Leaks That Stay Contained

This post has an image of a naked stoma surrounded by output.

I wouldn’t be doing my role as an advocate any good if I didn’t talk about leaks that stay contained. These happen to many ostomates and affect me probably the same as an “explosion” leak.

Leaks either way they happen can be incredibly upsetting to the person experiencing it. The leaks that explode out from underneath the baseplate are ones you have to think fast before you need to wash more than just your clothes. The contained leaks are the slow burners as to speak.

These ones are the ones that do the most damage to your skin. The ones that start with a sharp itch, but sometimes its just an itch. The output sits on your skin until you bite the bullet and change your bag. I say bite the bullet because they can happen so quickly after a change.

There can be a lot of acid in ileostomy output and that left on your peristomal skin can begin to erode it and leave it sore. Bleeding around your stoma can be normal for some people but bleeding from sore skin isn’t.

Until I have more surgery there isn’t really anything I can do other than change my bag as it happens. My stoma retracts a lot so even with the wedges and barrier shapes I use once it’s retracted it’s a game of 50/50 whether I’m lucky or not.

Hopefully we will miss a second wave of covid and I will hear from my colorectal surgeon soon, as in all honesty I just want it over and done with now.

Do you experience contained leaks any more or less than the explosion variant? How do you find them? Do you have any tips and tricks that help you with them?