Long story short last year I won Convatec’s Great Comebacks Award and this year they wanted me to tell my story and hand the award on to the next worthy recipient. My husband and son were not allowed to join me due to adoption laws within Australia, which lead me to ask my amazeballs sister to come to Brisbane with me.
Going back as far as I can remember I always wanted to travel the world, there wasn’t a continent not on my dreams list. As a family we never stayed put in one place for long, first living in an old bus that had been fitted out travelling around Australia getting home-schooled before settling down if you could call it that, moving house every six months to two years until I was old enough to take flight and step out on my own. At 19 I left my rental property, my boyfriend of three years, my job and my family with $50 AUD in my purse, a back pack and a sense of adventure, from that moment I was hooked on travel. I returned just over six months later to finish my accounting and finance degree with the knowledge that I could use those skills, making the world my oyster.
I got as naked as you can safely get with an ostomy and ventured out onto the deck. Having an ostomy ensures you are never truly naked except possibly in the shower if you are willing to play chicken with your output. Many of us also have scars so this is an experience that never entered my mind post ostomy surgery and pre ostomy I would have been too self conscious about stretch marks and cellulite to consider it. So in my wildest dreams I never thought I would experience this let alone be writing about it. But, without it I don’t think I would have been brave enough to be as open as I am now. Also we just booked our second clothing optional cruise on The Big Nude Boat in 2019, so I thought I’d share the first experience with you.
September is Sepsis Awareness Month, Sepsis can be a life-threatening condition. It can lead to shock, failure of organs, and in rare cases an ostomy bag depending on where the sepsis occurs and the organs affected. Despite advances in modern medicine sepsis is still the leading cause of death from infection due to the fact that is very difficult to predict, diagnose, and treat.
I recently spent some time with local business owner and chiropractor Dr Gareth from Hilton Chiropractor discussing potential projects we could liaise on to help people who have recently had abdominal surgery, the most common question I get asked is can I do core workouts and if so where did I start. So this seems the obvious place to start. Note this is a two piece series.
Training your core while on your back. This is helpful post-surgical recovery and before you do more challenging exercise.
Training the spinal muscles while on your tummy or while 4 point kneeling…. Yes, you can do exercises on your tummy with an ostomy!
Recently I was lucky enough to get some extra time with Sally Reynolds, an experienced personal trainer and owner of Phoenix Fitness Broome when she was down in Perth to run the HBF Run for a Reason. Sally is not only a successful business owner she has endured years of ulcerative colitis later diagnosed as crohns before receiving an ileostomy a couple of days before new years 2000. Please take the time to read her full story HERE. Together we made this short post-op core basics exercise video, running through some basic to hard exercises that strengthen your core over time.
For Instructional Video on Core Basics Click HERE.
I became a Fitness Leader in 1990 when I realised that my goal of becoming a famous actress was not as likely as I’d first thought. I have worked continuously in the fitness industry since then sometimes as my full-time job and at others as a sideline. I’ve worked as a gym instructor, centre manager, personal trainer, group fitness instructor, course lecturer, anatomy tutor and gym owner.
After posting on Insta and a few groups about a trick I use to seal my bag I was inundated with questions about that and various other points of my bag. So I was excited and a little nervous as I woke my husband to aid me in filming this video. Someone had asked me to do a video to explain the photograph, at first I thought that is a great idea and then my second thought was am I ready to show strangers squish? I had started this out aiming to help others by being a positive image and breaking the stigmas associated with having a stoma while educating those who are interested in knowing more. But when I began I had never thought I would be brave enough to share Squish but in the aid of personal growth and helping others I sucked it up and tada we made this video. It’s not perfect by a long shot but who is, it’s also not viewing for everyone as you will be exposed to my stoma (he’s actually not that bad-looking), so if you’re not yet ready to watch save it for later or if it’s not your thing just skip this post. Before you do though I must say you may be pleasantly surprised if you do watch, it’s not that scary after all.
To name or not to name your stoma, now that is a question. There are two schools of thoughts on this topic. I am of the first one and named it within a couple of days of first becoming an ostomate and not only did I name it but I changed it to the opposite sex. While some believe that naming anatomy parts is ridiculous. I am of the opinion that if you want to name it, name it. If you don't want to, don't, that is your choice. I will, however, tell you why I named mine as I believe there could be some good mental health practices behind it.