Learn with Comfizz

As the wedding season began and the backlog of weddings put on hold due to Covid starting to fill the diaries, I was honoured to be Maid of Honour for my best friend. We have been friends over half our lives, met in school and as the old saying goes, the rest is history. Weddings are an exciting occasion for anyone, but when it's for someone as close to your heart as this, it means so much more.

There is a lot of criteria based on each individual in question going into ostomy surgery, such as your condition/reason for needing surgery. Other factors will play a part in this such as likely quality of life outcomes of surgery, age, chances of complications in surgery and/or recovery, whether the body may just need a rest to heal such as with some Inflammatory Bowel Disease cases where an ostomy may be reversed and whether other health problems may not make a patient a good candidate for future surgery. Every case is different, just as each illness and/or need for surgery is very personal and unique to that patient.

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. 

Unless you have had an operation to form a urostomy (where a stoma is formed to divert urine out of the body via the abdomen), you will pee as normal with an ileostomy & the same goes with a colostomy.  Both surgeries to form an ileostomy or colostomy divert bowel waste from the body, not urine. It is also possible for people to have stomas for both urine (urostomy) and bowel waste (ileostomy or colostomy) at once. 

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. 

With the UK seeing our first week of high temperatures this year as I look outside the window, the sun is beaming and I’m wondering why I still have a jumper on as I wasn’t prepared for such weather! I make a mental note to have a wardrobe sort out over the Easter half term as I look for outfits for the warmer weather. 

Did you know that GP’s in the UK get less than 2 hours training on eating disorders in their medical degree (sourced here)? It’s simply inconceivable. The topic of eating disorders was something I never had to give much thought about until I had my son, yet now it consumes most of my thoughts. Eating disorders awareness week is a chance to share our stories and connect with like minded people.

Stoma support wear is a range of garments, designed to support your abdomen post bowel surgery and provide both support & security to your stoma and stoma bag. Stoma support wear can be used as both hernia support and also as a preventative measure during physical activity. At Comfizz, we understand that stoma support wear isn't just limited to the above description. It can have many advantages and empowers many of our customers to have a higher quality of stoma life with added confidence and peace of mind.  

As I've been building my confidence, learning all things stoma life & sharing my experiences along the way since 2011, I have always enjoyed helping others. I have built my Instagram following of just over 9,000 followers (how crazy is that?!) in 3 years to share my reality of living with a stoma and my day to day life.

Through all the adaptions to life you will have to make during your recovery from ostomy surgery, learning how to get a good nights sleep is arguably one of the most important and difficult. Your body needs sleep to heal and mentally you need it to process the trauma of surgery. It may be difficult to start with if you are in some discomfort as things settle down. You have to learn to accept your body in its new state, this alone takes great courage and strength which in turn may be affecting your ability to shut off and get a good nights sleep.