Learn with Comfizz

Every year the world comes together to raise awareness for all ostomies, their many diverse reasons, ages groups and hopefully try to remove the stigma one person at a time. We as ostomates aren’t alone in trying to do this; the companies that work within the ostomy sector, charities and bloggers all do something too! Saturday 6th of October is the day where stomas will be everywhere on social media and even out on the streets! The theme this year is “Speaking Out Changes Lives” and it is so true, so many people have this idea people with stomas got them from cancer and are old – which is far from the truth nowadays. I and the many other advocates/bloggers/vloggers...

This month we have Dan from Respond. I met Dan at a Stoma Open day last year before I went to see the Pelican factory in Cardiff, he helped me think of some ideas of questions to ask whilst I was there as Pelican use Respond as their delivery service. What company do you work for?  Pelican Healthcare  What is your job role?  Territory Manager How long have you worked there? 11 years How did you get into this job? I previously worked for Smith & Nephew selling woundcare products. After a break from the industry I wanted to get back into healthcare sales and looking around the opportunity with Pelican came up via a recruitment agency and stoma care looked like it had a...

Do you find you get a fair few boxes once you have used your supplies? Have you ever thought of a use for them rather than just putting them in the recycling? Well I have come up with an idea to make use of them! Now this does have to do with my daughters reception teacher asking for recycling for their “creation station”. I was chatting to her about the fact I have little boxes that my Varimate Wedges and other ostomy “accessories” came in, which she was saying was pretty perfect for the kids creation area. I just happened to mention that my stoma bags come in boxes a bit smaller than shoe boxes and she said they would...

Did you know that our lovely Lorraine had written a book on the bowels, based on her professional background as a dietitian and her personal experiences with her son Samir who has Crohn’s disease. I thought it would be interesting to read from the point of view of someone who has suffered with Irritable Bowel Disease and even though I now have had my large bowel, rectum and some of my small intestine removed; would I be able to recommend it honestly to others before they have surgery as an option? I would like to point out now that although Lorraine provided me with the book to read, she has in no way influenced my opinion of this book and...

Do you have an ileostomy or a colostomy? Have you come across your ostomy appliance filling up with air during the day but mainly through the night and on waking? You probably have it is where your body omits gas and it collects in your appliance and is often referred to as ballooning. It is pretty much my nemesis along with pancaking as both of these are the only reasons I ever suffer leaks anymore since changing to the Peak Medical Varimate bags. But there are different things can increase or reduce the amount of gas you produce. Now at the end of the day before our ostomy surgery we passed gas the normal way and during the night none of us...

This month’s instalment of Reppin’ the Rep’s is the lovely Sam from Coloplast. I have met her at stoma open days in my local area and when she did a talk at The Hambleton and Richmondshire Ostomy Support Group she talked about Core4 and had one of our stoma care nurses on the floor showing us all the exercises! What company do you work for? Coloplast What is your job role? Executive Territory Manager How long have you worked there? 14 years How did you get into this job? I started my sales career 22 years ago in the pharmaceutical industry working with GP’s and nurses. I did this for 7 years then moved into the Wound Care division of Coloplast in August 2004....

I have a guest post this week from Rio; she got in touch with me wanting to share her story and I thought it would be a good idea to share it here as surgery is surgery! Are you thinking about having or a have a jpouch? I don’t have many positive things to say about when I had mine so I thought this post is absolutely perfect and will put your worries to bed! The Beginning My story starts at the beginning of 2009 when I started having symptoms of what I now know to be Ulcerative Colitis. It was my first year of University and I was living away from home in halls. I suddenly got ill with...

The brains at Comfizz HQ came up with the wonderful idea of running a stoma care clinic right in the the offices where you can not only see a specialist stoma care nurse BUT you can ask all the nitty gritty questions about hernia prevention and support wear from those who know it best! These clinics are such a great idea because so many of us wanting to prevent hernia’s have ostomies. You may not be able to see your stoma care nurse easily or prefer to not be in a hospital setting. The staff at Comfizz are really nice and easy to talk too and I’m not just saying that because when I first had my ileostomy I started...

Yes! Backpacking with an ostomy! I didn’t think it could be easily achieved with an ostomy but two of my friends have both gone off into the unknown and I asked them about what it was like for them and did they have to take anything special or take certain precautions. We are seeing more and more younger ostomates who want to go travelling, see the world and test their boundaries; we also have older ostomates who finally feel well enough to do the same. Read on intrepid explorers to find out their top tips!  First of all we have Mark who talked about his ostomy journey last year. who literally sold his London flat to fund his travels and has been actually living...

No matter how far along in your ostomy journey you are I fully believe it is a good idea to have what I call a “go bag” for different situations or reasons. You may have found the perfect routine which leaves you with next to no leaks now which is fantastic but there is always the small possibility something may change be it what you have eaten, the weather or something else. I have a few different bags of varying sizes dotted around the place which mainly gives me the reassurance that I can carry on my day with a clean appliance. So I have in my work bag one full bag change and that includes some underwear! One in...