World Ostomy Day 2020

Tomorrow is World Ostomy Day and I just wanted to take a minute to talk about what it has been like for me over the last 4.5 years of having a stoma both the good, the bad and the ugly.

This is by far my favourite image because falling pregnant with Button was just such an uncertainty especially after losing Bean just a few months before; knowing I could get to this stage in pregnancy was so amazing and also terrifying as anything can happen with pregnancy. 

My ileostomy has given me so many opportunities that I couldn't have dreamed about such as:

• falling pregnant twice even if Bean didn't make it they gave us hope
• being able to run again as I desperately missed doing that prior to my stoma even if it took me till this year to be able to get back into it
• going to Paris - my trip was made possible by Purple Wings Charity giving me a grant of a hotel voucher
• attending the Association of Stoma Care Nurses (ASCN) convention with Peak Medical
• being a model for Jasmine Stacey Collection lingerie - I was the only model other than Jasmine herself to be a Halloween model
• I was a calendar girl twice once for Stomawise in 2016 for their 2017 calendar with Ra-Ra and for Purple Wings Charity in 2017 whilst pregnant with Button for their 2018 calendar
• I have attended two Purple Wings Charity Balls 

I have however not had plain sailing when it came to having my ileostomy and they were:

• finding out I have hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and that is why my stoma has retracted into my stomach wall. It also gives a reason as to why before my j-pouch surgery in 2008 I had chronic constipation with my ulcerative colitis as it slows your digestive system down
• my peristomal skin at the moment is constantly sore due to the spout of my stoma dropping underneath the base plate
• I will more than likely need more surgery of which I will find out a bit more in December
• my output never seems to know what it wants to do and it fluctuates from being high out put to pancaking itself
• the leaks are becoming more and more frequent

Yes my ileostomy can be a pain in my out of order bum but I also wouldn't change it for the world because before then I was just existing and I couldn't ever imagine going back to my life before.