Learn with Comfizz

Looking for ostomy education & related topics, helpful hints & real life experiences? Look no further! Browse our blog for support!

3/12/20 International Day of Persons with Disabilities: Does my stoma mean I'm disabled?

Whether an invisible or visible disability, this question is something that understandably sparks a lot of thought, discussion & personal reasons for the individual. The views you will read in this article are mine only so please remember this is just how I see it. They are not medical guidance or otherwise and I am not speaking on behalf of those with disabilities. Everyone has their own views. As always, please consult a medical professional or legal professional for help with the things in this blog post before acting upon them. This blog post is merely how I interpret things combined with my experience of living with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) & a permanent ileostomy. What defines “disability?” Under the...

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Hiking with my ileostomy

I have always been one of those people that adores the great outdoors but not so fond of just sitting about in the garden I need to be doing something outside. Due to my multiple chronic health conditions I always had some anxiety in the back of my head regarding solo treks; this year I decided to break that fear and go off by myself, don’t get me wrong having Kobe helps plus the odd friend who will join me on occasion too. Having an ileostomy certainly hasn’t stopped me from going off and enjoying myself.

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19th November: World Toilet Day – Why Inflammatory Bowel Disease is so much more than “just a toilet disease”.

However, I believe it’s important to also focus on the other things that Crohn’s Disease & IBD causes. It isn’t just a “toilet disease” and unfortunately, often due to lack of education on the subject rather than ignorance, people are often quick to judge & think IBD basically means you go to the toilet more & have more upset stomach difficulties than others.

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Comfizz Story by co-founder Lorraine Alikhanizadeh BSC hons, PGDip SRD

“When I grow up, I want to do something that helps people” that is what I used to say to my young self. I did not know exactly what that would look like, never imagined it would be in the form of support wear, but here we are. It started with Sportswear The original Comfizz established 1998 was a sports and Leisure wear company, one of the first to bring ‘performance base layers’ to the UK. My husband, Nozar, ran the company initially from home with just one designer to help him. Then came the bowel disease The Comfizz you see today specialising in medical support wear emerged in 2004 when my dad Ernie, who had been battling with Ulcerative...

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The Benefits of Support Wear After Surgery by Lorraine Alikhanizadeh

So you’ve had your stoma surgery and you’re well on the way to making a full recovery and getting back to normal life, normal life being pretty much whatever you did before your illness but with a few differences. Apart from the obvious mechanical changes your stoma imposes, there’s not much that you can’t do, that you could do before your surgery, provided you take the right measures to reduce your risk of developing a parastomal hernia. The literature shows that 50% of those with a stoma will go on to develop a hernia within the first two years after surgery (Boyles 2010. McGrath et al 2006, Thompson 2008). What exactly is a parastomal hernia? When a stoma is formed...

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Scar Tissue and ME

I like many people who have had multiple surgeries live with scar tissue or adhesions and sometimes they go varying lengths of time without having pain or on the other hand having loads of pain. This is something I have to deal with a lot but there has been times where it is worse than others; and I have been recording when I find the pain to be more unbareable than others and weirdly I have found it to be around the time I ovulate. Having periods after having my tubes tied is even more irritating than just having them in general.  When Button was born the horror of a surgeon told me my left ovary was missing and claimed...

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Invisible Disabilities Awareness Week

Invisible disabilities awareness week this year runs from October 18th to the 24th and the idea behind it is to educate people that not all disabilities are visible and we that what you see isn't always what you get! Other's use the phrase don't judge a book by it's cover or you don't know what goes on behind closed doors.  Very few people unless they see my stoma actually accept that I am ill; all of my other conditions because people can't see them they don't exist and a lot of people forget that I have limitations. I try and act as normal as I possibly can but by the time evening rolls around I'm absolutely knackered; it's even worse...

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Lignocade Infusion During A Pandemic

On the 1st of October I went in for my lignocade infusion to help with multiple conditions I have that cause me chronic and total body pain. When I had originally got the appointment the hospital I would be receiving treatment; at had no covid patients and I was relieved. Then the week of the appointment the hospital had a t least 25 patients and the anxiety really started to set in. I have friends that work on wards in the sister hospital letting me know they were covid free if I could swap to that one. In reality I wouldn’t have been able to get Ra-Ra to school and Button to nursery then drive 20 miles to the hospital...

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World Mental Health Day 2020

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...

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