Double blow with colostomy: A lesson!

For the first time in my experience with the colostomy in the past one-and-half years, yesterday I had a double blow: I had to replace the colostomy pouch twice on the same day! It was a horrible experience!

Ever since I had the colostomy surgery (for more details on colostomy, see my earlier post here) in mid-June, 2009, I have been replacing the pouch every week on an average. The system of colostomy comes with a pouch and a fitting flange; the flange is fitted around the stoma with a set of paper or dynaplast strips and the plastic pouch sits snugly on the flange. The feces/stool gets collected in the pouch and after usually a week, the flange begins to open and it needs a replacement since the plaster strips loosen themselves over time.

So, yesterday, it was my usual time for dressing and replacement of the system, and I promptly got it done at the BIO with my usual gang of sisters working on it. Strangely, by the time, I reached almost home, I realized that the flange this time already got opened and some feces had leaked through touching the surface of my abdomen! Fortunately, it was not too fluid to flow down and spoil my clothes! It was already 5:30 PM with continuous drizzle and I had to return to the hospital again for a fresh replacement! By the time I reached the hospital, it was well about an hour and when I reached back home it was almost 8 PM! It was drizzling even then and with my eyes bloated with continuous driving for more than 5 hours in the city's jammed roads and rainy airs, it was quite a trouble! This had been one of the harrowing experiences for me surviving the disease!

On the positive note, this incident had taught me to acknowledge the presence of crisis and to react to it with a calm mind! (I realized the crisis moments and was tense in those moments when the feces was touching my abdomen and was in a hurry to visit the hospital for the second time. My reaction: acknowledge the crisis, de-stress the mind; get calm! I had tea served by my mother and I smiled! :)) The whole episode gave me lessons on handling a typical crisis situation and made some revelations on how react in those situations! :) Definitely, I have improved. I have arrived. :)