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So I have mentioned before that I may have to have further surgery on my ileostomy as it has retracted a fair bit and causes me a lot of hassle in my day to day like which is draining mentally and physically. This was originally mentioned back in November last year and was only briefly touched upon as due to surgical emergencies my appointment was running really late and I had to catch a bus. I have been ruminating on this since then and I was originally supposed to have had an appointment at the beginning of March to discuss everything. As we all know far too well the global pandemic of COVID – 19 happened and soon put a stop...

It is important to remember first & foremost with any health worry to get it checked out. If you have something abnormal, the best thing to do is to seek medical advice. You know your own body better than most. Some symptoms of Crohn’s Disease can also be symptoms of other things, from Ulcerative Colitis to intestinal blockages unrelated to chronic inflammation, so it is important to get the right medical diagnosis. Not everyone’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) diagnosis is straight forward or quick, so generally the earlier you get something looked into the better. The tests and examinations to determine what it is and how to treat it can vary from different doctors & specialists, but there are some...

Naked stoma in this post. Last week I spoke about some of the struggles I had been having with regards to my ileostomy and I try to talk about the good and the bad. Sometimes I hate my stoma. Actually scratch that I hate the things that make life with a stoma more difficult. Like hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) and eczema. – with the hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome my stoma has started to fall in on its self; which is easier to deal with than a prolapse or at least I think so. But it allows leaks to happen as there is now a gap between my skin and the bag.– the eczema often ends up in me scratching my bag off....

Hello readers & welcome to my first post in my ‘Chatting Crohn’s with Comfizz’ mini series. Over the next few months, I will be talking to you about a different aspect of Crohn’s Disease, starting today with the basics. What is Crohn’s Disease?   Not my image. From Google search. Crohn’s Disease (often referred to as Crohn’s) is a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The other main form of IBD, which you may have heard of is Ulcerative Colitis. Unlike Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s Disease can affect any part of the digestive system from the mouth to the anus and causes inflammation, but most commonly affects the small intestine and sometimes the large (colon). Ulcerative Colitis affects the large bowel....

I spent a very long time being poorly and adjusting to life from a preteen being exhausted and thinking about where the nearest toilet was. Most people that now have an ostomy for whatever reason I’m sure have experienced that as well. Even though after my first surgery I had a little bit of remission I wasn’t able to fully enjoy my life as I went from having constipation to diarrhoea. I wanted to appreciate some of the things I can do now with toilets being the least of my worries!     Enjoying time with my kids; okay so Button came along after my ileostomy but Ra-Ra didn’t and she didn’t have much of a mum for those 2.5...

Yes gardening is exercise if you are thinking “hmmmm why is it in the exercise category”! However I don’t blame you for questioning whether or not it deserves to be in this section; but during lockdown I certainly learnt it is hard work! 00Steve and I embarked on the back garden project where we entirely redesigned one corner of our garden. So we went from a lawn that slowly sloped up to holly trees to having two ponds, a rockery, a sunken trampoline, decking, two living walls and a raised bed herb garden! I started off by “supervising”, providing refreshments, keeping him company to actually getting stuck in!     We tried to share the workload, well as best as we could...

Pet therapy is a well known concept and I wanted to talk about how it has had a place in my life and to introduce my new dog Kobe! So I have worked in health care in a variety of settings for all my adult life and I have seen first hand how this kind of therapy can help many people be distracted from the pain they are in. Around the time that I started getting sick my parents got our dog Maxie she was a much loved little tart who loved a belly rub; she was never going to be a good guard dog although being a yorkshire terrier cross jack russell she knew how to bark. She used...

My opinions on my surgeries have changed over time and I certainly don’t feel the same way about ostomies as I did 12 years ago. Why 12 years ago? Well that is when I went in for my first bowel surgery and at 21 years old I had no idea what a stoma was, let alone there was the chance of having one.  The surgeon I saw decided he could do the jpouch surgery in one fell swoop which give him his due he did do and I often think now but at what cost? My newly formed pouch wasn’t given a chance to heal by not having the ileostomy which would have been a temporary measure. This popped up...

Male mental health week starts on Monday and this is something that means a lot to me as I have lost two incredibly good friends and one I was close to in primary school to suicide. I honestly don’t know if talking to professionals would have helped two of them as they both had gone through some pretty awful stuff during their 27 years. If nothing else Josh and Ste definitely lived rock star style lives and they say rock stars die at 27.  I know many blokes that live their lives bottling their thoughts and feelings up for the fear of “not being man enough” through toxic masculinity. Men are humans and they have feelings too; we should all...

You may, or may not, have seen the recent news last week regarding a male Inflammatory Bowel Disease patient, aged 34, at Barnsley hospital being given the right to die because he didn’t want to live with a permanent stoma bag. Before I go any further with this blog post, I am going to say that I am in no way making this about me and taking anything away from the man’s struggles & the struggles of his loved ones having to see him get to this dark place in his life. I am merely expressing my opinion & in no way is my opinion fact. It is what I feel and I believe we should all have the right...