Ostomy Awareness

 I have had my ileostomy for five months, and I already feel healthier! In the past five years I had multiple abdominal surgeries which failed, complications and pain as I tried everything else possible before resorting to this. Ostomy stigma is real, as many people do not understand how life giving an ostomy can be. I had endured negativity from a few people about my life altering decision before surgery. Five years in pain before opting for an ileostomy because a past surgeon told me most people would rather live in pain than to have an ileostomy; misconceptions like this are devastating and I wish I had this surgery much sooner. As an ostomate with a passion to spread awareness and help reduce stigma through educating others, I am sharing my story through the Ostomy Awareness Foundation. Below are some links you can use to learn more and/ or help support this cause.

https://www.givelocalccf.org/p2p/192038/stephanie-evans-a69208d9-bdbc-4d28-9532-daf6101dd08d

https://www.ostomyawarenessfoundation.org





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Days 22-25! 30 Day Running Challenge

Image
 Today would originally have been my last day of this running challenge, but I took a total of five days off due to a combination of a busy schedule, fatigue and knee pain. Here I will post my runs from Friday, Monday, Tuesday and today (Wednesday); I took off Saturday because people in my neighborhood got started early with 4th of July fireworks and they were already popping off before dark when I got home in the evening. Since Spot would've been too afraid out running the neighborhood we stayed home and had some cuddle time instead. I can't blame it all on Spot, though. To be honest, I was also super tired from the few days spent at the beach last week, getting home late Wednesday night and having to be up early for work the next day. Then Saturday was my second consecutive 12 hour shift. Sunday I had a family bbq straight after work, and of course consoled the dogs with many loud fireworks going on around us.  Taking some time off isn't a bad thing, and sometimes is nece
Read more

Day 26! 30 Day Running Challenge

Image
 Today was my first guided run using the Nike run app, and I chose the fist speed run which was eight 60 second sprint intervals with 60 second rests in between; the first few sprints I jogged my rest periods but I think it was around the third interval I began walking the rest periods because I was giving everything I had during the sprints, something I have not done in years. It felt so good! And then Coach Bennet from the Nike app added an extra bonus to the end which I was definitely not expecting though it really made me push myself even further than I thought possible. And by these run times, I am thoroughly impressed by what I actually was able to do. After the interval run I cooled down with a slow mile jog; actually stating that a ten minute mile is a slow jog, in comparison to how I felt when I first got started, is a nice improvement.  I did take four days off from all my workouts, running and swimming due to an unexpected and extremely scary complication of having an ileost
Read more

I Still Feel Like a Sloth!

Image
 The original title of this blog post was going to be: "Finally! I no longer feel like a sloth!" However, I was planning this post 3/23/2021 (exactly 4 months after my original ileostomy surgery, the birth of Bob). I had been working night shift as a radiographer for five years prior to this surgery and it never got easier so I was pretty much always tired even on my days off. I worked three 12 hour nights and one 4 hour morning shift per week and on my days off would rotate to day shift to live a "normal" life. Coming off two months of medical leave I had a lifting restriction and went to a sedentary job for six months to give myself more time to heal. After two months working night shift in the new department I was able to transfer to day shift and, with this change, I was sure to immediately feel alive again. Well it didn't work out that way because it takes time to adjust to day shift and my body was still recovering. Thinking back to my previous major abdom
Read more