A leak and a lesson learned

I’ve been really excited about Cymed, an ostomy bag manufacturer.  Way more excited, probably, than I should be/have been because I haven’t had an overwhelmingly great experience with their product.  The thing is, I LOVE their concept.

I should mention I usually wear a two piece-drainable system and much prefer that over a one-piece.  I usually wear Hollister, but I thought “I’m going hiking and this bag wafer is so great for sweat!” so I decided to give it another chance.

Back to Cymed, though, their wafer/skin barrier/base plate is called the “microskin” and boy is it lightweight and cool. The adhesive part is clear so you can see your skin. It has hydrocolloid to protect you from the insanely acidic acids ostomies produce. It’s flexible and molds with the skin.  I feel way more confident in it’s ability to withstand water, than with the bags I normally wear. It kind of reminds me of wearing scotch tape or saran wrap on your skin, except more breathable and flexible.

So…you’re probably wondering where the downfall is, because this product sounds awesome!

The Cymed two-pieces are connected by adhesive.  Essentially, really strong tape.  It’s hard to wrap your head around if you’re not familiar with it. You think to yourself…tape is going to support my couple pounds of poop hanging off my side?  There’s no connection loops for a belt.  Well, good news is. Yes. The adhesive is strong and does support  the “normal” amount of poop recommended by most manufacturers – usually 1/3 to 1/2 full.  I’m still a little nervous to burp it though…my experience with tape is that once adhesed, if you try to re-use it, it’s much less sticky so I’d worry if I open the bag to let some air out, that it might not seal as well and that would be a problem. The company says it’s okay to do but you know, I tend to err on the side of caution.

This all sounds fine and dandy until you stick the wafer on your skin and the bag on your wafer, lined up with the red lines like they suggest, put a little air in the bag to make sure it’s not a vacuum and that poop can flow freely, put on your clothes and go out on a date, if you didn’t in fact line up the red lines perfectly.  On our way to dinner I realized that my bag didn’t have any air in it, which could only mean one thing, since I distinctly remembered putting air in. Leak! I tried not to stress, I wasn’t pooping much anyway.  I made it through dinner and when we got back to a bathroom I emptied and assessed the damage.

On the bottom part of the bag, about an eighth of an inch hadn’t sealed all the way and was slowly leaking liquid (thankfully not full on poop).  Quick thinking and grateful for my diligence in carrying and emergency kit that includes duct tape, I mended the probably to hold me over for another few hours.  Once I got home later that evening I realized the duct tape was still leaking a little so we put some water sealant glue on the opening, let it sit, and then put duct tape over it. Whew problem averted and no need for a bag change!

…Or so I thought.  2 days later (on my birthday, I might add), we were out walking around a really nice monarch butterfly habitat when I realized I was leaking again.  Turns out water sealant glue is not ostomy-acid-proof and it had eaten through the sealant and was coming out again.   Lesson learned. This time, I didn’t mess around.  I changed my bag back to my Hollister two-piece.

I guess Coltrane wanted a little attention since he’s the reason I got to celebrate my birthday this year.

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