My Bladder Cancer Fight

In part 1, I showed you a picture of a typical Urostomy pouch. They are just a plastic bag with an emptying spout at the bottom and on one side is the barrier and glue to over the stoma on your abdomen. This is a simplified explanation do not be concerned about the internal structure right now.

Here is the same Urostomy Pouch picture again, just to refresh your memory.

The method of changing to a new, clean pouch will vary from Urostomite to Urostomite. After a while, you will develop your own routine. That is fine as everyone has there own way of doing things. There is neither right way nor wrong way.I am going to describe ‘my way’ to give you an idea of a procedure. “My Way’ just happens to work well for me and it is a way that I am very comfortable using.Before I start, let me point out a couple of things that I have found very useful over the years.Unless you are a neat freak, you are going to have problems finding all the little things that you will require to use when it comes time to change you pouch. For example the scissors. Where did I put them? Where the hell are all the wash clothes? I had problems in the beginning with just these two items. I would be ready to change but ….

Keep ALL of your Urostomy supplies in ONE place. That includes scissors and wash clothes. To solve my problem of everything all over the place and not being able to find something when needed, I went to Wally’s and bought a medium to large, strong fishing tackle box. One that has three pullout shelves. All my Urostomy supplies are in this box and I do try to make sure that when I am finished that everything I used goes back into the box. This fishing tackle box has solved my problem of not being able to find things when needed.

Now when I go away for the weekend or a longer trip, all I have to do is pack my Urostomy supply fishing tackle box. If you are a Fisherman, I would recommend that you get a different coloured box. You will not ketch many fish with your Urostomy supplies.

Face clothes were another problem for me. Go to a discount store and buy a few dozen of cheap face clothes. Just make sure that they are not the kind that shed lint. Please wash the whole purchase first before using them. Make you wife give you a separate drawer in the bathroom to store them and make her promise that she will not use them for anything. A hands off policy. I use a minimum of 3-4 wash clothes per pouch change. These MUST be wash after being used just ONCE.

Ok, I think that we are ready to change the pouch. Remember that this is just my routine and it is not carved in stone.

As soon as you get up in the morning on the day of your change, take a shower. With the water not too hot, let the shower spray gently spray over the pouch area while you are removing the pouch. The warm water will allow the adhesive part of the pouch to separate from your skin much easier. Pull gently away from your body. This is not a band-aid that you are pulling off your hairy arm.

Just drop the old pouch on the shower floor and using a washcloth with non-perfumed or lotion soap wash around the stoma area including the area that was under the pouch adhesive. If you wish take a full shower but you will be taking another one in a few hours.

Get out of the shower and dry off. Dry everything but around the stoma area. For the stoma area, use a clean, dry wash cloth. Now you are ready to get dressed. NO not put on a new pouch, just get dressed.

Here is the part where some men have a problem. You will need:

1. An Adult diaper that is the right size for you. I find that the pull-up is the best. Depends make a good one but there are cheaper ones out there that work just as well.

2. A baby diaper. What the hell, I gave those up 65 years ago. Yes, I did but … I find that size 5 works the best for me. A note to all men, get your wife to buy these or you will come home with the wrong ones.
NOTE: Not the pull-ups but the ones that go through the crotch and tape on the sides. My first purchase was the pull-ups. Sure, I am going to get my hips in a size 5 baby pull-on.

3. You do not want to put a diaper over the dry stoma area. Not a good idea. You will need:
A. petroleum jelly or
B. any type of zinc oxide diaper rash ointment. Zinc Oxide is the best for creating a water barrier between your skin and the diaper. You do not have to have diaper rash to us this you know.

You can see here that your Doctor does NOT explain many things that you eventually learn to use to you. We are on our own when it comes to using product, such as above. These little tricks are passed down by word of mouth from other Urostomites.

Ok, you are dry and you have dried the stoma area. Using you figure spread a small amount of diaper ointment around the stoma area. Make sure that you spread it over all the area where the pouch was attached. If you spread it over the stoma itself, no harm will be done.

Clean you finger off and put on the adult diaper. Pull it right up. Make sure that it is up as far as it will go between your legs. If not you may get leakage. Pull down the front of the adult diaper to below the stoma. Insert the baby diaper across your abdomen making sure that it is over the stoma. Pull the front of the adult diaper back up. Reach down into the front and stretch out the ends of the baby diaper. They are not flat and will not lay flat against your abdomen and stoma unless you stretch them out.

That is it for now. Go about whatever you were going to do for the next few hours. I have gone to breakfast, the coffee shop, shopping, visiting or whatever I want to do without worrying about a thing. I do carry the following with me when I leave the house in an old camera bag.

Two or three of my baby diapers and two or three plastic bags. I have had to change the baby diaper after it got full of urine in the coffee shop, restaurants, friends house, etc. As long as you have a new supply of diapers and a bag to use to dispose of the old diaper, why worry. Nobody gives a damn just quietly go into the bathroom and do the change. It is no big deal unless you want it to be one.

I absolutely refuse to let any part of this disease prevent me from doing exactly what I want to do when I want to do it. That includes going out in public wearing an adult and a baby diaper. I am not the rocking chair type. I travelled through China, Thailand and Burma sometimes wearing an adult and baby diaper.
Who cares, I don’t.

Why wear the diaper for a few hours before putting on a new pouch?

Your skin under the adhesive of the pouch was confined, restricted from air, wet for three days. Give this area a chance to breath. Give it a rest. It is surprising how different it will look from when you removed the old and slapped on the new, if it has rested for a few hours.

Just remember that this same area is going to be subjected to the above conditions for the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years. The rest of your life. You must take care of this area of skin.

Resting my stoma area for at least a few hours at change time, I believe has dramatically reduced my infection rate. As I have stated in other posts, I have never had a bacterial infection of the skin or kidneys just a couple of yeast infection during the hot humid summers.

This post is getting too long, I will continue it tomorrow under ‘Urostomy Pouch 2b’

Posted on April 14th, 2008 by Neil
Filed under: Bladder Cancer - Background, My Cancer, Urostomy Pouches