit where patients spend up to two days until they are fit enough to return to the ward.
My wife had tried ringing the ward to find out how I was but without any success and finally my elder son took over and got through to the HDU where the nurse in charge said I was already fit enough to return to the ward as soon as a bed was available and asked him if he would like to talk to me. So I was quite amazed when a phone was thrust into my hand & I was able to talk to Ian. Later he said he was amazed at how bright I sounded and I actually did feel really good.
Shortly afterwards they exchange the oxygen mask for a pair of small tubes which fitted into my nostrils and that for me was a far more satisfactory system of delivering the oxygen.
The HDU was very relaxed with beds being well spaced compared to a standard ward and staff always in calling distance. It was a pretty pleasant environment.
The next day, Wednesday, I was helped out of bed and into a chair. That was not without problems as my right leg was numb from the epidural and collapsed under me. When the time came for me to get back into bed several hours later they used a sling to move me.
While I was out of bed my wife and son turned up to visit and I think they were both surprised to see me looking and sounding so well. Granted my temperature was slightly elevated and my blood oxygen a bit low unless I was using oxygen but I felt pretty good.
They had allowed me to take small sips of water immediately I came round and by Wednesday afternoon they said they needed to get some calories into me and gave me a very sweet apple flavoured drink to sip. Sadly that gave me terrible indigestion and I had a lot of reflux that night. I was reluctant to try it again the next day.
They were worried about my not eating so decided to feed me through a drip for a couple of days. Sadly the central line which had been fitted before I came round was not suitable for this so it had to be replaced. This procedure took about half an hour and although not painful was uncomfortable and tiring. When my visitors came that evening I was pretty washed out.
Late on Thursday night my old room on the ward was available & I moved out of the HDU and back to it.
It seemed as though I had wires and tubes sticking out all over my body. There was a central line into my neck, another line in my hand, a drain for the operation wound and, of course, a bag to hold my urine draining into a larger vessel beside the bed.
was soon being wheeled down to the high dependency unit where patients spend up to two days until they are fit enough to return to the ward.
My wife had tried ringing the ward to find out how I was but without any success and finally my elder son took over and got through to the HDU where the nurse in charge said I was already fit enough to return to the ward as soon as a bed was available and asked him if he would like to talk to me. So I was quite amazed when a phone was thrust into my hand & I was able to talk to Ian. Later he said he was amazed at how bright I sounded and I actually did feel really good.
Shortly afterwards they exchange the oxygen mask for a pair of small tubes which fitted into my nostrils and that for me was a far more satisfactory system of delivering the oxygen.
The HDU was very relaxed with beds being well spaced compared to a standard ward and staff always in calling distance. It was a pretty pleasant environment.
The next day, Wednesday, I was helped out of bed and into a chair. That was not without problems as my right leg was numb from the epidural and collapsed under me. When the time came for me to get back into bed several hours later they used a sling to move me.
While I was out of bed my wife and son turned up to visit and I think they were both surprised to see me looking and sounding so well. Granted my temperature was slightly elevated and my blood oxygen a bit low unless I was using oxygen but I felt pretty good.
They had allowed me to take small sips of water immediately I came round and by Wednesday afternoon they said they needed to get some calories into me and gave me a very sweet apple flavoured drink to sip. Sadly that gave me terrible indigestion and I had a lot of reflux that night. I was reluctant to try it again the next day.
They were worried about my not eating so decided to feed me through a drip for a couple of days. Sadly the central line which had been fitted before I came round was not suitable for this so it had to be replaced. This procedure took about half an hour and although not painful was uncomfortable and tiring. When my visitors came that evening I was pretty washed out.
Late on Thursday night my old room on the ward was available & I moved out of the HDU and back to it.
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Pain Control
As I said in my previous posting, I chose an epidural as my preferred method of pain control. It worked very well. I was completely pain free from the moment I came round after the operation until the epidural was removed on the following Sunday lunchtime.
Every few hours the nurses would check the area in which the pain was being control. This was done using a spray of very cold water. To begin with they would spray it on my hand so I could feel what it was really like then they would spray different parts of my body from my thigh up to my rib cage on both the right and left hand side of my body. I had to tell them how it felt. Where the anaesthetic was at its strongest I could feel absolutely nothing but where it was weak I could feel the spray. in some places it felt cool in other places where there was no pain control it felt very cold indeed.
The epidural can stay in place for five days so on the Sunday after my operation it had to be removed. I had been told that if I was still in pain after this withdrawal I could have pain control using a patient control morphine pump. To begin with there was no pain but after about an hour it increased and I asked for the patient controlled morphine pump. This was at about midday. It was then that things started to go wrong.
On Sundays the NHS seems to work on emergencies only basis. Doctors are thin on the ground and if they are required they take some time to turn up. The first thing that went wrong was that the line into my vein that would be used for the morphine collapsed and had to be replaced. It took ages for a pleasant but very young doctor to turn up to do it and he made a total pig's ear. When a little later a nurse came along to test it was faulty and he had to come back and do it again. Even when that was ready for the morphine that device itself was not available. It was now early evening and the only people with keys to the storeroom were three security guards and the duty manager. All these four people seem to be in the accident and emergency department involved in some sort of crisis and were inaccessible to my nurses. In addition two other nurses from the ward had been called away so they were short staffed. As the evening wore on the pain was getting worse and worse and I was getting quite desperate as to how it was to be control. Eventually they got the key to the storeroom and brought a pump to the ward but there was some incompatibility with the equipment on the ward so it was useless. Eventually they had to beg borrow or steal one from the emergency department. It was finally set up about midnight. I think there were lots of other little steps along the way but as the pain got worse they all sort of merged into one terrible experience. The trouble is, as one nurse explain ,that once the pain really gets a whole whatever they do is likely to be fairly ineffective as they are playing catch up.
Once the device was setup and I could administer a small dose of morphine myself every five minutes I could begin to get in control. It took about an hour before the pain became bearable again. After that I had very few problems. During the day on Monday I rarely press the little button to give me a shot of morphine and overnight on the Monday I used it only once. I was very happy for them to take it away on the Tuesday as I was quite convinced I didn't need it.
From then on pain control was limited to oral over the counter medicines such as paracetamol. And that was quite sufficient. Even now: I'll take the occasional tablet of pain killer when I ache a little bit.
The moral of this story is, I suppose, that nobody undergoing this operation should worry about the pain. However make sure that when the epidural is withdrawn the morphine pump is already available in case you need it. And of course don't let them do that on a Sunday.
Every few hours the nurses would check the area in which the pain was being control. This was done using a spray of very cold water. To begin with they would spray it on my hand so I could feel what it was really like then they would spray different parts of my body from my thigh up to my rib cage on both the right and left hand side of my body. I had to tell them how it felt. Where the anaesthetic was at its strongest I could feel absolutely nothing but where it was weak I could feel the spray. in some places it felt cool in other places where there was no pain control it felt very cold indeed.
The epidural can stay in place for five days so on the Sunday after my operation it had to be removed. I had been told that if I was still in pain after this withdrawal I could have pain control using a patient control morphine pump. To begin with there was no pain but after about an hour it increased and I asked for the patient controlled morphine pump. This was at about midday. It was then that things started to go wrong.
On Sundays the NHS seems to work on emergencies only basis. Doctors are thin on the ground and if they are required they take some time to turn up. The first thing that went wrong was that the line into my vein that would be used for the morphine collapsed and had to be replaced. It took ages for a pleasant but very young doctor to turn up to do it and he made a total pig's ear. When a little later a nurse came along to test it was faulty and he had to come back and do it again. Even when that was ready for the morphine that device itself was not available. It was now early evening and the only people with keys to the storeroom were three security guards and the duty manager. All these four people seem to be in the accident and emergency department involved in some sort of crisis and were inaccessible to my nurses. In addition two other nurses from the ward had been called away so they were short staffed. As the evening wore on the pain was getting worse and worse and I was getting quite desperate as to how it was to be control. Eventually they got the key to the storeroom and brought a pump to the ward but there was some incompatibility with the equipment on the ward so it was useless. Eventually they had to beg borrow or steal one from the emergency department. It was finally set up about midnight. I think there were lots of other little steps along the way but as the pain got worse they all sort of merged into one terrible experience. The trouble is, as one nurse explain ,that once the pain really gets a whole whatever they do is likely to be fairly ineffective as they are playing catch up.
Once the device was setup and I could administer a small dose of morphine myself every five minutes I could begin to get in control. It took about an hour before the pain became bearable again. After that I had very few problems. During the day on Monday I rarely press the little button to give me a shot of morphine and overnight on the Monday I used it only once. I was very happy for them to take it away on the Tuesday as I was quite convinced I didn't need it.
From then on pain control was limited to oral over the counter medicines such as paracetamol. And that was quite sufficient. Even now: I'll take the occasional tablet of pain killer when I ache a little bit.
The moral of this story is, I suppose, that nobody undergoing this operation should worry about the pain. However make sure that when the epidural is withdrawn the morphine pump is already available in case you need it. And of course don't let them do that on a Sunday.
Preparing For Surgery
My surgery were scheduled to take place on October 26 and I went into hospital on Sunday the 24. I had a light lunch at home before going to the hospital but that was my last food for several days.
Possibly the most unpleasnt part of the whole thing was the effects of the nuclear-strength laxatives they gave me to "clean out" my system so they could use a short section of my bowel to construct my urinary diversion. The first dose ofPicolax was on the Sunday aternoon and that was bad enough but the second dose on the Monday was just plain horrible. I sat on the toilet for about half an hour with water pouring out of me and leaving me dizzy, sweating like a pig and shiverig all at the same time. It was a thoroughly nasty experience.
I was encouraged to drink plenty of fluids throughout Monday until the early hours of Tuesday mourning. In fact it had been suggested by the anaesthetist at I should receive hydration via a drip during Monday night but instead of that I agreed that the night nurse would wake me up every hour and I would drink a glass of water.
He and I had also discussed what sort of pain rrelief I should use. He said he had very good results from epidurals in recent years. It appears that they are very effective in about 80% of cases and he prefers them because there are fewer complications post surgery than there are with the more traditional morphine base pays relief systems. He advised me to choose an epidral but said that a patient-controlled morphine system would immediately be available to me if the epidural proved ineffective in my case. I decided to accept his advice.
I pointed out to him that I am a terrible coward an that I regretted the fact that they don't give you a "pre-op" these days so that by the time you go upstairs you are as high as a kite. He promised that he would give me a shot of something that would take all my worries away and in the event he was as good as his word.
So at about 8 o'clock on Tuesday I was ready and they whelled my off to the operating suite.
Possibly the most unpleasnt part of the whole thing was the effects of the nuclear-strength laxatives they gave me to "clean out" my system so they could use a short section of my bowel to construct my urinary diversion. The first dose ofPicolax was on the Sunday aternoon and that was bad enough but the second dose on the Monday was just plain horrible. I sat on the toilet for about half an hour with water pouring out of me and leaving me dizzy, sweating like a pig and shiverig all at the same time. It was a thoroughly nasty experience.
I was encouraged to drink plenty of fluids throughout Monday until the early hours of Tuesday mourning. In fact it had been suggested by the anaesthetist at I should receive hydration via a drip during Monday night but instead of that I agreed that the night nurse would wake me up every hour and I would drink a glass of water.
He and I had also discussed what sort of pain rrelief I should use. He said he had very good results from epidurals in recent years. It appears that they are very effective in about 80% of cases and he prefers them because there are fewer complications post surgery than there are with the more traditional morphine base pays relief systems. He advised me to choose an epidral but said that a patient-controlled morphine system would immediately be available to me if the epidural proved ineffective in my case. I decided to accept his advice.
I pointed out to him that I am a terrible coward an that I regretted the fact that they don't give you a "pre-op" these days so that by the time you go upstairs you are as high as a kite. He promised that he would give me a shot of something that would take all my worries away and in the event he was as good as his word.
So at about 8 o'clock on Tuesday I was ready and they whelled my off to the operating suite.
Thursday, 11 November 2010
A Bad Bag Day
This post is a little out of sequence as it refers to the day after my return home but I think it may be of interest so I'll pump it out.
I had fitted a new bag under supervision from the specialist stoma nurse just before being released from hospital on Monday and that bag should have been OK until Wednesday but late on Tuesday evening I noticed a bit of seepage around one edge of the bag. I was reluctant to try my first bag change at home so late at night and after a couple of stiff drinks but I really didn't think it would stay intact through the night so I pulled myself together and fitted a new bag. I had the sense to stay up for a while afterwards to make sure it was functioning properly and I was right to do so as about half an hour later that bag too was leaking a little.
So once more I dragged my tired brain into life and changed the bag again before collapsing into bed at about 1am. Luckily I had made a better job of it this time and it lasted through the night.
I was visited by my support stoma nurse on Wednesday lunchtime and I spotted that that damned bag was in trouble too but in many ways I was glad of that as it gave her a chance to watch me as I changed the bag and to pick up any things I was doing wrong.
Actually she did give me a couple of pointers about getting the most out of the adhesive that holds the bag to my skin and 24 hours later as I write this the bag I fitted then is still very secure.
Hopefully I have learned some useful lessons.
I had fitted a new bag under supervision from the specialist stoma nurse just before being released from hospital on Monday and that bag should have been OK until Wednesday but late on Tuesday evening I noticed a bit of seepage around one edge of the bag. I was reluctant to try my first bag change at home so late at night and after a couple of stiff drinks but I really didn't think it would stay intact through the night so I pulled myself together and fitted a new bag. I had the sense to stay up for a while afterwards to make sure it was functioning properly and I was right to do so as about half an hour later that bag too was leaking a little.
So once more I dragged my tired brain into life and changed the bag again before collapsing into bed at about 1am. Luckily I had made a better job of it this time and it lasted through the night.
I was visited by my support stoma nurse on Wednesday lunchtime and I spotted that that damned bag was in trouble too but in many ways I was glad of that as it gave her a chance to watch me as I changed the bag and to pick up any things I was doing wrong.
Actually she did give me a couple of pointers about getting the most out of the adhesive that holds the bag to my skin and 24 hours later as I write this the bag I fitted then is still very secure.
Hopefully I have learned some useful lessons.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Going In, Surgery, Coming Home
It's done and I'm back home!!!
I can't follow the obvious pattern of making a post for each day as I wasn't in a position to take notes and by now some of the separate days have merged together in my memory so what I'll do is post stuff bit by bit over the next few days hitting a theme each time.
Today I'll give a general schedule of events and try to fill in details as we go on.
I went into hospital on October 24th, a Sunday, which was a day early but I was told that that would give me the best chance of a single room but much more about that later. Surgery was on Tuesday October 26th and I spent a couple of days in a high dependency unit until there was a bed available back on the ward so I didn't get back to my old room until late the Thursday evening. That would be October 28th, just in time for my birthday on the Friday.
The epidural pain-management system was disconnected on the Sunday, october 31st and I used a morphine based system until the Tuesday morning after which ordinary OTC tablets were quite adequate to control the pain.
Around the middle of that week they set me up with a leg bag so I could start to move around more freely and on friday November 5th I had my first lesson in bag-changing. I did my own bag changes over the weekend and on Monday 8th I demonstrated my skills to the specialist stoma nurse who sanctioned my release into the real world.
My son brought me home on Monday afternoon & I am already feeling so much better.
Since I came home I have been managing my bag, making mistakes but improving my overall fitness as I move around the house. I still get tired pretty easily but I know I'm on the way up again even though I am sure it will take a while.
I think that will do for today as I can feel myself tiring so more tomorrow.
I can't follow the obvious pattern of making a post for each day as I wasn't in a position to take notes and by now some of the separate days have merged together in my memory so what I'll do is post stuff bit by bit over the next few days hitting a theme each time.
Today I'll give a general schedule of events and try to fill in details as we go on.
I went into hospital on October 24th, a Sunday, which was a day early but I was told that that would give me the best chance of a single room but much more about that later. Surgery was on Tuesday October 26th and I spent a couple of days in a high dependency unit until there was a bed available back on the ward so I didn't get back to my old room until late the Thursday evening. That would be October 28th, just in time for my birthday on the Friday.
The epidural pain-management system was disconnected on the Sunday, october 31st and I used a morphine based system until the Tuesday morning after which ordinary OTC tablets were quite adequate to control the pain.
Around the middle of that week they set me up with a leg bag so I could start to move around more freely and on friday November 5th I had my first lesson in bag-changing. I did my own bag changes over the weekend and on Monday 8th I demonstrated my skills to the specialist stoma nurse who sanctioned my release into the real world.
My son brought me home on Monday afternoon & I am already feeling so much better.
Since I came home I have been managing my bag, making mistakes but improving my overall fitness as I move around the house. I still get tired pretty easily but I know I'm on the way up again even though I am sure it will take a while.
I think that will do for today as I can feel myself tiring so more tomorrow.
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