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Some of my readers are interested in Emily’s cathing stoma. It is called a Mitrofanoff. Basically it is a channel made from the appendix, sewn between the bladder and the abdominal wall. It is normal to have this red mucosa at the opening.
Emily can be cathed in her wheel chair, or while laying down. We do a clean cath through this stoma. That means this isn’t a sterile procedure, however we do wear gloves and her catheters are sterile. We use one iodine swab to clean the cath site (wipe away from opening) and then the catheter is inserted about 4 inches. We cath into a urinal container when we are home, and into a brief when we are out. That way we can toss the brief and don’t have to carry extra things around with us. After the cathing is done we wipe the stoma clean again, this time with a diaper wipe or soapy cloth.
At night Emily’s catheter is taped into place on her tummy by wrapping the tape once around the catheter and then securing the ends to her skin. The balloon is filled with 3cc water and I tape the end of the catheter to her jammas (or her briefs if she is wearing a gown) so if it accidently gets pulled on it stays in place.
This image shows the night-time catheter in place and the Betadine still on her tummy. I always clean the Betadine off because it can irritate the skin.
This Mitrofanoff is 5 years old and we have never had any problems or needed any revisions on it. It has to be used to stay open, but there is no problem with that. I’d rather use this stoma than cath her the original way.
Children who are able to use their hands can easily learn to cath themselves with a Mitrofanoff.
5 comments:
That sounds great! I love it when people post things like that. People's experiences are often so much more useful than stale info off the 'net for learning about things like this.
Blessings!
SBess
Thank you for showing us this! As I said, we are getting closer to surgery and I am glad to see pictures. It doesn't look like the stoma is in her belly button, it's below it? Is there a reason it didn't go in her belly button?
My Peanut has a similar scar vertically on her lower stomach, and is a bit hairy too. Their photos would look quite similar. :)
That's correct, the stoma is below and to the side of the bellie button. The reason is the vessels on her appendix wouldn't stretch to the bellie button, otherwise it would have been attached there.
My daughter is having this done in Jan...thanks for posting it
Please let me know if you have any questions. Emily's is still working good. It's been 8 years I believe since she had it done and it does leak sometimes now, only after she's been sitting in her wheel chair for a while. However she wears briefs (diapers for adults) and we put a 1/2 menstrual pad inside the brief over the stoma and that helps contain if it is really leaky. The leaking isn't enough of a problem though (because she does wear the diapers) to consider any type of revision.
Michelle
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