Ileal conduit people, heres a tip when changing your bag

Hi Anna in Fl
Sorry, I didn't see your post before. Ask the doctor tomorrow where the local ET nurse is. I am in CT. and live in a very rural area but we fortunately have an ET nurse who is affiliated with the visiting nurses assocation and she comes right to the house. She came a couple of times a week for a month. She was wonderful. There is a real shortage of ET nurses in the country. A lot of people on the United Ostomy Board are from Florida and maybe if you posted a question there someone from your area could help you. Just go to UOAA.org.
Hope your Dad does well.
Jean

Jean, It seems my husband may have a problem if he is doing things that stretch his skin, like say bending over, but mostly his bag stays for 5-6 days, no problem.
Sometimes the area that opens up may not have been dry when he put the bag on. He does not hook up at night, he gets up twice to empty as that way he can roll over etc. Ginger

I have had continuing problems with leaking. I will go along fine for a while and then I run into problems. It seems to be when I am the most active.
I go on the UOAA discussion board which is very helpful and over and over have been told to change every three days because after 72 hours the bag and wafer build up bacteria which is the cause of UTI's. I have never had one on for more than 4 days anyway and have had a lot of people say they change every 6 or 7 days so it really confuses me. Most everyone says hook up to night drainage and even though I don't like it I do it most of the time.
I now alternate between a convatec convex two piece and a cymed which is so awesome because there is very little wafer and what is around it is thinner than saran wrap and somehow does not require convexity. It's very comfortable but not easy to hook up to a night drain so there are advantages and disadvantages to both.
Jean

Rick,
Everyone talks alot about neo's, Indians pouches, but theres another group, "THE BAG PEOPLE", and yes its a struggle finding the right one, but with a good stoma nurse and in our case the visiting stoma nurse we to succeeded in the final choice.When we leave to go out the last thing I say to Gene is "DO YOU HAVE YOUR BAG" just a little humor. We keep a supply of changing materials in each car, he has this fear of springing a leak. So we are well equipped for all possibilities.
Ginger

Thanks Ginger for your post. The bag is so important to the quality of life.

Anna,
It took me several (eight or so) attempts at different sizes, shapes and convex to find the perfect one for me.
I suggest you call Hollister or other makers of the pouches to get samples. We called and had at least ten different types of pouches sent to us. They sent me three of each type for free. We were able to find one that did not leak and lasted a long time.
I now change only on Sundays. I haven't had a leak for months.
When I change mine, because of the shape of my stomach, I have to lie down. I am able to stretch the pad in all directions and I know the pouch has no wrinkles. It is important that I have a completely dry belly too. My wife is the expert of the pouches now. She has the shape of my stormo down pat (kind of egg shape around its base). She cuts the inner circle of the pouch perfectly so that it has a nice fit around the stormo.
I didn't have any visiting nurses come to my house. My stormo nurse from my surgery was the one suggesting me going with samples. She helped me to narrow the types to the one that would have the best results. Ironically the one pouch that lasted the shortest time was the one the stormo nurse put on me during my first post-ops doctor’s visit. It lasted a total of 2 hours.

It was frustating when I was trying to find the right bag with all the leaking I had. Once I found "My Bag", my quality of life was great.

Good luck to your dad.

Rick

Ginger:
My Dad is struggling with his bag which makes him very uncomfortable. It's also very stressfull for me because I have to change it every 2-3 days because it starts leaking. Maybe in Florida they do things differently, but the ostomy nurse evaluated his stoma and showed us how to do it only once while he was in the hospital, then we had a nurse from the home health agency coming in to change it. She was RN, but not the ostomy nurse. She changed his bag on friday and 2 days later it started leaking, It was late at night, so I had no choice but to do it myself... I have to do it every 2-3 days because it does not last longer. He has so-called depression on one side of the stoma close to the incisiond and it causing a problem. Tomorrow we are going to see the Ostomy Nurse for post-op stoma evaluation and hoping she will be able to help him with the right equipment. Are you saying that Gene had the ostomy nurse coming in to your house? In Florida we have to go to see them in the hospital 4-6 weeks after the surgery... Maybe I am just missing something... Please let me know how to find an experienced and knowledgeble stoma nurse. My Dad has been great and we are very pleased with his progress, just need to find the right bag and then hopefully he will start doing it on his own. Thanks. Take Care.
- anna