I've never complained before about a hijacked thread, but; ***?
Come on guys, the OP has busted his tail to get where he is. If you want to complain about your woes, please start another thread.
No disrespect meant to "Transit", I know you are battling cancer and have been wodering how you are doing.
Jstpssng, I am improving in spurts, starting to get my stemma and strength back now, slowly making progress. I appear to be cancer free according to the pathologies reports, tests in April will confirm. There are a lot of issues to contend with, surviving the cancer, adjusting to pissing in a bag and maintenance, will I retire within the coming year or continue to work. I may be forced to retire to lock in my benefits because of the political climate, SS is locked in. The Sloan chat rooms say that I will be able to lead a normal active life, that remains to be seen. Any one issue takes time to adjust to, much less all three. I can only take it one day at a time and keep thinking how I will make it.
The details of the urostomy, my bladder was removed along with the prostate and lymph nodes.
A few inches of my small intestine was removed to make a pouch to replace the bladder, one end has the tubes from my kidneys connected to it. The other end of it comes out of my abdomen [stoma] about 5 inches to the right of my belly button sticking out about half an inch, 1 inch in diameter, kind of like when you play, I have your nose with the kids.
Because my intestine was opened and spliced, the food I could eat at first was all liquid, than soft like baby food, now I can have anything I wish, but I limit anything with spices, nothing hot.
Over the stoma fits a wafer with adhesive, 2 x 2 with a hole sized to fit the stoma. The skin around the stoma is prepared with a protective power and than sealed. After the sealant dries the wafer is placed over and around the stoma. Once the wafer is in place a plastic bag clips on to the wafer. The bag has a valve that attaches to other bags through tubing. The other bags depend on the application. For day time, a pouch is strapped to my leg at the knee, that lets me move around. This pouch holds about a qt and can be easily drained. For night time the first pouch is connected to a large jar, about a gallon.
The wafers are changed every 4 to 5 days, longer and you risk skin irritation and infection.
The problem is if the wafer to skin seal leaks. The wafer must be replaced and everything cleaned; therefore I must have a crash kit with me, and a place to work.
There are a lot of products on the market to choose from, it is a matter of finding what fits my needs. Luckily, manufactures will ship sample kits for the asking, and are very helpful with support and videos.
