Good Morning to Me!

This morning I woke up with that normal, bag so full of output and gas it is as tight as a drum, feeling....which is how I wake up at some point most every night/morning....usually about 4 hours after going to sleep....sometimes a little longer. Anyway....I digress. I quickly realized there was an extra sensation, and that my bag was TOO full, and some of that output was on my stomach and side...yippie! Amazingly, nothing got on any sheets or blankets. I happened to by lying on my back, which is a position I never slept in until my UC days...guess it's a good thing I've learned to be comfy that way. So, despite having 20 minutes left until the alarm went off, I had to hop out of bed, make my way to the bathroom without leaving a trail and get on with the cleanup, shower, new wafer process...hoping to leave enough time for coffee, breakfast, getting dressed, feeding animals and being out the door for an appointment, all in about an hour...good times :)

You know what, though?? I did it all and got where I needed to be just in time! It really didn't take me much longer than it would to get up and out of the house on a normal day, and there is NO way I could've gotten anywhere near that quickly in the bad UC days. So no, this thread isn't to complain about the troubles that can come with having an ileosotmy....but more to say how I'm reminded that even the inconvenient, and sometimes gross moments with my ileo are WAY better than my best days in a UC flare were. Not to say I wouldn't mind figuring out how to stop the night time blow outs....but if that's the worst thing I have to deal with from now on, I'll take it!

Your bag came undone? Like at the bottom? That I wouldn't have minded so much....mine forced my wafer loose. Oh well! I wonder if that happens to anyone else though...it's happened to me several times.

People are so much more positive than me: I'd have had a meltdown! :-/

To be fair to me, I rarely had morning issues. I've been a night owl for years and so I suppose my Crohn's just went along with that. Sometimes the difference between night and day for me was just like, well, night and day. In the evenings I'd be fatigued, feverish, and have most of my BMs. I'd go to sleep feeling crappy and then wake up feeling almost like a brand-new person. Not always, but often. I never have that feeling anymore, and there are times when I do miss it. Should add that, though, that there did come a point when my Crohn's got so bad, I was in dire straights all day and all night long.

Anyway, re your blowouts. Again, this is perhaps where being a night owl is a help rather than a hindrance. Most days I don't have anything else to eat after dinner, so I basically go from 7pm to 2-3am without any more food. If you go to bed at 11pm, having your last meal of the day at 3pm may not be very practical :-/ But if it's possible, try to eat more earlier on in the day and less in the evening. That's all I can think of.

And well done on seeing the glass as half full... >.>

Lol yup, reminds me of my first ever full blowout a couole weeks ago that was produced by the same thing- a balloon bag that I managed to sleep through. I think that in my sleep I managed to knock the "balloon" hard enough with my arm as ai tossed and turned that i got the "tupperwear" clip of my 2 piece to partially unclip, so an hour later I started waking and felt something wet and then it was like the scene in the original Godfather wakkng up with the horses head in the bed lol... But like you I just got up early, scopped everything up, clipped it back and went right right into the shower to do an emergency cleaning and change, and 5 minutes later I was back asleep on clean sheets. (this was the one and only full blowout for me but I fealize it was a bit of a freak- I usually wakeup to at least burp a ballooned bag, which I dint always get at night, by the way).

Must... go... to... bed.... >.>

@UCWhat? - One dubious advantage of having Crohn's for a long time was that it taught me to eat less. I can't eat as little as I did when I was ill, but I find not eating in the evenings quite easy to maintain. It's probably not the healthiest eating plan ever, but I tend to get all my daily calories within a 6-8 hour period (depending on what time I have lunch). I should really spread them out a bit more.

If you're used to eating at night, then perhaps it's just better to stay with that rather than making yourself miserable and hungry. If you do decide to drop the midnight snacks as an experiment, then I would try having a bigger dinner to tide you over. Good luck!

@Pro~ Sounds like you handled that...well....like a Pro! Since you just popped your bag off, did you just put on a new bag or do a full out change? I'm usually good at "sensing" a big balloon bag too....I guess sometimes I just catch it too late.

@Polish~ Those are some serious bed time snacks...yum! I'm not sure why my full and puffy night time bag causes my wafer to pull away every so often....maybe I'm missing something in my set up, or just have bad luck?

@NCOT~ Spreading out your calories a bit more might would be a little healthier...but, if it works for you and keeps you happy, no use in fixing it if it ain't broke! And though I DO enjoy my midnight snacks....I'm sure less of them might be good for me...maybe I'll start making lunch bigger and then a normal dinner and less snacks. See if I can't ween myself off of them slowly....I doubt it will work though!

@Active~ Sorry to hear about your weepy leaks. I'm sure that will improve with time though. You've been through so much, and I'm sure things will just keep getting better for you now. At least you were able to keep the sheets clean while sliding out of bed!

this thread scares the heck out of me.... I know this will happen at some point, but am hoping it doesn't! I eat dinner around 5:00-5:30- not too much, but I am hoping that will change after surgery! In bed by 9:30, up by 5:00ish. I usually get up once to use the bathroom, not always though. So nighttime bm's are not my issue right now. How does the bag leak??? Is it so full that it pops off? What about those osto-ez vent things??? As opposed to a vented bag? Does Gas-X help at all? Thankfully I saved some of those soft rubberized sheets for a babies crib...!!!! If I vent/empty it once at night, can it possibly get so full again that it will pop right off???

Ucwhat,

Yes, my bag unrolled at the bottom. It was a sample bag I was trying and wasn't happy with the bottom. But tried it anyway. After that, I took it off to never wear that kind again.

Do you wake up with dry mouth? I can always tell when I am getting a cold because I wake up with a full pouch of air and a dry mouth since I cannot breathe through my nose!!

I started with paying attention during the day. I would keep my mouth closed so I would breathe through my nose...I caught myself a lot breathing through my mouth...but it was the conscious actions during the day that helped during the night. Now I always place my tongue on the roof of my mouth (without thinking about it) to keep my mouth closed and I fall asleep the same way. When I wake up in the morning I am usually the same way and I have to assume I'm doing it through the night because my pouch is full but not with air.

I know it's weird...and it may or may not work for you...but I really think it's helped me overall with air in my pouch. Give it a shot, what's there to lose?!!

Thanks, Equestrian Mom! I do sometimes wake up with a dry mouth, and slightly irritated throat. Though I'm also pretty sure that I almost never breathe through my mouth during the day. I'll have to try falling asleep with my tongue pressed up against the roof of my mouth and see if that helps. Good idea!

@Poucher~ I guess a bad batch COULD be to blame....but I've had this problem off and on for some time now, and have used wafers from different boxes during that time. And at this point, they are all mixed up since I take them out of the boxes and put them with a smaller stash of supplies in the bathroom. Either way, I supposed it's worth a phone call....and if they want to send me some freebies, I wouldn't complain! It could at least make up for the unexpected wafer/pouch changes due to the leaks.

@Active~ I have thought about that....but I'm not sure it is happening because of the gas. It seems that my normally longish stoma shrinks a lot when I lay down. That means any night time output is coming at, or below, wafer level. I figured that was just eating at the ring/wafer. But maybe that, coupled with the gas pressure, is the perfect storm of issues that cause my wafer to separate from my skin. Can't hurt to take some Gas X for a while and see if it helps!

I've also considered going up a size on my wafer/convex inserts. Right now I use a wafer with a 1 3/4 inch flange and a 1 3/8 inch convex insert. I cut the hole for my stoma right between 1 1/8 and 1 1/4 inches...which puts it pretty close to the size of the insert. I don't know if that would have any effect on how it wears or not....might should call Convatec and ask. I hate the thought of having to change everything though. Last year I maxed out my insurance and was able to get all my supplies for free...enough to last through this year. Would be a huge waste to not be able to use them, and expensive to buy all new ones... :(

I've also thought about not using the barrier ring next time I change the wafer. Maybe it's not as necessary now that I have the convex insert, and maybe one less layer of "stuff" to break down could be good...especially if it's the ring, and not the wafer, that is giving into the pressure/output...hmmmm???