Musings

Back in early February I had my first Astra Zeneca/Oxford Vaccine and my experience wasn’t good, how will I get ok with the second?

Today marks the 2 year anniversary since I had my old bum sewn shut and had a new one installed. It’s been a long journey but as I enter the third year with a stoma I feel as though I’m now on track to something closer to normal.

In 2019 I hadn’t been getting on well with the colostomy bag and was getting fed up with having to get up in the night to change the bag. My team of colostomy nurses recommended that I try irrigation and after joining a colostomy irrigation Facebook group and asking some questions decided to give it a shot. In early January 2020 I completed my first irrigation with the aid of a stoma nurse and I’ve continued ever since.

It’s been a long journey, a very long journey. But I’ve arrived. I’ve arrived at the point in my recovery where my Ken Butt wound has finally healed. This is another milestone in my recovery that I can tick off.

Saturday 3rd October is Ostomy Awareness Day and to coincide with this, ColostomyUK is launching a new campaign called #StomaAware. The aim of the campaign is not just to make people StomaAware on that day, but to make people in the UK #StomaAware every day of the year.

Ever since my parastomal hernia formed back in May 2019, an internal battle has being fought about whether I should do anything about it. I’ve had conversations with family and friends, a counsellor, those who’ve had a hernia and the professionals who operate on hernias and after weighing up all of the options I came to the conclusion in January 2020 that I would leave it alone.

After a break of a month, the Ken Butt wound that has been persisting for over 7 months has started to deteriorate again so I’ve had to restart seeing my team of nurses again. 

Recently I have had a few instances where I have experienced abdominal pain after irrigating but initially didn’t link it to the actual process. After the latest instance of pain, was it caused by being dehydrated?