BACK IN 2011, I HAD TO HAVE MY OSTOMY (originally from 1964) re-done. It ended up being moved from my right side to my left side, and it has been fine since. As my condition is not something that I tend to share with acquaintances or co-workers, I never provided my office with any specifics about why I would be in hospital. Human nature being what it is, they were unable to deal with not knowing. So, someone likely had a cousin who was a nurse in the hospital (two hours away from where I lived and worked) who was persuaded to check on why I was there. Notwithstanding the 1996 HIPAA law to protect the privacy of health care information, the reason for my hospitalization was passed on to my nosy, inquiring co-workers. How do I know this? Because when I returned to work following my recovery and walked into the office, the two clerks there greeted me and, hard for me to miss, both had their eyes focused directly on my belly. Well, that’s kind of a tell. All I could do was smile to myself and live with it. My secret was out. Oh well…
That was so rotten of them. Hopefully they've learned some lessons since then. It's definitely your story to share on your terms. ❤️
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Hi gang,
I was thinking what a great resource this site has been for me since I found it. It would have been really helpful, but maybe a bit scary, to have found it before my ostomy, but that's water under the bridge. But I got thinking about it, and now I'm questioning why doctors and hospitals don't provide this site's contact info to any patient even considering an ostomy today. And how can we change that so potential ostomates can learn about the road ahead for them by getting on here and asking questions before the docs go chop-chop. How exactly do you get all hospitals to provide their patients specific information, like this website?
I just happened to find this site something like 4 years after my ostomy when I Googled "ostomy forum" or something like that. But I never found it during previous searches.....so I found this site pretty much by pure luck. We need to find a way to make this site available to new or soon-to-be ostomates......as that's when we really need to commiserate with fellow ostomates. Anybody have any thoughts on how we do this?
Thanks,
Bob