Paloma the Stomas 1st Birthday…

It’s been such a long time since I last posted and my intention was always to keep everyone updated as I went along. I failed!

However, in no way am I recognising that failure as a bad thing. The reason for my failure is purely positive – My life has genuinely returned to its pre IBD chaos.

I spend my days now – living my life the way that it should be lived. Work, taxi service to two teenagers, doing Nanny stuff with my favourite little one-year-old, volunteering for Olio (a food waste prevention group), cooking, cleaning, visiting family and friends, watching Netflix, going shopping, going out, exercising (not as much as I should though), eating whatever I want and more recently preparing for Christmas.

So in summary, my life looks exactly like everyone else’s, and it is!

Today is a big day in my world, it’s my one year stoma-versary. It’s currently 8:00am, this time last year I was already in surgery. I remember quite clearly sitting in the side room with those beautiful stockings on, thinking to myself – what if I poo on the surgeon 🤣. What an absolutely ridiculous thing to think, but that’s how your mind works, every single moment, of every single day when you’re living with IBD. But, I also remember thinking this is my new beginning, I’m going to get my life back! That positivity kept me going and it’s all played out exactly as I had hoped ❤️

In terms of Paloma, she has given me minimal bother across the year and I want to cover some of the things that most people worry about prior to stoma surgery to let you know how they have played out in my world, so far.

1) Blockages and food restrictions?

I haven’t had a blockage! I have experimented with all the foods that I love, and can eat all of them – with the exception of rice. This is ironic really because rice is considered a ‘safe food’ for people with an ileostomy. For me though, it’s been the only food to cause me any bother. I’ve tried boiled rice, risotto and rice pudding all of which are different types of rice, cooked in different ways. On all three occasions I had subsequent tummy pains. I’ve asked other people on the support group about this and there are a few of us out there that have had the same issue. One of the recommendations was to drink more fluids when I eat rice. But, in all honesty, I’m really not that fussed by rice, so I’m happy to live without it. I may try again in the future, with more fluids, but for now I’m good with the mash potato substitute 😉.

There are a couple of foods that I absolutely love, that are more difficult to process and digest. So, I have made some amendments to how I serve them, in order for me to be able to enjoy them, along with everyone else.

For example Mushrooms – I now cook my mushrooms and then make them into a paste. I understand this sounds odd but imagine this….. Cooked breakfast and with every mouthful you get a hot mushroom ketchup. It’s actually better than just having the mushrooms on the plate.

2) Leaks

In her first year of life Paloma has subjected me to two, very small, leaks.

They were both at night and both times I’ve managed to catch it before it leaked on anything more than just me. One was as a result of drinking too much red wine 🤪 and not waking up when the bag was full. The other, was because I’d got a bug and it had filled with watery fluid really quickly. I still woke up in time to catch it before it became a disaster though. So, one 4am unplanned bag change and one 6:30am unplanned bag change. I’ll take that 💪

As of today – no middle of the night bed making for me – So far! I’m sure my time is coming.

3) Hernia

As I’ve gained a little more weight the lump that I’ve always had above my stoma, does seem to have increased a little bit in size. However, it doesn’t cause me any pain or discomfort and I don’t have any of the classic hernia symptoms, so my instincts tell me that it’s just part of my new body shape. I assume that I’ll have an appointment with the stoma team sometime soon (I’m pretty sure they said four appointments in the first year, with the last being around 12 months) so they can check it then.

As of today though, all is well ❤️

Overall, life is good – no, not good, bloody fantastic!

The choice I made to have this surgery, is by far the best decision I have ever made. When I think about my life beforehand, surviving (although probably not for much longer) and missing out on all of the things that were important to me, there is no comparison to be had.

If I was given the choice again, I would do it all over.

But – I would do it sooner! I waited for the ‘surgery’ subject to be raised with me, despite the fact that I had already made my mind up months before, that if it was offered, I would definitely do it.

At the time I felt like ‘I wasn’t ill enough, yet’. This is a pattern with me, I always think about people who are in a worse position than me – It could always be worse, kind of attitude.

The truth of the matter is, I was definitely ill enough! Hindsight is a wonderful thing, it took the histology results for me to find out just how serious this could have all been.

Yet, here I am, telling you my story. Full of pride and a new found passion for life 💪

I’ve had a huge number of people reach out to me over the past year, many of whom are travelling a similar IBD path. If you have questions or concerns please do message. There is no subject regarding my IBD and surgery journey, that is off the table.

I don’t have all the answers, but I can offer you empathy and my experiences ❤️

And finally YES….

We do still decorate my bags!