There has been no better advice to me then to get outside and live. That goes especially now then it is 2020 and everything seems to be about staying away from others and being alone. I am not a big fan of living a life around being alone and especially when you have a stoma you should make sure you are happy and safe. The lonely feelings after surgery go far beyond having a stoma, but sometimes when you have a physical lifelong change you can feel isolated. My goal has always been to let people know they are less alone then every and I think that with the beauty of technology that is connected is much more simple.
So how do you go about being connected and living? I think that the best thing is to learn what makes you happy and go about it. Personally, I am an outdoor person and it is part of my life. The thrill of seeing new things or simply being out in the wilderness is what gives me joy and it is even better when I can share those experiences with others. After my surgery, I was very afraid that I would never be able to do so again. I was afraid that my stoma would limit me and I have to admit it scared me to death.
Then I started to read about people who were very active and even wild with their stomas. The coolest person I found was a professional cycler. This guy had many national medals and then had to get an ostomy. I thought his career was over, but instead, he decided to stay at it. He even trained super hard to finish an iron man competition later on. He finished an iron man in less than 11 hours and it was incredible to see him do it. The wild story of him being able to do something that most humans only dream of doing was inspiring. It let me know that I could do anything.
Now what made me super happy was the fact that this man did it without super expensive gear. He didn't get a million dollars in super ostomy gear instead he did it like a minimalist. That was the coolest part. It led me on my journey to learn about connecting with others in the plan to find the best gear for me.
I started by getting on to social media sights and finding people just like me. At first, I only made comments, but through those, I found people had the same questions I did and ended up connecting and personal messaging a lot of people who were willing to help. Now I am able to let people know what works for me in order to give them ideas on things to try. That to me is the important part of ostomy gear and that is knowing that no all gear works for everyone. It is important to be able to branch out and try things on your own. One of my favorite people I follow on youtube does lots of things that don't work for me. We do the same activities but we succeed at them in different ways. That is a really cool thing to know and to be careful of.
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