POST OP COMPLICATIONS- OSTOMY WAFER ON TOO TIGHT!

Although the surgery seemed to be a quite simple, straightforward procedure, it proved to be anything but that in the upcoming weeks.... 

On July 24th, just one week after surgery, I was rushed to my local hospital by ambulance at 5 o'clock in the morning! The previous day, my homecare nurse (not a WOCN) came by to help with my appliance change. She accidentally brought the wrong size supplies and instead of going back to the office (15 mins away) to get the proper supplies, she proceeded to stretch the opening of a smaller wafer, forcing it to fit around my swollen stoma. Initially, I was worried that it may become too tight and cause problems, but she insisted everything should be fine and that would not cause a blockage. Later on that night I started experiencing severe abdominal pain, similar to pain I had with the blockage on day 3 postop, but significantly worse right around my stoma. I assumed I was just having "normal" postop pain, only being 1 week out, and took 1 pain pill that was prescribed to me after surgery. I had previously been taking Motrin and this was my first time taking prescription pain medicine since surgery.  Around 4am I woke up in excruciating pain! I made my way to the bathroom, to empty my bag, but quickly noticed something was wrong. I sat on the toilet feeling dizzy and nauseous and yelled to my mom for help. She rushed into the bathroom where I was sweating profusely and held on to me, trying figure out what was wrong when I fainted and proceeded to have a seizure. Once I became conscious again, my mom told me what had happened and that she had called 911 and an ambulance was on it's way. I arrived in the Emergency Room around 5:30am and spent hours there with doctors trying to figure out the cause of the pain and seizure. After hours without an answer, I was then admitted and spent the next 24-hrs on morphine in the hospital. The small wafer ended up being the cause of the extreme pain and the seizure was believed to be a reaction to the pain medication and/or dehydration. Although there are no nerve endings in the stoma itself, it was proven that the wafer squeezed too tightly around the base of my stoma (creating a mushroom appearance), closing off my stoma and preventing it from functioning. Following that incident I learned how to change the appliance on my own and trust my gut when I feel something is wrong!