There are a whole lot of areas in life that I think people take a little too far.  Some of those areas are fears that they may have of the unknown.  That is something that I see and hear a lot in the whole area of healthcare.  We do many things and think of many ways when it comes to healthcare and one area that people seem to fear more than they probably should is the area of ostomies.  This is because they simply are working off of little knowledge and mostly just blatant fears that in all honesty are not to be condemned.  I understand where people are coming from because when I heard an ostomy was in my future I felt the same way that many people do.  It is true that I was totally wrong in most of my pre-surgery.  That is ok and that is what I wanted to go over here.

It is true that most people simply fear what they do not know or understand.  In the case of having a stoma for the rest of your life that is probably very true.  I could only see myself as having an ostomy bag before I got my stoma officially and it scared me to death.  It brought me lower than lower in my own mind and I have to admit that I felt like my life was probably over.  Was it a good thing for my health that I was going to get a stoma.  Most definitely it was and it actually saved my life, but it still didn’t matter in my own mind.  I felt defeated and it felt like my entire joys and fun times in life were going to be over. 

Luckily, I was pretty much wrong on all accounts.  The fact is that most people with stomas end up living life just like they had before.  The real difference is that you take the thing you do a few times a day and change that routine up.  Yes, you will have an ostomy bag or a stoma cap for fun times but really that is the main difference.  I had a ton of fears that never came to pass because technology is so incredible these days. Ostomy gear has come so far that you can literally run marathons or swim in the ocean and still have no issues.  You can live as active as a lifestyle as you want and order eliminators these days are so good you really don’t have to worry about dealing with smells for the most part. 

Now you still need to be careful of your diet because some foods do crazy things, but didn’t they do that before you had a stoma?  I know I sure stayed away from things that gave me heartburn and this is pretty much the same thing. So don’t be down on life or how you think things are going to go. The truth is that your life is still only starting and if you are in your mid 30’s like me and scared to death.  It is normal to feel that way, but you won’t be there for long because life is good and ostomy gear is great. So cheer up and enjoy life.