Newbie Alert… Simon, an anti-help group dude seeking a help group lol

Hey! I'm from the UK, and it sounds like we have had a similar experience - lost my mobility, sepsis, ICU! That was three years ago now, and I am awaiting reversal. I had two stomas (Sid and Nancy), still sometimes a challenge, and I do have some things like not being able to eat gluten or onions, etc., but I'm unrecognizable from the early days you're in now. Hang in there; it is toughest at the start, but we do adapt really fast.

I had an emergency ileostomy in 2019. I'd been in the hospital for 3 weeks before they decided to do an exploratory surgery and found my colon was disintegrating. I'd been told I'd be in the hospital for 4-5 days for rehydration. I was 2 1/2 months in the surgery hospital, in and out of ICU and HDU and back again. Some kind of near-death experience occurred during the ileostomy surgery. Then, 2 weeks later, my heart stopped for 2 days in a row. Not sure if they put me in a coma, leading to the 2nd emergency surgery. I was in and out of consciousness, post-sepsis stuff, seeing things, and kept trying to phone the police because I was convinced I'd been abducted. My legs stopped working—probably because my colon was disintegrating and damaging the nerves at the base of my spine. Who knows? I asked a doctor why my legs had stopped working. He wouldn't meet my eyes as he said, "It happens to some people." I was transferred from the surgery hospital to a community hospital for physio for 1 month. I moved home 2 weeks after getting out of the hospital.

It took a year before I had my cognitive thinking back, 3 years before I got access to book-learned facts, and probably 4 years before my body started to respond to exercise and nutrition in anything like a normal way. My walking, balance, and stamina didn't really improve. UNTIL!

And this is the point of my reply. Colostomy UK has sets of 8-week, free exercise classes on Zoom. In the last year and a half, my mobility and flexibility have improved a huge amount. We're just on the last week of the current 8 weeks, and there aren't more classes until January or February. The class that has made the biggest difference to me is the (Somatic) Chair Yoga. It is very gentle—not what we normally associate with yoga. Very small movements. Not about stretching at all. In fact, it's more about pulling back from that point, making the movements smaller. Very slow, noticing what's happening inside you.

Colostomy UK also offers a mat yoga Zoom class, a mindfulness class—which is brilliant—and a Pilates class. All designed for people with stomas.

The Chair Yoga instructor also does private, paid sessions.

There are other things I do that help and support the Chair Yoga. And on Facebook, there's Moving Mountains—the page about the guy who has a stoma and climbs mountains, I think, in Montana. He isn't posting at the moment—but you can see everything already posted. For me, seeing what he does made me realize that if I could shift my state from where it was a couple of years ago to maybe 1% towards where he is, then that would transform my life. It somehow shifted my mindset. And the Chair Yoga and all the other things started to turn up in my life, including a therapist who matches what works for me.

It has been interesting, particularly learning how my brain works, how PTSD influences my brain, and forcing me to take care of myself after a lifetime of my focus being on what other people needed from me.

Best wishes.

I’ve been through a similar grind. Collapsed on St Patrick’s day with a perforated colon, life flighted, multiple surgeries, sepsis, sedated, contracted pneumonia - twice!, weak as a kitten, rehab hospital, home in a wheel chair mid June. Slept in a recliner, had home rehab. Finally walked up the stairs!  Finally showered in our shower!  Outpatient rehab and a year after the initial trauma I walked a few holes at an abandoned golf course being turned into a park.

I’m past 75. And, glad to be alive. Couldn’t have made it without lots of family and medical support. 

Recording readings of children’s book for my grandson halfway across the world. I can do moderate chores, dishes, my own laundry, riding the mower, even shoveling the walk and splitting firewood. Organizing family photos, family tree, trying to write. 

Good local Ostomy group, Reddit, and this group jeeping me sane.

You can make it!  Believe in life!  Every morning is a great morning.