Learn with Comfizz
Ant's Vlogs

This Valentine's Day, we wanted to share some tips with you for dating after ostomy surgery. Understandably, this can be something that can be very overwhelming and daunting after ostomy surgery, so Ant's video will hopefully give you some tips to help reassure you and guide you.

The good news is that there isn't really any gym exercise that you need to avoid in the long term and it is important to note that although you don't need to avoid things, some exercises are to be built up to, such as anything very core-orientated.

With Christmas being so close (it's Christmas Day in just a few days), it can be a time of anxiety and apprehension if you have an ostomy, especially if you're new to the ostomy world & this is your first ostomy Christmas. Daily routines change & everything gets mixed up, you forget what day it is & can find the changes hard, especially trying to navigate them with a stoma.

Whether you're new to ostomy life or whether you've had an ostomy for a few years, several years or more, it's normal to come across things that you may find a little more difficult to navigate. It's also normal to also find some things challenge. Not everyone experiences the same challenges but at the same time, no ostomy is the same from person to person. Everyone experiences ostomy life differently.

This time of year means switching the clothes in your wardrobe around and putting those summer clothes away and bringing the warm clothes and layers out! Especially if you are new to ostomy life, you may be nervous or unsure about dressing for the colder weather. You may be worried that layers might restrict your ostomy, but we are here to tell you that you can layer up with an ostomy without it stopping it from working and in fact, our garments can definitely help you do that. Scroll down this blog post after Ant's video to find out how.

One of the most common questions as you start to adapt to life with a stoma is "what is the best way to sleep with a stoma?" Especially if you were a stomach sleeper before your surgery, even doing something so natural as sleeping can seem quite the challenge! Add hospital nights with beeping machines and being woken up what seemed like a zillion times to get your blood pressure checked and even getting back into some sort of sleeping routine can often take a good while. 

Having ostomy surgery can, naturally, be so daunting, then you've got all these life elements to think of that increasingly creep back in as you recover, including your sex life. Being concerned about intimacy is normal and you may have questions running through your head such as "will my partner find me attractive any more?", "will my sex life be the same as before surgery?" and "will having sex hurt me?"

Travelling with an ostomy for the first time for any journey can be daunting, to say the least. It could be months since you've had your surgery or years, but it's safe to say that whenever it is, it's perfectly understandable to have many questions & worries.

Let's start this post by saying that drinking alcohol with an ostomy is not the same for everybody, as is the case with a lot of things in ostomy life. It is also different depending on which ostomy you have - ileostomy, colostomy or urostomy.

It is natural for endless questions to be whirring around your head and to feel apprehensive about the answers or not knowing where to go for answers. One of these questions that we know a lot of ostomates have after surgery, as they start to recover, is "what clothes can I wear with a stoma?" Many people panic that they'll have to dress in clothes that don't reflect the person they are and/or spend their lives hiding in baggy clothes.