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Something I get asked a lot about is drinking alcohol with my ostomy; which makes me laugh because I don’t drink that often anymore but when I’m in the mood for it I sure do enjoy a drink. Last night was my birthday and I had a night out scheduled so I thought it was the perfect time to talk about having a boozey night when having an ostomy.  I have a few things that I like to do when it comes to preparing myself for a night out so that I don’t feel worse for wear in the morning, it isn’t a perfect prevention for hangovers but it definitely helps! drink a dioralyte or an electrolyte solution before you go out...

Define mental wellness Mental wellness is not necessarily just to do with not having a mental illness. It is to do with a largely positive thinking mind and one that knows how to use resilience in order to function in an individual’s best interests. It is being able to go about our lives and make decisions that will positively impact our lives, where possible. Define mental illness Mental illness is a general term, usually used to define disorders that negatively impact your health, down to a chemical imbalance in the brain. Mental illnesses are influenced by a number of factors, but having one usually means that our daily lives are negatively impacted in one form or another. Whether that impact...

So this is going to be my fourth Christmas with an ostomy and every year I find something different to make the festive period a bit easier for me, especially as I work, have kids and I do all the cooking! I like my ostomy to work with me not against me!   Obviously the first thing I like to do is have all of my supplies ordered and then I start filtering out my supplies to the tower of drawers I have in my bathroom, refilling my emergency kits that I keep in my handbags and then I pop the extras in clear boxes on top of my wardrobe. I also being the one that cooks the food in...

So this week has been Crohns and Colitis awareness week (inflammatory bowel disease aka IBD) and our diseases can vary wildly from person to person but some things affect us all. This week over on Instagram I did a post a week with a little snapshot how having ulcerative colitis affected me which I will share in this post. December 1st – Today marks the start of Crohns and Colitis awareness week! I had to have a rough guess at my medication tally but its definitely around 8! I was diagnosed 2 years after symptoms started. There is the possibility of more surgery but I’m still not sure how I feel about that yet. December 2nd – I don’t have many photos left...

Hi Comfizz readers! Over the next few weeks, I will be writing about several elements surrounding the invisible disability of mental health. In these posts, I will be discussing various mental health matters & sharing my own mental health experiences, as well as including some useful mental health contacts & some tips I find help me. This week is the NHS’ #SelfCareWeek which ties in nicely with me starting this mini blog series. I will be including a self-care post closer to Christmas which I am super looking forward to writing. Mental health is something I have a lot of experience with & is also something I am very passionate about. So, what is mental health? Having a look around...

Having stoma surgery is definitely a big deal, whether for a temporary stoma or a permanent one. There is a lot of information out there that we all get bombarded with pre-surgery especially, leaving a lot of us feeling very overwhelmed and wondering where to start first when it comes to learning all about the stoma world! However, some people feel before surgery especially that they were not provided with enough support/information to prepare them for life with a stoma. Some people also have their surgery as an emergency, so may not have ever heard of a stoma before or actually had that time to prepare! It’s safe to say that you can read up all you like about having...

Many people think once you have an ostomy of any type that you can’t do much afterwards for the risk of hernias. Whilst to an extent that is true the extent being once you have an ostomy you are at risk of a hernia as long as you wear the correct type of support wear (see any of the Comfizz range!) for what you are wanting to do you can do anything even things people would deem as extreme just as these ostomates will show you! For me my extreme since having an ileostomy is going for hikes and hikes where I live consist of miles of moorland and hills! One hill we all call a mountain as it is definitely looks more...

Back in May Comfizz launched their competition to be in with a chance of being selected as a Comfizz Style Ambassador. Having relied on their ostomy support wear since after my surgery, I knew straight away that I just had to enter! To enter the competition, Comfizz wanted you to send in your images of Comfizz “in style”. You could send in as many as you wanted (which I felt helped bring out my creative side more!) so long as you made sure the photos were tasteful, focused & interesting. I sent in a selection of photos showing off different Comfizz garments and enjoyed composing them such as in the photo above. The one I really enjoyed putting together was a “before...

Like with most things in life moderation is definitely key and it is even more important in my mind after ostomy surgery. Not just in the healing period but for the rest of your life with an ostomy. I’m not trying to be preachy when I say don’t gorge yourself on certain food or drink but more from experience! When I started to feel myself again after my surgery and for the first time in a really long time I wasn’t in pain any more and food were no longer triggers I literally ate everything I could and as much of it as I could stomach. This wasn’t the best idea in hindsight but allowed me to pinpoint some very specific areas...

We all need electrolytes to keep our body in tip tip condition but did you know that having an ostomy specifically an ileostomy can affect the levels of electrolytes you have? In this post we will have a little look into what they are and what they do! Electrolytes are salts and minerals that hold a type of electricity more specifically positive and negative ions once they are dissolved in liquid; in your body this is your blood, sweat and urine. Electrolytes found in your body include: Sodium Potassium Chloride Calcium Magnesium Phosphate Bicarbonate They help your body do a variety of things such as ensuring your nerve endings and muscles function properly and keeping you hydrated – which those...