So, I was recently tagged by the lovely Thalia Skye in her vlog for the IBD Advocacy Tag. This has been a tag created by Megan over at Front Butter Youtuber – which you can watch here – helping to promote and raise the profile of IBD advocacy online. The premise is to answer the below five questions and tag five more fellow IBD-ers to continue this thread. Here we…
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10 Tips for Feeling Comfortable with an Ostomy
I remember the first time that things went wrong with my ostomy and I wondered to myself ‘How am I ever going to feel comfortable with this? How am I ever going to be okay with this?’ I’ve felt similarly when it comes to my IBD, when things didn’t go the way they or myself had hoped or planned they would. The blows were numerous and they hit me hard…
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The What and Why: Vitamin D
Disclaimer: This information is based on my own research into this particular aspect of IBD 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 IBD team for medical advice. If you are looking for the…
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Life Lately | “How’s It Going?”
I’ve been posting a lot lately, which hasn’t been the norm for a long while. Some of the explanation is because I hadn’t been inspired by much in the past couple months and my fatigue had been eating away at my free time as napping had taken over; but it’s most recently its been down to the fact I’ve been off sick. Yes, signed off sick from work, yet again.…
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Updated: My Ostomy Appliance Change Routine
Disclaimer: This information is based on my own personal experience since my ostomy surgery in August 2016 and is not intended to replace medical advice from a trained professional. If you are requiring advice regarding your own stoma, routines which might benefit you most, or products that suit your needs best, please contact your stoma care nurse for further assistance. It’s been a whole year since I shared my stoma bag…
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#IBD Hour – Biological Treatments
Tonight I hosted the #IBDHour chat on Biological Treatments. In the last six years since I was diagnosed, I have found that I respond best to biological medications; which have given me good quality of life (QoL) and the ability to be closely monitored and managed by my IBD teams. In this post, I’ll answer – at length, because 240 characters and a tweet threads just aren’t enough! – the…
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My Love for You, Dear Stoma…
Today we celebrate love. A single day devoting to telling whomever we love, that we love them. We shower them with gifts, affection and kind words. I am doing that today too. But for my stoma. Yes, you read that correctly; my stoma. My stoma used to be that elephant in the room, the alien living under my top, a living and breathing weird little thing. These days, whilst she is…
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IBD and PCOS: Another Battle – Part I
Disclaimer: This information is based on my own research into this particular aspect of GYN 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 consultant for medical advice. PCOS – Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome – is something…
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Life Lately | Pushing Through
I like to think that life throws you only what you can handle. That we get given things that will test us but will not break us. Sure, they push us to breaking point but we never break. I’ve dealt with a lot of things in the last six years, especially in the months following surgery. I like to believe that those months in post op recovery is where…