InsideOutlet

May 3, 2017 Things I Wish I Knew Back Then...

No. 2: Things I wish I knew back then…

Stickers AKA Filter Labels

As part of writing the piece on ostomy support, I joined a few of the groups I researched and one of the most common questions that I saw on my feed from a variety of those groups was what are the sheet of stickers that comes in the box with the bags? As I sit here I really can’t remember what my first thoughts were when I unpacked that first pack of ostomy supplies and saw those stickers but I’m sure it was something like the masses, what are they for and how do I use them.

April 27, 2017 Things I Wish I Knew Back Then...

No. 1: Things I Wish I Knew Back Then…

Tommee Tippee Sangenic Hygiene Nappy Bin

Bag Disposal

Ok, this is something I didn’t even consider when I was a temporary ostomate, as I refused to think about anything further than the day I was working on to save bursting into tears again. But after getting a permanent ileostomy and knowing there was no going back I started to think more about the long-term practicalities. One of these was the disposal process of the ostomy supplies. Some suppliers give you disposal bags in with your ostomy bags, I tend to save these up for holidays as they are less opaque than cheap nappy bags from the shops and I have fewer issues with a family member seeing the used bag then a room attendant. Either way, this only solved part of the problem, the bathroom bin although smelling a lot more pleasant it still filled up so fast.

SOLUTION

April 22, 2017 Body Love, General, Health, Support

Ostomy Glamour Shoot

If someone had told me when this journey began that I would be in a boudoir glamour shoot radiating confidence with an ostomy bag I would have laughed at them and then silently cried about it later. It was something I had on my dreams list but didn't dare to think about after getting an Ostomy. It would have just been another thing that would depress me on the list of things I thought never possible again. I hated getting naked and couldn't stand to look at myself in the mirror. I had gone from never being home to shying away from all social settings and avoiding photos where at all possible. Something I only recently began to regret. There are huge gaps in my memory that photos could have helped fill. I never realised how significant a part of my life it would be given all I wanted to do at the time was forget it was happening.

April 14, 2017 General, Health, Support

Ostomy Support

Let me just say wow! Thank you social media. How times have changed, going back ten years when my journey began Facebook may have existed but not in its glorious form it does these days. The ability to reach out to others across barriers is astounding. I am so blown away by the magnitude of support groups, pages, blogs and websites that are out there. The time and effort that the ostomy community puts into supporting each other is astronomical. One of my main drivers for setting up the web page and blog was to ensure that other ostomates knew not only that there was support out there but where to find it.

April 11, 2017 General, Health, Support, Travel

Great Comebacks Award Entry

My story

I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (UC) in 2006 after continuously being run down, losing weight, having poor appetite and mood. It was kept at bay with a myriad of tablets for about a year before I started getting severe abdomen pains and continued to lose weight. After three visits to the hospital, weeks of IV steroids, 13 days awake straight and 20 kilogrammes dropped in less than a month, late 2007 I ended up in emergency surgery and received a temporary ileostomy I called Squish. This was one of the most challenging times of my life. Before UC I considered myself to be an outgoing active person and used to pride myself on being the life of the party. Now I was severely depressed and couldn’t look at myself in the mirror without crying, let alone leave the house and be social. Luckily I had some amazing friends that stood by my side (sometimes literally holding me up) even when I was pushing them away.

April 11, 2017 General

Ten Years On, Why Start Now?

It's ten years on now from when I first began this ordeal, why now have I started this you may ask as I'm not a writer. I was never any good at English in school and my spelling has always been appalling. I even had to change that word to something that spell check could recognise, as my original thought came up with "no replacements found”. My punctuation sucks, I'm not sure when I should use a comma or a full stop and don't even get me started on what a verb is versus a noun (much to my husband’s dismay, he has explained it many times but like times tables it never stuck). But despite all this, I still believe that by putting my story out there it may help others overcome any hurdles thrown in their way.