Disclaimer: This information is based on my own research into this particular aspect of stoma care as well as some personal experience and should not be used as medical advice or a diagnostic tool. The suggestions given within are taken from sources laid out in the references header. If you seek advice regarding the things you experience within your own disease, please contact your SCN for medical advice. How does it work? One of the guiding…
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Fibre with IBD
Hands up who has been on the low residue diet in the months after diagnosis or surgery? There would be very few people with their hands down because it has become the go to diet for those suffering from active inflammation of their condition. Rightly so too; imagine the red, irritated and painful lining of your bowel as you allow rough and fibrous food through it. It isn’t going to…
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Life Lately | Lockdown Update
There is something else to be said about trusting your guts… I think if I trusted mine, I would be in serious trouble. But if you look at abit further, a little deeper, there is some truth. My guts are a barometer of pain and of my condition. They let me know when something is wrong. They tell me about pain. They let me know when I need help. They…
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Coping with Anxiety While in Isolation
We are in unpresented times. But dealing with anxiety in isolation is not unpresented. Anxiety affects everyone differently and can be brought on by different situations or experiences. It is our body’s natural reaction to perceived danger, focusing our attention and giving us a rush of adrenaline to react, sometimes called the “fight or flight” response. Sometimes it can be difficult to know what is making you anxious, which can…
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Growing Through your Diagnosis
What’s nice about being an adult and living with IBD is making all your own medical decisions. I remember sitting in my hospital bed and being given my morning medication and being told to take it right then and there. I was 23 years old. I wasn’t a child but I was a newly diagnosed patient with Crohn’s Disease and never taken tablets before in my life. This was all…
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Should We ‘Celebrate’ our Medical Anniversaries?
anniversary / noun – the date on which an event took place in a previous year. Today marks the fourth anniversary since my first IBD surgery. Part of me feels really nostalgic for that surgery – it was my first, I had no idea what it would feel like or how it would go – but I also feel jaded, I had alot of faith – even if it was…
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I am scared and that is okay.
I am scared. And that is okay. There is always a little fear when it comes to thinking about your chronic illness. There are alot of questions, not enough answers, you wonder about alot of what ifs and you can sometimes panic with the overwhelmingness of it all. I used to scold myself for being scared and doubting myself, when it came to my illness. It was never going to…
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Studying & Chronic Illness
Deadlines and unpredictable health are at opposite ends to each other. I remember the churning of my insides when my degree deadlines would creep up on me – I hadn’t been diagnosed with IBD at this point – and was at a loss of how to extend my deadlines due to my health. Alot of it was down to the fact I didn’t know the access was out there, and…
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TEN THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT… SPRING
It’s time for part two of the “Ten Things” series, today focusing on Spring. I am a Spring baby – born in April – so I feel drawn to this time of year as a time of celebration. Even if, as I get older, I don’t want to celebrate getting older, I do enjoy being able to see the graduate change in the world around me. In 2020 I am…