Learn with Comfizz
Hirschsprungs disease

Sleep is one of the top things a new ostomate worries about and can struggle to get into a new routine with following surgery. For sometimes decades, they may be used to sleeping a certain way bag free. To then have to find a new normal with your ostomy bag going nowhere soon is mentally and physically hard. If you have had a rough road with your illness and surgery, bedtime is where you want to try and relax and unwind which can be difficult as you get used to having a bag in the way. It won’t always feel that way, I promise. You will find a new way of sleeping that allows you to not worry about bag...

You may worry about how life will change following surgery. For me I was in chronic pain, living off a ridiculous amount of painkillers, and trying to make it through each day wishing the surgery would come yesterday. I was hoping to be able to reduce the pain killers and be able to walk without being in pain. 

Christmas feels that much more special this year. Can you feel it? After a few years of the pandemic having to hold back on what Christmas is about - being together. As I type this I am looking at my beautiful Christmas tree and it is not quite December 1st yet…don’t judge! A lot of us are doing the same as people share on social media their excitement about getting the festive season started earlier this year, and why not?! Why not bring joy into your life when times are hard. I say do you, get the decorations up if you want, and start the festivities when you want to.  

My beautiful boy, you have a long road ahead. You were born with the strength of a warrior and the fight to overcome more than most do in their whole lives within the first few years of life. You need stoma surgery like Mummy did when she was born. The word stoma is the opening made in the tummy to divert stool out of the intestine. It is like a rose bud sitting proudly on top of your skin. It moves sometimes like a wriggly worm and can be a bit naughty and poop when you don’t want it too.

As the wedding season began and the backlog of weddings put on hold due to Covid starting to fill the diaries, I was honoured to be Maid of Honour for my best friend. We have been friends over half our lives, met in school and as the old saying goes, the rest is history. Weddings are an exciting occasion for anyone, but when it's for someone as close to your heart as this, it means so much more.

October was a very special time for me as I entered my first 10K race in Cardiff, South Wales. Whatever possessed me to do it you ask? How many of you who are reading this with a chronic illness have found they can’t be as active as they once were? For me it was like a light switch was flicked and I couldn’t do anything without being in pain anymore. Its debilitating, demoralising and can lead you down a dark path mentally with the mental health benefits you loose over night. My health journey has been quite the fair ground ride.

It feels like it was only yesterday that my Instagram feed was glittered with beautiful photos of ostomates across the world, showing what World Ostomy Day means to them. For most of us who use the platform to document their journey living with an ostomy, its a daily occurrence, yet what is it about World Ostomy Day that makes it that much more special?

Recycling is something a lot of us do on autopilot with it being part of everyday life. Not one to show my age, but I can remember during my childhood having no recycling boxes outside the house and never seeing adverts or media circulated regarding the climate crisis. Thankfully one of the advantages of our children’s generation, is that they are made much more aware and have greater understanding from a young age, giving them the tools and education to actively be a part of tackling it. 

I had the phone call a few weeks in advance for my ileostomy surgery last Summer during lockdown. We had to isolate as a family for 10 days and I was in no means mentally prepared. With Covid I didn’t expect to have the surgery anytime soon giving us all quite the shock! A few weeks is much more than some people get with many stomas formed as the result of an emergency surgery where patients wake up to find one without even know what a stoma is.