Though She Be But Little, She is Fierce!

Improving Quality of Life One Discovery at a Time

Hello Stealthbelt Family, 

My daughter, Isabella, is soon turning 6 years old and has conquered many mountains with her ileostomy, since January 2017.  Bella was born with Long Segment Hirschsprung Disease, that took her entire colon and has been linked to her other condition; Cartilage Hair Hypoplasia (a form of dwarfism).  Since discovering Stealth Belt her quality of life and the ability to live it to the fullest has improved! Now we have discovered even more ways that Stealth Belt has improved Bella’s quality of sleep and ability to handle medical procedures. 

Overnight Drainage Support

Bella’s ileostomy has “dumping days” (and nights) that come without warning. This is part of her poor gut motility that slows down and speeds up at random. During the day, while Bella is standing up-right, her Stealth Belt supports heavy dumping of liquids into her pouch with ease. But at night, we were still having to get up 1-2 times to drain the pouch, thus disrupting our sleep and Bella’s. But I recently thought of a night drainage system with her Stealth Belt

that allows her ileostomy to drain all night; no leakage, and no need to wake up! 

Here’s how it works; Bella wears her Stealth Belt like normal, but at night we leave the zipper open with the pouch dangling out. Her pouch is then hooked up to a 1000mL drainage bag with tubing that is hooked to the bottom of her bed. Bella’s Stealth Belt holds her wafer/pouch system in place as it drains all night. No waking up to empty! Bella moves a lot in her sleep, flipping from her stomach to her back, and her Stealth Belt holds it all in place with no problems at all! 

Mucus Fistula Re-feeds Support                                                                                                                 

Another way that Stealth Belt helps Bella is by holding the tubing in place during a medical procedure she requires twice per day. This procedure is called: Mucus Fistula Re-feeds. This is a procedure her specialists are trialing in order to “wake up” her lower bowel that has been resting, unused since her last bowel surgery in 2017 (when her ileostomy was formed). The trials with these re-feeds will help her surgeon decide if her bowels are ready for reconnection. For 20 minutes, twice a day, we insert tubing into Bella’s mucus fistula, which is located just above her stoma, outside of her wafer but still underneath her Stealth Belt.  The Stealth Belt holds the re-feed tubing in place for Bella as the pump runs broken down formula into her lower
bowel. 

We can’t thank you enough Stealth Belt. You have held us up and hugged us tight in so many ways.

Thank You.

~ Kyla Thomson (Bella’s mom)         

For more tips, tricks and inspiration, please visit us at @kylact on Instagram, Isabella’s Mustard Seed on Facebook and Bellasmustardseed.blogspot.ca on our personal blog page.