To be honest, dressing with a stoma hasn’t changed much to how I dressed pre-stoma as I can still wear everything I wore before. Was this always the case? No, as at the beginning I practically got rid of half of my clothes as I thought I wouldn’t be able to wear them again.
I wore pyjamas and tracksuit bottoms for the first 4 months and didn’t want to try anything else.
At the beginning you are recovering from major surgery. You’re swollen, tender and the last thing you want is any pressure on not only your stoma, but your tummy area at all.
As this all settles, I started to dip my toe in and try sports leggings and jeans (high-waisted) and soon enough I began to realise I could still wear what I did before.
Wearing the bikini was the big one for me I wanted to prove to myself I could do it but the first holiday I went on, I couldn’t bring myself to do and that’s totally fine as you shouldn’t push these things if you’re not ready. But once I did it on my next holiday, there was no turning back for me!
I wear what I want to wear regardless of how I think others will think and for me that’s the biggest part of it all… Training your mind to stop worrying what others will say or think. If you can get your head round that, it will make life much easier when choosing what you want to wear rather than what you think you should be wearing.
I follow trends if I like them or I just wear what works for me. I wear training clothes a lot so I spend most my time in them but I wear what I feel comfortable in and don’t get me wrong, like anyone else, I have bad days where nothing sits or looks right. I have days where my stoma bag does annoy me with what I wear but I’m sure anyone will have days like that stoma bag or not and again, that’s ok, as long as you don’t stay there.
Being yourself and wearing want you want will change your experience with a stoma. Finding the ‘I will, I can and I did’ will make your journey with your stoma so much easier and empowering. Caring what others think and letting what others think determine your choices will set you back. Be unapologetically you!
