Back in February, I wrote about ‘Assumptions About IBD & Stomas‘ where I discussed how there are many assumptions and myths surrounding IBD and having a stoma. Assumptions are usually founded on false information, historically based in the past. While they might have some facts to them, they are usually warped beyond the reality they belong to right now. I’ve had all of these quotes said to me throughout the…
2021 question
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“How does sleep affect IBD?”
Struggling with sleep is a very common problem. So common in fact that almost one third of the UK population have insomnia – the inability to sleep at night. For those with IBD, I can only image that this proportion is higher, much higher. When I’ve been in the midst of a bad flare, I would not sleep. I’d be up in the bathroom multiple times during the night, I’d…
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“How do you know when you’re flaring?”
I’ll admit this openly, but flare-ups used to scare the heck out of me. After I was officially diagnosed in late 2011 I had several bad flare-ups back to back, which always led to me being hospitalised. Luckily, that doesn’t happen so often now, because I have become better at reading my own body’s warning signs of an impending flare-up or problem. In the beginning, everything is new – and…
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“What is life like after stoma surgery?”
You’re decided to have stoma surgery, but what now? Lots of thoughts, questions and worries cross your mind, and despite your nurses giving you lots of medical advice, you want to know what life after surgery is really like. For the most part, what you are told in hospital is accurate information. It comes from the surgeons and nurses seeing stomas, creating them and caring for many of them in…
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Intimacy After Stoma Surgery
Yes, it is possible to continue to have a healthy sex life – or even improve upon it – after ostomy surgery. But sex is rarely discussed with patients before ostomy surgeries, even though it’s a significant issue and can have a profound effect on a patient’s life. If you feel comfortable enough, you can bring this up with your surgeon or stoma care nurse as it is one aspect…
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Debunking Stoma Myths
Last month I wrote about ‘Assumptions About IBD & Stomas‘ where I discussed how there are many assumptions and myths surrounding IBD and having a stoma. Assumptions are usually founded on false information, historically based in the past. While they might have some facts to them, they are usually warped beyond the reality they belong to right now. For anyone who might undergo a stoma surgery in the future, or…
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“Will you always need check-ups for your IBD?”
Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes but here is why: Getting diagnosed with IBD for most is a great relief. It ends the months, even years, of needing answers but them being dismissed or ignored. But diagnosis is just the first step in a lifetime of appointments, scans, procedures and consults with a specialist team or several teams. IBD is a chronic, lifelong invisible illness. Those three words – chronic,…
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“Does caffeine affect your IBD?”
Where would I be without my morning cup of coffee? Probably still in bed and probably still asleep. It’s been used for decades as a popular morning beverage to get us up, awake, alert and ready for a new day. We then added it to drinks to keep us full of energy during the day, if we suffered from poor sleep, needed to concentrate or wanted to avoid crashing before…
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“How different are scans when you have a bag?”
The most common way for IBD to diagnosed and monitored is via endoscopy. Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint – a colonoscopy can only show so much of the bowel. If you have IBD of the colon or rectum, you are fine with having just a colonoscopy regularly. But those with small bowel Crohns disease [CD] often can’t have their condition monitored with a scope, as it will…