OK, I'm a complete idget! Ugh!! I woke up this morning and noticed that my urostomy bag wasn't draining into my night bag. It obviously had earlier throughout the night because there was a good amount in there. But it took me standing up and kind of shaking it before it would drain in the bag, so I thought that was kind of weird. So I unhooked my night back from the side of the bed and walked with it into our bathroom to empty it. When I unhooked it from it's little hook it immediately started draining (first on the floor before I had a chance to aim it over the toilet). What in the world? Oh - it seems that after I washed the bag yesterday I had left the drain spout unclamped so it could air dry. Note to self - make sure you clamp that sucker before you hook up to it for the night! It's a miracle it didn't just spread pee all over the place, but it didn't. It did leak a little when I walked to the bathroom, but just a couple of spots that cleaned up pretty easily, along with the puddle on the tile floor in the bathroom before I was able to aim it over the toilet. That could have been a whole lot worse than it was, but I still feel like a major goofball for forgetting the clamp the thing! It reminds me of the time I think it was during the first week home that I hooked up to the night bag and forgot to open my urostomy bag drain. I haven't done that again, so hopefully I won't forget to clamp the night bag drain again!
I was going to change my bag tomorrow but just decided today was the day I should do it, and I tried a different method that I think I'm pretty happy with. I set up all my supplies around the edge of my bathtub and then put about an inch of warm water in the bathtub so I wouldn't be sitting in a cold tub. I eased myself into the tub and began taking off the old phlange. It was stuck on there pretty good, so my skin was nice and red after I got the whole thing off. I proceeded to use adhesive remover, and had to use 2 of them there was so much leftover adhesive on my belly. I then let it just air out, and I was going to let the pee just run into the water because I didn't think there would be that much since I hadn't had anything to drink yet and it was like 9:30 in the morning. But the pee was flowing just as much as when I've had a lot to drink before a bag change, who knows why? So I put gauze underneath it to catch most of it while I was letting my belly air out. I then used a prep wipe around the stoma to get ready for a new phlange and let that dry. I then took the phlange and, instead of placing it in a perfect square I turned it however many degrees to make it a diamond and put it on that way. I'm hoping that will help at least part of my skin recover from all that adhesive. So that was a fun adventure (not really) that took about 30 minutes. I'll be glad when it doesn't take me so long to do this stuff!
Tim and I had some leftover breakfast casserole, and then we went to Target to do some Christmas shopping. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! We were there for about an hour and then I came home and heated up some leftover pot pie for a friend who was coming over for lunch. We had a great visit - about 3 hours - and after she left I took a nap! Loving these naps. After I got up I putzed around the house a bit and then got all the ingredients together to make scalloped potatoes! Tim picked up a Honey Baked Ham with a gift card a friend had given us - it was a $50 gift card and the total came to $81 - are you kidding???!!! - I think that's nuts! Plus, Tim had ordered it ahead but still had to wait in line behind 85 other people for about an hour before he could get our ham. Wow! Anyway, I laid down again while the scalloped potatoes were baking and didn't get up until the timer went off about an hour later! We all sat down to a wonderful dinner of sweet kale salad, scalloped potatoes, and Honey Baked Ham! Then our oldest son played a couple games of Rummikub with us, and then Tim and I and he watched episode 7 of The Mandalorian. Now we have to wait until Friday for the final episode of the season. Tim was so tired he went to bed, and I've just been putzing since then. But it's 1am so I think I'm going to go to bed, with my clamp firmly clamped on my night bag, thank you very much!
I was going to change my bag tomorrow but just decided today was the day I should do it, and I tried a different method that I think I'm pretty happy with. I set up all my supplies around the edge of my bathtub and then put about an inch of warm water in the bathtub so I wouldn't be sitting in a cold tub. I eased myself into the tub and began taking off the old phlange. It was stuck on there pretty good, so my skin was nice and red after I got the whole thing off. I proceeded to use adhesive remover, and had to use 2 of them there was so much leftover adhesive on my belly. I then let it just air out, and I was going to let the pee just run into the water because I didn't think there would be that much since I hadn't had anything to drink yet and it was like 9:30 in the morning. But the pee was flowing just as much as when I've had a lot to drink before a bag change, who knows why? So I put gauze underneath it to catch most of it while I was letting my belly air out. I then used a prep wipe around the stoma to get ready for a new phlange and let that dry. I then took the phlange and, instead of placing it in a perfect square I turned it however many degrees to make it a diamond and put it on that way. I'm hoping that will help at least part of my skin recover from all that adhesive. So that was a fun adventure (not really) that took about 30 minutes. I'll be glad when it doesn't take me so long to do this stuff!
Tim and I had some leftover breakfast casserole, and then we went to Target to do some Christmas shopping. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! We were there for about an hour and then I came home and heated up some leftover pot pie for a friend who was coming over for lunch. We had a great visit - about 3 hours - and after she left I took a nap! Loving these naps. After I got up I putzed around the house a bit and then got all the ingredients together to make scalloped potatoes! Tim picked up a Honey Baked Ham with a gift card a friend had given us - it was a $50 gift card and the total came to $81 - are you kidding???!!! - I think that's nuts! Plus, Tim had ordered it ahead but still had to wait in line behind 85 other people for about an hour before he could get our ham. Wow! Anyway, I laid down again while the scalloped potatoes were baking and didn't get up until the timer went off about an hour later! We all sat down to a wonderful dinner of sweet kale salad, scalloped potatoes, and Honey Baked Ham! Then our oldest son played a couple games of Rummikub with us, and then Tim and I and he watched episode 7 of The Mandalorian. Now we have to wait until Friday for the final episode of the season. Tim was so tired he went to bed, and I've just been putzing since then. But it's 1am so I think I'm going to go to bed, with my clamp firmly clamped on my night bag, thank you very much!
RSS Feed
