My stoma has provided so many benefits to my life, let’s start with the biggest: it gave me back my life, and I got me back!
I was so restricted in what I could do before stoma surgery, I was not just suffering with physical pain I was suffering with mental health problems, I certainly had depression and anxiety. The anxiety would come from worrying about whether I would make it to a toilet when I was out. I had so many accidents it was dominating my thoughts and my life.
But let’s get back to the benefits. After the recovery period of surgery, and what I call the ‘settling period’ (this is getting used to having a stoma and getting used to bag changes and a different way of life). It did not take long to start seeing the benefits. The most obvious was being pain free. I lived for years in constant pain! I found it actually felt rather strange to not be in pain, I was so used to being in pain it really did seem strange to not have any! That weirdly took a while to get used to, I felt myself starting to wait for the pain to happen, but it didn’t, which was fantastic.
Once the pain was gone, the next benefit came. My confidence grew, I now found I was not worrying about leaving the house, I no longer had to plan days out in terms of researching where there would be public toilets. I no longer had to plan how much pain medication I would need to take with me. I realised I could go anywhere and do anything! That felt amazing. Within less than a year of having the stoma surgery I went on holiday abroad and found myself going down very fast water chutes and having an amazing time. I was confident with myself and I was confident in my colostomy bag, I knew it would not come off in water or fast moving water. I was enjoying life and I was enjoying it with my family.
My wife and children are my world, and they are also benefitting from the stoma surgery. They have a husband and father that can do more, and more importantly, is happy. There really is not a single thing that I would be worried about doing, I will go anywhere and try anything. We have owned a campervan for nearly two years now and we love going away in the van, we love going off exploring new places. I never worry about anything health-wise. My stoma has allowed me to do everything I want.
I also got the promotion at work that I had wanted for years which my poor health had stopped from happening. With the stoma, I could achieve my goals at work, and I am now looking at completing the next promotion within the next two years.
I was in such a better place mentally and I was finally feeling happy with my life and happy with being me. Due to that feeling I wanted to help others that were in a similar place to me, so I started a YouTube channel with the aim of helping people that were thinking of having stoma surgery or were new to having a stoma. That channel has helped many thousands of people and the comments that are left on my videos are heartwarming. I am fairly sure the channel has saved the lives of people that were at the end of their tether with a stoma or their illness. What a benefit that is knowing that you have helped so many people.
My channel also led to this blog, it was due to my channel that I became an ambassador to the amazing company Respond. They are amazing because of the people that work there, they care, they really care.
Let’s finish with how it started, I GOT MY LIFE BACK, I GOT ME BACK! Is there any bigger benefit than that?
Thank you for reading, I wish you a Happy New Year and I will see you on the next blog.
