Baby steps are good. At least it's a start. There is an emotional aspect to changing your bag that is hard to explain. Looking down and seeing you stoma can be emotional for some. For me, learning to change it was easy as I had not choice. I would be home alone and having to do it on my own. There was no one to do it for me. The other thing was that my stoma was flush, like a belly button, so I didn't have a part of my intestine peeking out at me. That was helpful too. Some people never get over the emotional part of having an ostomy and are so disgusted by the whole thing. It's really sad as many of us who have/had ostomies got them to save our lives. Mine saved my life, literally!

Do you explain the process to Charlie as you are changing his bag? That might help him if he ever needs to change it himself. Also, maybe giving him little tasks to do as the next baby step, like cleaning his skin around the stoma, might help.

I'll bet you never knew that you would end up changing ostomy bags again. I remember you mentioning that you loved doing it when you were working at the hospital years ago. It's definitely an art.

You are doing great in helping Charlie despite your own health issues! You are a very strong woman and one to be admired.