Learn with Comfizz

Some of us may have seen the memes about how us social recluses or those with social anxiety have been preparing for this our whole lives but I can honestly say that at first I laughed at it and although I use it as a deflection of how I really feel; yet this lockdown is going to break me mentally. Just a little bit of context it has been 4 months since I last thought about ending my life and just over a year ago that I acted out on my plans. With the local mental health teams just pulling out entirely when I needed them most I spent last summer not leaving the house; I couldn’t even bring myself...

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...

The United Kingdom is on lockdown until further notice, the schools are closed except for key workers kids and the vulnerable, many employers have had to furlough staff in a bid to flatten the curve to slow the spread of the virus and more importantly help reduce the potential strain on the NHS. We are *currently* allowed to go out to exercise once a day either solo or as a household. That doesn’t mean you want too though whether because of showing symptoms and self isolating, the anxiety of catching it or because you just plain don’t want too! For us as a household it is difficult as I want to try and go for a run but I also...

I have at times struggled with my peristomal skin like I mentioned in a post last week when I wrote about self care for your ostomy I just wanted to talk about the different issues I have come across when it comes to the skin around your stoma, I haven’t experienced all of these but there are some accounts across social media where people who live with conditions talk about it in depth and openly. I guess that is the beauty of social media you can search tags and find almost anything!   When I say peristomal skin I personally mean the skin underneath the base plate; I’m not sure if that’s how the experts word it but it’s around the stoma...

What is stoma pancaking? We know it’s not going to be as pleasant as pancakes of the edible kind when we discuss pancaking in terms of stoma problems! Stoma pancaking can occur when there is little to no air inside of the stoma bag. This can lead to a vacuum forming, which then means output from the stoma stays stuck on  the stoma, or around the top of the stoma bag and on the bag filters. The output then cannot flow down into the stoma bag, unfortunately leading to the stoma bag coming away from the stoma in some cases, if not spotted early. This can then lead to sore skin, which can contribute to more leakages. Stoma pancaking can...

Not everyone thinks about how to self care when it comes to your ostomy and until my depression hit really badly neither did I! Yet when you think about it, it is actually quite important to think about caring for your ostomy and yourself as even though it is part and parcel the two have slightly different requirements. As we all know our ostomy can be either a very steady and reliable little red blob OR it can literally be doing try outs for Dennis the Menace. We do have to roll with the punches sometimes and that is when our ostomy self care comes into play! Most of us have a fairly standard routine that we don’t often deviate from...

Trigger warning: In this post, I discuss mental illness in some detail so before you read on, please do so with caution/self-care steps in place or avoid if you are mentally struggling. Remember, my inbox is always open on my Instagram and via e-mail: hashtagstomabags@gmail.com. I also include mental health support links in my previous post & there is a Samaritans link at the end of this post. Please remember that the views in this post are my own only. I am not a professional and am in no way giving concrete advice. If you are worried, it is always best to consult a medical professional/someone you trust. Understandably, having a chronic illness & having surgery of any type can have a huge...

So today I want to talk about the Coronavirus which is obviously causing mass hysteria and worry. As people with compromised immune systems we obviously do have a right to worry but is most of the information shared on social media just hype and bad case scenarios rather than being fully informative? I have spent a few days reading different articles and after some posts on Facebook I have seen that just seemed like pure scaremongering I felt that this post needed to be done. I want to highlight that although I work within the healthcare sector I am not a nurse or a doctor so I will cite sources as required. I would also like to state that any...

Last year I chose to speak only about one special woman and it was our very own Lorraine but this year I have decided to change it up a bit and talk about some women within the ostomy world who aren’t just ladies I have the privilege of calling my friends but they are the epitome of strength and resilience. They each have their own vulnerabilities of which they share with the whole world via their social media channels. So without further ado here they are: Amy – @ibdwarriorprincess  Amy is my fellow blogger here on Comfizz and is the first person to check in when my mental health isn’t that great. She has Crohns and an ileostomy; her blogs were some...

Today March 8th is International Women’s Day and this is going to be a little bit different to what we usually talk about on our Friday post’s but today I wanted to celebrate our Big Boss Lady Lorraine and why her like every other woman in our life needs to know that they are important and that we recognise that.  Lorraine as you may know has had lots of experience around Inflammatory Bowel Disease what with her Dad having Ulcerative Colitis and her youngest son having Crohns disease. She and her husband Big Boss Man Nozar started this company after Ernie had his ostomy formed and there wasn’t really any support wear available that wasn’t just as I put it...