Dealing with Bag Leaks in Public

DISCLAIMER: bare stoma photos

Just recently I had a day where I had an accident, shall we say, with my bag. I have recently started a new job which I love and find incredibly rewarding. I have a wedding to pay for next year and instead of being in the office for my mum’s company, I have taken to the road and am now working in companion care and dealing with clients who have dementia, Alzheimer’s, or Motability issues and require a bit of extra care.

My job role entails things such as taking these people shopping, helping them get dressed, cooking, days out, hospital appointments, and dropping them to their weekly clinics and getting them back home.

My birthday

Tuesday started off as a normal day. I had a 5:30 am start and got to my first call at 6 am. My next call at 6:45 involves two of us as the client can’t walk and needs a hoist to get her from the bed to her chair. I wasn’t wearing my uniform that day and she used my shirt to pull herself and she managed to pull my bag off with it. Thankfully I was wearing jeans and I didn’t notice what had happened until I was in the middle of nowhere. I went to the village public toilets as was desperate for a pee, undid my jeans and did them straight back up. My bag had been ripped nearly clean off from the baseplate. I was slightly messy, popped back out to the car to get my kit and it wasn’t there. In my haste to leave on time for work meant I left my kit sitting next to the front door…

How did I deal with this?

I didn’t panic, I sent my other half an “SOS” What’s App message and asked if he was at the office and could he come to my rescue?

That half-hour wait was probably the longest wait of my life. Sat in the car outside the local village hall praying my stoma didn’t erupt as I was messy enough as it was.

Ben turned up with my kit and some clean clothes, I tucked my shirt into my bra, opened the boot of the car and changed my bag right there. I think Bertha was enjoying her freedom but I had a lunch call at 12 and couldn’t be late. I used my boot as a table and just changed my bag, said my thank yous to Ben and went to my next call.

Tips for dealing with leaks in public

Keep a spare kit with numerous family members who may be close by
I always keep a spare set of clothes in my car
I now have a spare kit that stays in my car at all times
Disabled toilets are easier to change in
If you can and aren’t overly bothered then use your car boot as a shield and change that way

For me this is a rare occurrence, I’m now making sure that I wear a support belt in the day so this doesn’t happen again.

For some of us, leaks are just something that happens, we all have our own coping mechanisms and ways of dealing with it.

How do you manage? Would love to hear your tips.

As always

Many thanks for reading

Louise X

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