What About Bob? (stoma pics)

  When pelvic PT and biofeedback therapy did not work, I had a follow-up with my surgeon and preop with ostomy nurse to mark placement of my stoma and scheduled the surgery. Now I wish I had this surgery sooner because I immediately felt better…..well, that’s after a small setback with an ileus which necessitated an ng tube and longer hospital stay, but this is very common with intestinal motility disorders and it actually happened to me with my previous abdominal surgeries. So we were hopeful it wouldn’t happen this time but we were prepared for it. I will be two months postop tomorrow and am 100% better. Yes, an ostomy is a big change physically and mentally and brings challenges and restrictions that can change your life and it can be frustrating (more on these subjects in later posts), but it is all worth having a full and active life without pain. I gave up running a few years ago and I have missed my passion so much. Finally I am able to jump back into my active lifestyle….

This was where the ostomy nurse marked for my stoma placement
The day Bob was born! Nov 23, 2020
On the pain button, I was so out of it and hardly remember anything from these first few days….right before ileus set in
First day with ng tube was tolerable, but with nausea and intestinal pain an ileus brings
By day five the ng tube is unbearable, I’m actually feeling better at this point and just want the tube out….so skinny and dehydrated, all I wanted was a big jug of pedialyte
This is Bob today: healthy, happy and already shrunk almost half it’s size! Started at 44mm, now at 24mm…due to the extreme slow motility of colon and rectum, my intestines were grossly dilated

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

Days 19-21! 30 Day Running Challenge

Image
 I had a busy few days and, though I have kept up my running, have gotten behind on my posts. This will be short and to the point. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday near the beach with family, so Tuesday's run was after drinking a few glasses of wine and also I did a couple miles because it was an area I wasn't familiar with. The first mile was actually one of my quickest despite the wine but I started getting a side cramp and heavy legs on the second mile coming back.  Wednesday I got home around 8:30pm and, after unpacking my bag and eating a late dinner, took Spot out for our mile jog. It was a nice night but we went slowly 🦥 Tonight was another solo run after an hour swim, which wasn't terrible time though I was pretty tired by the time I got out there. I hate that I haven't broken 8:30 yet I feel as if I could run a 7:30/8 by now. Although once I get past the quarter mile point my pace slows way down from around 7:40 to 8:30 and keeps getting slower as I go along. By
Read more