Learn with Comfizz
Family and Friends

Never mind waiting for a man to buy you flowers (thank you Miley for the reminder!) Galentine’s Day is an excuse to show love and gratitude to those in your life that have helped you through the hard times and celebrated you through the good. I am extremely blessed to have wonderful friends and family around me, and I count myself very lucky in the past year through one of the most difficult yet that I have had that support network around me and my little man. 

I am rather a sociable being and love the bones of my friends. Having a poorly child will show you very quickly who the real ones are, the ones that reach out. The ones that have the difficult conversations then entertain your anxieties and dramatics in times of hardship. Child-care has always been an achilles heal for us with a child with both an ostomy and a feeding tube. 

On a walk the other week with my children’s dad I realised I needed to empty my stoma and we were in the middle of the moors and there were no bins for miles; for me to empty into a disposable bag and pop it in. So obviously I had to empty off the beaten track which is not my favourite thing to do but I was more shocked at what he said to me when I told him I needed to empty. 

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:

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.