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Life

So this is going to be my fourth Christmas with an ostomy and every year I find something different to make the festive period a bit easier for me, especially as I work, have kids and I do all the cooking! I like my ostomy to work with me not against me!   Obviously the first thing I like to do is have all of my supplies ordered and then I start filtering out my supplies to the tower of drawers I have in my bathroom, refilling my emergency kits that I keep in my handbags and then I pop the extras in clear boxes on top of my wardrobe. I also being the one that cooks the food in...

So I thought I would do something a little different this week and I have written a few poems on life with an ostomy which you can find here, here and here. Often writing a particular theme can give you writers block especially on poems; this was certainly no different even though I used the acrostic style. Do you remember writing poems in this style as a child in primary schools often around harvest or Christmas?   O – opportunities to be experienced S – support from others T – travelling can become easier O – optimism for the future M – medical marvels Y – years to look forward too   L – less trips to the loo! I – independence regained F – fitness can be achieved once more E – events...

A year or so ago I decided to raise awareness for ostomies (for World IBD Day) by sticking ostomy bags to statues around where I live which you can read about here. The same year I believe I stuck a bag on my carved pumpkin which made for a good talking point for people when they came to our house; this is something easy we could all do and create awareness whilst having a bit of fun. I am going to do that again this year too with some of the bag samples that I didn’t get on with. I also aim to “osto bomb” some of our local places of interest with some decorated bags with ghosts and maybe even a pumpkin...

Many people think once you have an ostomy of any type that you can’t do much afterwards for the risk of hernias. Whilst to an extent that is true the extent being once you have an ostomy you are at risk of a hernia as long as you wear the correct type of support wear (see any of the Comfizz range!) for what you are wanting to do you can do anything even things people would deem as extreme just as these ostomates will show you! For me my extreme since having an ileostomy is going for hikes and hikes where I live consist of miles of moorland and hills! One hill we all call a mountain as it is definitely looks more...

Back in May Comfizz launched their competition to be in with a chance of being selected as a Comfizz Style Ambassador. Having relied on their ostomy support wear since after my surgery, I knew straight away that I just had to enter! To enter the competition, Comfizz wanted you to send in your images of Comfizz “in style”. You could send in as many as you wanted (which I felt helped bring out my creative side more!) so long as you made sure the photos were tasteful, focused & interesting. I sent in a selection of photos showing off different Comfizz garments and enjoyed composing them such as in the photo above. The one I really enjoyed putting together was a “before...

World Ostomy Day is technically every 4 years but I don’t think a single ostomate acknowledges that since we are proud of our ostomies and the life it allows us to have again after being so poorly before them. We should be acknowledged every year just like cancers are and even food days! I just wanted to share a bit about my back story and how I came to get my ileostomy.   I have had my ileostomy for 3.5 years and it seriously is one of the best choices I have ever made because my life has never been better! I have quality of life back, very little pain and of course my beautiful baby Button. I had to fight...

We all experience urgency regardless if it is bladder and bowel; yet when we have surgery and an ostomy formed the urgency changes – it becomes “Oh no we need to empty” or “Oh I need to change my appliance!” Both can be upsetting if we are nowhere near a bathroom or somewhere private. I took to Twitter and asked people where the weirdest place they emptied or changed their appliance was and I thought it might be interesting for others to read. For me I was in Whitby and on a pleasure boat ride on the North Sea and all of a sudden I realised I needed to empty and quickly! I was also heavily pregnant with Button at...

Are you struggling with your ostomy? Do you feel alone if your stoma wasn’t formed due to Cancer or Inflammatory Bowel Disease? Well did you know that the internet isn’t just full of horror stories and that social media has evolved past just photos of what you had for dinner or what you have been doing during the day? In this post I want to talk about the main three social media types and how they can hopefully benefit you. So we will start off with the one most people maybe familiar with which is Facebook; obviously I have Ulcerative Colitis which is a form of IBD but 20+ years ago the internet wasn’t what it is now and there...

Hello and Happy New Year to all our lovely readers! I trust you had a nice time with family and friends or chilling by yourself if that is your thing?  Do you make resolutions/goals/mini challenges? There is a lot of negativity around resolutions hence the fact I added the other options. I personally prefer goals or challenges and this year I have made a few small goals. I want to be healthier and that doesn’t include anything to do with my weight which is quite a nice change of perspective. I want to be able to eat what I want but sensibly rather than eating like it is my last meal and not making decent choices. I want to be...

Now that doesn’t sound so weird as most of us probably had the nurses change it at some point since having our ostomy; heck some of us may have even had a loved one do it. Not me though well except the nurse part as that is a given! 00Steve, nor my family have changed my stoma bag – they have been there when I have done it myself before but other than maybe glancing they  haven’t had much to do with it and that is the way I like it! So who is the person then that I let change my appliance? Well as you may know I work in a building of extra care and support flats for...