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THINGS I CANNOT DO
By Raymond Miller - via The New Outlook, The reason we decided to write this page was to demonstrate to people with new ostomies there are some things you cannot do. You will probably laugh because they are relatively insignificant when compared to life. Most people having ostomy surgery are making a life and death decision. People with ileostomies from Crohn’s Disease or ulcerative colitis will generally have a better quality of life after the surgery. In addition, we received comments from people who tell us that they regularly do many of the things listed here. The more we learn, the more we find that an ostomy is not a very big deterrent to living the same life we would if we were non-ostomates. * The one thing that some really miss sleeping on our stomachs. Prior to surgery, some slept on their stomachs all the time. However with an ostomy, it s just not that easy. * You cannot take your toddler into the shower with you....a member tried that once and had the whole barrier ripped from her body because that is the first thing the child grabbed when she started to fall down - one word OUCH! * You cannot take your temperature rectally or use rectal suppositories. * You cannot run around for long without a pouch on - this applies mainly to people with an ileostomy or urostomy. * You cannot use enteric-coated medication to their full value, if you have an ileostomy. (Ed’s Note: or a Colostomy plus some of the ileum removed.) * You can no longer sleep in the nude - the pouch is always attached. By the way, there is no reason you cannot sleep almost nude with an ostomy. Many of us do it all summer long and never have a problem There is no more ‘flopping around’ than with PJ’s. If you want, buy a cummerbund to hold everything in place. Of course, with that on you are not totally nude but you are topless and bottomless, and you have the middle covered. * Do you wear a belt with your pouch? The clip end of the pouch may be stuffed under the belt out of the way with no flopping. Nude is good for sleeping. Try those cute little tube tops the girls wear all summer, just a little lower on the body. Works for some and fits the budget quite well. * Potty train a toddler! When one of our members’ grandson accompanied him and asked, What is that?” the pouch, that is, and what he was doing his answer befuddled him. At 2 1/2, he is having a hard time understanding why he poops from one end of his body, and his grandfather had this pouch attached to his body. He insisted the pouch covers a boo-boo. * You cannot go without your shirt in public...unless you are a self-confident male. It is prudent to wear pants that are high enough to cover the pouch. * You can usually not sleep all night without getting up to empty the pouch. * You can no longer be called “ anal” ! Some call us “Stomal” * You cannot play on your illness any more and say, “I’m too sick to go out.” * You cannot blame your weight gain on prednisone anymore - you just eat too much now! * A man cannot get a tactile prostrate check each year. He must depend on other tests like a PSA test. --------We cannot honestly say that our stomas have stopped us from doing very much that we wanted to - and we have met many wonderful people who we otherwise would not have met, through our ostomy association. * You cannot have as many reasons to stay out of a normal life stream. * You do not feel nearly as bad. * You have more control as to when you “go” , and where. * You have something to do every few hours. Of course, I mean you have to urinate. What did you think? * You do not have to fear being on a dead locked freeway with no place to go to the washroom. This is especially true for people who previously had ulcerative colitis. * We do not read in the bathroom anymore. * Two things you cannot do with a urostomy: (1) You cannot write your name in the snow; and (2) you cannot travel overnight without your nighttime equipment. Sorry to be so contrary, but...We cannot think of very much we cannot do with an ostomy! Some of us have a colostomy and sleep on our belly. Basically, we do virtually everything we did before we had the stoma. No, that is incorrect, we do more than we used to. Some of us had a very narrow escape with cancer and decided to not mess around any longer. After surgery we started doing everything we ever wanted to do...right NOW. 46 |