Swimming with an Ileostomy? & Canadian Insurence

Our "new" home is quite a tight squeeze with one tiny bedroom and a mini kitchen all attached in a weird snaking rectangle. It's mostly a storage-space now after we drove cross-country and over the border with all our things (well, most but not all) from our previous lives. 

I'm always trying to think of ways to talk about ostomies and ileostomies, but it's really just something that you live with everyday. I walked on the rotting-kelp scented beach recently, and that reminded me that I still have yet to swim, because the adhesive on my COLOPLAST Assura 12630 One-piece Midi/Drainable/Transparent   3/8''-2 1/8''  10-55mm is SHIT.



This is really similar to mine, but without the stupid filter

The wafer that's supposed to be sticky is not, of course and even though when I change my bag, I press down REALLY fucking hard to make it stick, it buckles and occasionally leaks. (Although I've never had a horrible leak, like in the middle of the night. Just bits of discolouration on the underside of my bag and the waistline of my panties with uhm... the liquid contents :P).
Please people, if you need a transparent bag, this is NOT the way to go. The adhesive is so bad, I have used an add-on liquid adhesive.

This is the liquid adhesive that I've used to try and help with this problem----> Skin Tac.
You're supposed to dab it on clean dry skin (check) and wait for it to turn tacky (check), except it never turned THAT tacky, then lay your wafer down over it in the futile hope that it will stick. Well, ma--guess what? It don't work.


Ahoy--waste of money!! This shit won't stick to fucking anything!
Abandon ship! Save your bags! Save yourselves!



I know I'd have to use a one-piece bag for swimming,  but I'm unsure how to really proceed. Not that I want to go out in a bathing suit any time soon. My body is a wispy assembly of bones and my stomach is sore and rather grossly distorted from all the GastroParisis-induced vomiting.

Sooooo..... perhaps this is all just a rather hopeful dream of mine to swim. It would be nice, though, wouldn't it? On a sultry hot day, muggy air wavering the heat in a mirage over the road, sweat trickling down your forehead and down your sides and down your spine... your body is heavy and sluggish with the heat, and you just want to slip into the cool calm waters of some lake, just relax, floating in there... letting your troubles slowly seep out of your body as you soak in the coolness of the lake...  

So from my research, this is what I've found. From this PDF, "An ostomy belt or waterproof tape around the edge of the skin barrier can assist security." But you're supposed to remove the tape as soon as you're done swimming, because it can irritate the skin.

 Hmm.

Oh yeah. Another fun thing about Canada (or maybe just BC in general)? I can't get any more ostomy bags. We waited 5 fucking months after we arrived here, and FINALLY our insurance papers went through (I was well-warned that Canada's process is slow--they aren't like the US where people take their jobs seriously and things go fast). 

I am trying to wear what bags and supplies I have left as long as I can and I'm getting skin erosion from it. You see, in order to have insurance cover bags, I need Farmacare. It's a Canadian insurance thing. *Shakes head*

  In order to have Farmacare, both spouces have to have a social insurance number, but as my husband is a grad student, they will NOT allow him a work visa until July (why? who knows), and a work visa=you are allowed a social insurance number. As I myself have a work visa, I am allowed a number. So I waited in line, got my number, but I still can't get Farmacare until maybe I try to set it up on an online form, maybe over the phone.

As me and Mr B have been paying for all my medication out of our pocket (Canada has free health care my ass) we are going broke. As he's not allowed to work until many months away, and I'm constantly ill, we are going downhill fast. We spend our nights traveling the alleyways collecting cans and alcohol bottles. The cans are a 5 cents deposit, so those aren't much, but the beer cans are 10 cents. The alcohol bottles are pretty nice, they are 20 cents if they are over a litre, but 10 cents or 15 if they are small.
I'm usually down for anything and just roll with the flow, so out of nescessity I've been going out, I've been scouring trash cans for bottles, and it really struck me how pitiful I am.This is what my life has come to. I narrow my eyes with suscpicion at all the homeless people trying to steal my cans. We wear gloves and old clothing and are incredably careful about antiseptics and germs, but still....
Hey, in THIS economy, don't be judgin'.

Update

I am currently in the middle of a writing contest after months of doing my husbands extensive homework with him (he's such a perfectionist that it cripples his ability to accomplish things:/) and FINALLY  the corset people had me in again for another fitting. (this is also after traveling cross-country and over into another country with our belongings in a trailor with my father-in-law ohgodIalmost died blagghrhrsjvjnnbm ....

Anyway. Here is a picture of a buffalo-bison statue somewhere in south or north dakota i took from the car window during our travels.

What the fuck are you doing, bison? Just hanging out there all giant and shit on top of that hill. Scaring little children and old ladies. What the hell? Who do you think you are?

Why is there a giant cow here? Just because.

MOUNTAINs in MONTANA

What the hell is this landscape, I don't even...

Compared to the flat icy landscape of MN, this is alien land. Whhhhaaaaaaat the fuck.

And on to the corset pics!

You see, for my ileo, as I intend to be a constant wearer, my peeps there are putting in a "panel" a little hook-clasp area over my ileostomy so I can have easy access to the bag whenever need be, which, lets be honest, in pretty constant. I'm always checking it and fiddling with it, especially as my wafer just isn't sticking right--totally need new type of bags... hm...

In these pics I am looking at lace trim, and the area down to the right side of my hip, where my ileo is, is actually cut up a lot higher than normal for my ileostomy. That's where the panel-thing will go. Also, it's not really pressing down on my rosebud ileostomy either.
I have a lot more to say about Gastro Parisis and ligaments holding up the organs dropping, but that's not ileo-related, and I try to keep this blog pretty ileo-centred. But perhaps I shall tell you of my struggles with this parisis, and the ikelihood of getting such a disease after many abdominal surgeries, one day.
One day.