Since you asked...

Did I ever mention that I'll totally take questions if you have them? Well, I will. I think the more information that gets out there, the better.

So, I had a reader ask about stool pancaking around the wafer. I hate it when that happens. When you have a colostomy, stool comes out pretty much the way it comes out of your ass. So you can run the gamet of different types of poop. Isn't that nice? Sometimes I get nuggets, sometimes the output is mashy. It depends a lot on the meds I'm taking (chemo, anti-nausea, and pain meds all cause my guts to slow way down, and I get nuggets) and what I'm eating (obviously my high fiber diet can make the output more mashy). The chemo can also cause mashy output, but I don't know if that's my issue or if it's diet.

Anyhoo, sometimes the output gets under the wafer and "pancakes" behind it. Gross. It seems that the better the wafer is stuck to the skin, the less this happens. As soon as silent leaking starts, it wrecks the seal between the wafer and the skin, and stuff can get under there. I haven't found a hard and fast solution to this. When it starts to bug me or threatens to escape the wafer, I change the whole shebang. I end up going through more wafers, but what can you do? I'm comfortable with how we're dealing right now and am not overly anxious to change things up. Luckily I don't tend to deal with pancaking a whole lot, it's usually a couple days on my off chemo weeks. I have no idea what will happen when things are more regular (ie I'm not having poison pumped into my body every other week). I think I'd probably try diet modifications first if it's an issue, more foods that slow things down.

So yeah, I wish I had a better solution. Right now my biggest struggle is getting my guts going again after chemo/IV iron/anti-nausea meds. I can't do prune juice anymore, I just can't get it down. I'm all about pear juice, eating dried prunes, and trying to keep up on the fiber. As long as I get gas coming out, I don't freak, but man, I hate it when my guts slow down. It's so uncomfortable when things don't work right.

Can I stick in a little "I hate chemo weekends" rant too? Awww, thanks! Because ugh. I had the typical Saturday crash this afternoon, and slept for probably three hours in my bed this afternoon. I feel like I missed out on a ton of stuff, like my little guy riding his new-to-him bike. It's disappointing. I'm counting down the time until I can crawl back into my bed for the night, and until Sunday is over.

I can do one more. I know I can. But man, I don't want to. Who wants to help me run away?

I'll focus on getting through the rest of the weekend. Eric is taking good care of me, and I get lots of gentle hugs from my babies. It will be okay.