Disclaimer: Paid Partnership with Trio Healthcare Do you ever take off your stoma bag and wonder what exactly happens to your skin underneath? There is very little time when the skin directly around your stoma and immediately surrounding it is without something sitting on top of it when you live as an ostomate. But how many of us know what condition our skin is in? Or how our skin responds…
adventures with a chronic illness
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“Does your scar or stoma ever hurt?”
I remember sitting in my surgeon’s office back in 2016 as we discussed my first IBD surgery – a resection. I had a ton of questions, most of which focused on pain and the scar. Looking back, being worried about the scars seems so trivial but it was a big thing to me at that time; it would be the first time I’d ever have surgery and I was really…
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World Ostomy Day
In all the years I’ve had my ostomy, I think this year has been, by far, the easiest. Why do I say ‘easiest’? What has made me feel this way? Well, even despite a long recovery from my hernia repair, my stoma behaved really well to surgery, Yes, they made me a new one to repair the hole in my abdominal wall, but this one could have been unpredictable, difficult…
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“What do cannulas feel like and how do you deal with problem veins?”
Tricky IV access. We’ve all be there at some time or another, right? Some people are great and “lucky”, and some people always struggle to get cannulated the first time, and the same can be said for blood tests too. I struggled to become confident enough to tell the phlebotomist that I was difficult to get blood from, despite my own efforts to “bring my good veins” with me. Initially,…
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IBD Questions to Ask On or After Diagnosis Day
There are so many different paths to an IBD diagnosis. Some people will find out through a length period of feeling unwell and under going several tests. Some people will find out after a few weeks of being severely unwell. Some will find out suddenly, through an emergency admission to hospital or requiring emergent surgery. IBD does not discriminate with who gets it. There is no rhyme or reason to…
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Ten Year Crohns-versary
I sit here writing this a few weeks before the date of diagnosis with IBD because the emotions around August always get me thinking about September 7th. I let myself really go back to that time, fill my mind with memories and remember all the firsts I had in those first six months. I remember the hot touch of my skin. I remember the soreness of my joints, of how…
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“What does a blockage feel like?”
So blockages. They are one of the big things stoma nurses and surgeons talk about before and immediately post-op to patients. Because you need a) a warning and b) they can be really tricky if your body doesn’t adapt to your new plumbing. There are two types of blockage: Partial – when a small amount of liquid can make it round the obstruction. Full – when nothing can pass around…
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Year Five: Stoma Life
What I’ve Learnt and Achieve in the Last Twelve Months with my Ostomy Year Five with Pricilla started with hernia repair surgery. So technically, Pricilla lasted for four days into her fifth year and then she got reborn – aka, she was refashioned! I won’t lie, that surgery was tough as anything. I didn’t know exactly what I would wake up with because so much of it depended on what my…
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“Does consuming alcohol affect IBD?”
Hands up, who likes a drink to help them unwind at the end of a trying day or week, or to celebrate milestone moments? Sometimes society can revolve around the pub (or at least it did, pre-pandemic) or going out for a cheeky drink or two. But what happens when you have a chronic illness that can manifest with chronic diarrhoea, medications which can affect your digestive system, as well…