Recovery Journey and Online Support Experiences

So at the request of my buddy Mr Dastardly, I am continuing the blog as "it can't end there."



PS. If anyone would like to chat, we have a little evening club in the General Chat Room from around 5 PM GMT onwards.



So the following weeks at home consisted of daily visits by the district nurses (even Christmas Day) to change the dressing on my scar and see how much it had healed. This wasn't so bad (student nurses, can I say more?) although having a rainbow of colors coming from a hole in a scar is hardly the basis of a chat-up line. Christmas was a quiet one, and I still hadn't got my appetite back properly. I was kind of glad about this as I'm so grumpy during recovery and stubborn to boot!

I eventually worked up to going to the doctors for the dressing changes rather than them coming to me. With my poor balance and the ice, this was an experience and a half. So far, I had not really made any kind of communication with many people (even via the internet). I just tend to shut people out leading to an op and change into a different me. About 1 month after my op, I decided I'd come onto the internet and look at some website links my stoma nurse had given me with some leaflets. I signed up and viewed the forums to see what experiences others had, and if I could contribute in some way.

(The following content in the following paragraph may offend some but is just from my perspective)

The thing that shocked me the most when viewing these forums was the horror stories of how this operation had actually affected people so badly some wouldn't leave the house, and of loved ones crying out for support on how to cope with the change in their partners' lives. Of course, I had been around hundreds, if not thousands, of people in my life with problems. However, most of these had been sick from birth, and it was a different mentality. This probably affected me the most as it's something I had never accounted for, that this operation in some people's lives could be as bad as the problem it was designed to help. I was stumped; I couldn't think of words of encouragement or any advice that would ever be enough to have an impact. Then I got onto questioning how I, in my life, had always been lucky to avoid such emotional trauma from surgery. Since this has been something that's interested me, I guess I had the upper hand on many in that 1. This was going to give me control over my health like I'd never experienced. 2. I had faced adversity due to my illness all my life (they rarely come up with new insults). 3. This wasn't my first and wasn't going to be my last; it was just a bump in the road.

As time went on, I decided to look for other ostomy sites (as well as signing up to be a volunteer for the Colostomy Association), which led me to this one. I had a quick look and went to bed. I remember the first person to message me was JohnNotKen, and we chatted, and he told me about his experience, and I told him about mine. I then decided to view some posts, but am more of a hang out in chat kind of guy. Since then, I have regular contact with ostomates on this site and am often available in General Chat.

I am with the poster above. I had no problems since I had suffered for several years with no help and blood transfusions every six months. So the decision wasn't hard for me to make. I have adjusted fine, but just have no one to talk to about my condition... there are no support groups in my area...

Hey sevensins, I would like to catch up and have a chat. I haven't had a chat with Jnot ken for ages. It's very early in the morning in Australia when I have had the pleasure to chat with JnK, a lovely young guy. xxx mooza xx You sound interesting. Anyway, I have a travel bag, but it's the one from Coloplast. It's actually pretty good. LOL, I got a few, then they must have caught on and sent stuff in plain envelopes. Hahaha, cheers... I volunteer at my Association and have learned so much. I'm the only volunteer with ileo and Crohn's, so I'm the odd one out. Hahaha, seems weird a bit. :) Take care, Ms. Gina.