Learn with Comfizz
Mental Health

How are you feeling this January? It’s easy to expect everyone to feel a sense of renewed possibilities, with the motivation to be healthier and hopeful. All we are met with is adverts for gym memberships, self care products and sales galore. Some may be feeling depressed, anxious, or just not their best, and that's ok. We all have difficulties in our lives whether it be financial, an illness, or relationship troubles to name but a few. 

Through all the adaptions to life you will have to make during your recovery from ostomy surgery, learning how to get a good nights sleep is arguably one of the most important and difficult. Your body needs sleep to heal and mentally you need it to process the trauma of surgery. It may be difficult to start with if you are in some discomfort as things settle down. You have to learn to accept your body in its new state, this alone takes great courage and strength which in turn may be affecting your ability to shut off and get a good nights sleep. 

February 17th has been marked as National Random Acts of Kindness Day celebrated by individuals, groups and organisations nationwide, to encourage acts of kindness. The dedicated website highlights the #RAKTIVIST MOVEMENT asking people to share their own and shout out about them. Here are some of my favourites:

Podcasts are undoubtably a brilliant form of self care. Putting those headphones in and escaping from the outside world, you can curate what you need in that moment. I listen mostly when I am doing something arduous like making dinner, ironing or running a long distance. In this blog I am sharing some of my favourites, covering a varied spectrum of topics.

I have spoken a lot about how following social media pages of ostomates leading up to my surgery last Summer really helped me feel prepared for life with a stoma bag. For all the negativity that social media use is spoken of, the positives have more than outweighed them for myself. I started my account to share life as a mum with a baby ostomate, then not having a stoma personally. I used the platforms to connect with other parents in the same position, and look for practical advice where life experience from others provided answers that the medical world could not. Life experience is like a precious diamond. A small call for advice on a closed parents group on...

In an ideal world you would leave hospital with your baby (poorly or not), and the leaflets fall into your lap about support whether it be practical, emotional or financial. For me a lot of what I am about to share had to be found as I went along. Unfortunately there are disadvantages according to where you live in the UK, as to what access you have to some of them. That is why I felt it so important to keep the conversation going in the hope others will find out this information much quicker than I did. 

Today is world mental health day and I just want to say I am not okay. I don’t need to share with you pictures of me at my lowest because that was last year and I managed to write to you all every week and pretend everything is okay. That’s what we do isn’t it? Fake it till we make it? Social media is full of unhappy people trying to make other people think they are happy or that their life is perfect. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Take my life for example…. If you take out the fact I’m ill give or take always have been and will always be ill, the fact 00Steve is always...

As you may have seen in last weeks post about Ostomy Surgery Appointments and how COVID had messed them about you may remember I said I would keep you updated on it. Well obviously my appointment hasn’t happened yet as it isn’t until December but it doesn’t mean it isn’t playing heavily on my mind. It isn’t something I like talking about being wary of surgery which in itself is entirely stupid as it shouldn’t matter if I am an advocate for positively (most of the time) living with an ostomy I am still human and I am allowed to worry and heck even be scared. No doubt some of it will be completely inconsequential  or just stupid vain stuff; but regardless...

You may, or may not, have seen the recent news last week regarding a male Inflammatory Bowel Disease patient, aged 34, at Barnsley hospital being given the right to die because he didn’t want to live with a permanent stoma bag. Before I go any further with this blog post, I am going to say that I am in no way making this about me and taking anything away from the man’s struggles & the struggles of his loved ones having to see him get to this dark place in his life. I am merely expressing my opinion & in no way is my opinion fact. It is what I feel and I believe we should all have the right...

Understandably, what is going on in the world right now with Covid-19 can be very daunting & scary at times for a number of reasons. We have all had to make changes, some of them quite dramatic, in a very short space of time. Some of us may have sadly experienced the virus closer to home or have tragically lost someone as a result of Covid-19. There is so much uncertainty around what may happen or how long adapted life like this will pan out, but I wanted to take this opportunity to hopefully provide a little bit of reassurance on living with a stoma at this time, & hopefully answer a few questions you may understandably have. If I...