For the New Ostomate (and a review for the Experienced Ostomate)
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A Second Chance...via The Optomist, Sure, you were shocked! You were depressed. Who wasn’t? You thought, how am going to get accustomed to this thing? What will my life be like? Didn’t we al have similar thoughts? Monopolized the bathroom. Take and enema! Change the Appliance. Use up a lot of valuable time. Embarrassment! Worry about diets, odors, what people think and many others. Didn’t we all have some of these problems? Sure, we resent what happened to us, but we can’t be resentful and grateful at the same time. We can’t change that which has happened, but we certainly can do something about the future. Living is like playing poker---it isn’t the cards you hold, but how you play them that makes the difference between losing and winning. -We are not invalids. -We don’t need pity or sympathy or special consideration or concessions. -We are normal, capable persons. The ostomy is yours to d o with as you wish. You have a choice to take either of two paths, and the decision is yours alone. You can refuse it or accept it, you can feel sorry for yourself, you can be bitter or resentful, you can withdraw from society and suffer the loss of many of the fine things life holds for you or you can accept it. You can develop a good attitude and go on to live a happy productive life and enjoy the extra time God has granted to you to continue doing the things you did before. The proper training of the mind and body is not an easy job. Nature has not endowed all of us with the same ability to make correct decisions. Some persons find it easy to look at a situation from all angles and decide what to do. Others, because of a lack of knowledge or because of emotion, resentment, habit, or other reasons, find it difficult to make a correct decision. Ostomy surgery, thanks to medical skills, has provided us with a rare gift---a gift of a second chance, a chance to live, and chance not given to everyone, An ostomy is not a handicap, it is a new method of elimination---a life-saving device. Don’t get discouraged. Accept the ostomy. Prove to yourself that you can take it. To find happiness, we must think about what we owe ourselves, to others, to life, rather than what life owes us. Let us give thanks for every precious moment, be thankful that we have been helped, be thankful that we now have the opportunity to help others. Let us count our blessings. Let us thank God we are alive!!! |