A make up artist has told how she urinates through her belly button due to a life-saving operation she was forced to have following a devastating car accident.
Steph Aiello, from Glendora in California, had been due to start beautician training in October 2010.
But just a day before it began she was involved in a major crash that killed one of her closest friends and left her paralysed.
Not only did she lose control and function of her bladder, the accident also saw her ability to use her hands limited.
A ‘brutal’ procedure years later, rerouting the bladder to her belly button, allowed her to take back some control of her body.
Steph Aiello, from Glendora in California , had been due to start cosmetology school in October 2010. But heartbreakingly just a day before it began she was involved in a crash that also killed one of her closest friends
Losing all control and function of her bladder, the accident also saw her ability to use her hands limited. Yet, a ‘brutal’ procedure years later, rerouting the bladder to her belly button, allowed her to take back control of her body
Now, in a video seen by Ms Aiello’s 260,000 plus Instagram followers, the quadriplegic beauty influencer has shared how she uses the toilet in a bid to help beat the stigma that faces disabled people across the globe.
And social media fans have responded in astonishment, praising Ms Aiello for bringing the condition to attention.
One wrote: ‘As a nurse who works in home care, I’d thought I’d seen it all but have never even heard of this! Thanks for sharing.’
Another added: ‘Had no idea that was a thing tbh. Thanks for the education.’
A third, meanwhile, said: ‘Thank you for being so brave to show us that. Thank you for educating us.’
In the video she told of the intriguing sign that tells her she needs to use the toilet.
‘My eyes start to get a little watery,’ she said, adding that this precedes the symptoms of an immune system reaction called autonomic dysreflexia.
Autonomic dysreflexia is an abnormal overreaction of the nervous system to stimulation.
It involves a number of symptoms including sweating and racing heart rate, and causes blood pressure to rapidly rise.
For those with spinal cord injury, it is commonly triggered when the bladder is full and needs to be emptied.
Holding up a long cylindrical compact blue catheter, known as a SpeediCath, Ms Aiello added: ‘I can be anywhere I want doing this.
‘When I stick it into my belly button, it’ll actually reach my bladder.’
Pushing the catheter into her belly button allows her then to urinate.
Once finished, she sticks her thumb into a ‘little loop’ on the catheter bag, helping her ‘slowly pull it out’.
‘Then I will take the [catheter] cap in my hands, put it back in [the catheter tube] and push with my palm’.
‘Now I can discard it in the toilet’, she added.
‘To anyone who is thinking about getting this surgery, it is extremely brutal. It is a brutal surgery.
‘The recovery is really rough but if I had to do it again every single year I would.’
Prior her life changing surgery, she received biannual Botox injections — often used as a cosmetic procedure to reduce wrinkles — into her bladder.
These are designed to relax the muscles in the organ, allowing it to hold more water.
A similar procedure that sees Botox injected into the sphincter muscle in the backside, is also recommended on the NHS for both adults and children with chronic anal fissures that have not healed in eight weeks, despite treatment.
It acts by blocking certain muscle receptors, allowing the tissues to relax and facilitate healing of the fissure.
Prior her life changing surgery, she received biannual Botox injections — often used as a cosmetic procedure to reduce wrinkles — into her bladder
But Mitrofanoff surgery offered Ms Aiello a permanent solution.
The procedure creates a channel from the appendix or small intestine, connecting the bladder to the surface of the skin.
This allows a catheter to be inserted to empty it of urine.
Ms Aiello added: ‘In my case, my appendix was large enough where they did not need to use my intestines, but if your appendix is much smaller, they will proceed with using some of your intestines.
‘I do take some form of bladder spasm medication occasionally, to prevent my bladder from spasming and having leakage.
‘Autonomic dysreflexia is something that I was really scared about while I was in the hospital and in inpatient.
‘But throughout the years, I have actually learned to work with it and use it to my benefit.
‘I can always sense when my Autonomic dysreflexia is coming on.
‘Therefore, I will check my bladder, check my pants, my shoes, try and find where the source is coming from.
‘I actually enjoy the fact that I have autonomic dysreflexia because it is my body telling me that something is wrong before something really bad happens.’
