Exercise with an Ostomy: Managing Energy and Concerns

Replies
19
Views
13879
heshootshescores
Sep 08, 2013 10:49 pm

Is this lack of energy part of Crohn's and IBD diseases, even when I know the benefits of exercise?

I was feeling non-energetic this morning, and my plan was/is to ride my BMX to the local shopping plaza. I also find during exercise, when I've taken a break, when I'm about to start again, I feel really non-energetic, then I'm okay once I get going.

Mentally, I'm ready to exercise, I want to exercise, I really love getting out there. I think extreme sports are the best. I am concerned about the jarring of my body during exercise as I have heard this is bad for my ileostomy. Plus, I am concerned about damaging my stoma if I perform a "trick" and don't successfully make it.

My interests are BMX and skateboarding, I also have inline skated too. I have done these sports since I was a child, since my Crohn's diagnosis, and since I have had ileostomy surgery, and since my bag has been made permanent.

I was looking for other people's opinions.

WOUNDED DOE
Sep 08, 2013 11:05 pm

Hiya! Oh yes, those of us with Crohn's know full well about the lack of energy and extreme fatigue; it's quite difficult to stay in gear much of the time. I have always been very active as well, still am, or try to be, but there are days when it seems nearly impossible. Exercise is always important, but we definitely always need to listen to our bodies and rest more than many of the people around us. Keep pushing fluids, try to get more sleep/rest, and eat lots of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory foods, the best you can. But unfortunately, yes, that lack of energy can likely be part of your Crohn's
Login to see image
. Also, along with it are the emotional and psychological aspects of the disease that weigh us down so often, along with the physical, hence, sucking more of our energy away. Take care, dear xoxo

~Doe

Gray Logo for MeetAnOstoMate

Why Join MeetAnOstoMate?

If you care about your well-being, you deserve more than half-truths.

Here, you'll discover what no other source can offer - real insights and advice from fellow ostomates who truly understand your journey. This is a remarkable community of 38,712 members. And ... it's not only about ostomy.

Create an account and you will be amazed by the warmth of this community.

  38,712 members
vulcanBMk2
Sep 09, 2013 12:49 pm

Wake up, breakfast, polish the car, back to bed... and I only have a urostomy.

heshootshescores
Sep 10, 2013 12:45 am

I have all this mental energy and my body just doesn't keep up.

Something I read today talked about "do you have any aptitude at what you're trying to do"

So for me, it's about acceptance, about moving on, that there are other things I can do. I can still appreciate those people who are able to do these sports and other sports too.
Login to see image

Tag65
Sep 10, 2013 12:54 am

It sounds like, aside from a lack of energy, you are worried about damaging your stoma. I'm not certain how long you have had your stoma, so I can't say whether I recommend this or not—but try googling "stoma guard." There are guards designed for active lifestyles, as well as something I've heard of called a stealth belt. I can't speak for either of them, but they are worth at least checking into. Best of luck.

 

Words of Encouragement from Ostomy Advocates I Hollister

Play
heshootshescores
Sep 10, 2013 1:11 am

Hey Tag65, how are you? I just looked at the two products you mentioned. The stealth belt seems really good! It looks like there isn't even a stoma there when you are wearing it, great for those watersports. I looked at the stoma guard too! I'm totally impressed, I want to get one, I'm totally motivated to keep going with the sports.

Thank you

mamawlaura
Sep 10, 2013 1:13 am

I get really upset at myself at times because my mind wants to do certain activities, but my body says, "Not today."
Login to see image
I'm almost 71 and have been very active. I love fishing and hiking the AT, but I have had many different types of cancer surgeries, the last being a total colectomy ending with an ileostomy 2 years ago. I'm a very positive-thinking person and know I will eventually get back to my happy, nature-loving passions. Always be positive! Life is worth it. Best to everyone, and may the Lord bless and help you with your dreams.
Login to see image

Login to see image

Login to see image

Login to see image

curly-pussycat
Sep 10, 2013 3:11 am
I've been better for energy since having electrolyte drinks daily. Instead of adding electrolyte drinks to the normal volume of fluid intake, replace normal drinks with it throughout the day. This slows down the watery output too.

You are soooo lucky to be able to sit on a bicycle seat! I've no chance of that after the anal closure haha!!

Keep on having fun and pushing your body a little bit. Maybe the electrolyte drinks will help along the way?
vikinga
Sep 10, 2013 4:42 am
Why can't you ride a bike after anal closure? Please tell me in case I end up in that scenario.

Thanks
Kenneth82
Sep 10, 2013 3:46 pm

Try Ostomy Armour. www.ostomyarmour.com

Firefly
Sep 12, 2013 3:10 pm
So happy to hear others are lacking vitality. Now I don't feel so much like a slouch when I just have to nap. Thanks one and all for all the good advice.
heshootshescores
Sep 14, 2013 2:31 am

Ok, I wanted to explain a little about the anal closure. I had the risk of rectal cancer and had the surgery to get my rectal stump removed.

When I was recovering, e.g., swelling going down and pain going away, I went for a short bike ride and tore the stitches open. This meant that I had to get a wound vacuum pump to help close the wound. It took me like a year to recover from the surgery.

For me, it was a dumb decision to ride my bike. I don't know why I did it; I'm looking for a reason outside of myself for the decision. I must have not thought of the possible problems that happened as a result. It set me back, and the healing took ages. The wound was very painful.

Since then (2 more years), I have been riding to get fit and have found that sometimes the closure bleeds from the exertion of exercise and the pressure of sitting on the bike seat, or both. I think it's 100% healed; it isn't swollen and generally doesn't cause me any problems.
Although most of the time while riding, I stand up and hardly ever pedal sitting down.

This is a bit more of my story.

vikinga
Sep 17, 2013 2:24 am
Kenneth, that link doesn't work.
vikinga
Sep 17, 2013 2:28 am
Thanks for the explanation. I would think that with all the different kinds of bike seats available these days, there would be one that is friendly to a "dead" butt

Login to see image

) I guess it has to do with the movement of the two halves of the cheeks that aggravate the middle....hmmm. I would not want to give up riding a bike if possible.

Login to see image

heshootshescores
Oct 26, 2013 11:15 pm

Hello, that's definitely a concern for me (having to give up riding a bike). I like being able to get out and exercise. It's a big part of who I am.

Today I skated a few kilometers along a bike path to the city and back again. I just stopped halfway when I reached the city to take a toilet break. I simply went to the public toilet and checked my bag was still sealed, then emptied it out, then continued on my way.

It's a simple, no-fuss way to check everything's okay. You get a short break to catch your breath. Then you keep going.

MissMeganM
Nov 06, 2013 1:09 pm
Here's my question for you - because I have the same stuff you do (Crohn's, ileostomy, the whole fun shebang), I had noticed the same issue after I recovered from surgery.  I asked my GI to run a nutrient panel on me and measure the levels of different nutrients in my body to see where I was deficient.  Turns out I had NO VALUE for B12 and also was very low in vitamin D and iron (also will affect energy levels).  I have to get B12 injections once a month now after having them daily for a week, then weekly for a month.  HUGE DIFFERENCE.  I just can't absorb it normally anymore.  I also took 50,000 IU of vitamin D once a week for 8 weeks and added an iron supplement.  Maybe you just need some lab work to get your energy level back?  I know I am super energetic, even WITH all that crap - after I started getting my body right, I felt like Superwoman for a bit lol
vikinga
Nov 25, 2013 11:11 pm
I like the idea of the nutrient panel. Very interesting. I will look into that. Thanks!
heshootshescores
Mar 03, 2014 12:54 am

Hello MissMeganM, I have an answer for you about my nutrient levels. I have not had a test done yet, but I can tell you I do feel a real lack of energy. I get through the day, yawning a lot; however, I'm not very energetic at all. I realize this is because of how much energy I had when I was younger before I had surgery, in comparison to how I go now when I exercise. I'm thinking I need to get some vitamin tablets to take (B12, iron, vitamin D) and that these will give me more energy. Then again, the tablets might not make any difference because I think all of a sudden I've got more energy. I don't really like having to rely upon tablets to keep me going, and I know I won't get much benefit from them because of the low absorption rate since I have a shortened gut.

three
Mar 03, 2014 3:31 am

Hi heshootshescores ~ you may find this article interesting. I don't understand everything the authors say, but there seems to be at least some truth to their words.

Hidden Dehydration Silently Steals Your Energy

By Brian Foltz and Dr. Joe Ferrara PhD

Chronic dehydration robs your body of energy. For every one percent loss of water inside your cells, energy production is reduced by 10%! From testing hundreds of patients for dehydration, we found 90% to be dehydrated — most of them between two percent and four percent. That means 60 trillion cells are not producing 20-40% of the energy required to maintain cell function and overall health. This causes accelerated aging and premature health problems at the most basic level – cellular energy.

Mild or moderate long-term dehydration causes or contributes to a long list of health problems, including (but certainly not limited to): energy loss, chronic fatigue, allergies, asthma, high blood pressure, stubborn weight gain, depression, anxiety, toxicity, blood sugar imbalances, joint pain, headaches, and immune system dysfunction.

As you age, it becomes more and more difficult to maintain optimal hydration and optimal health. One of the most interesting findings in our clinical experience is the direct relationship between a patient's health and their level of hydration. Every patient with a long-term health problem has a long-term dehydration problem.

You may wonder why dehydration is such a big problem. After all, water is everywhere and all you need to do is drink more of it, right? Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Every day, over and over again, we hear the same question from patients: "How can I be dehydrated? I drink lots of water!" The problem is that the water is not effectively getting into their cells.

The Primary Cause of Chronic Dehydration

Today's drinking water lacks the energy to effectively hydrate the cells. Water is the ultimate carrier of energy and is itself a very pure form of energy. Much like how food loses its nutritional value when the soil is polluted or overused, our water has lost so much of its natural energetic properties that it can't hydrate and detoxify your cells and your body.

Understanding how water lost so much of its natural energy begins with understanding the miraculous nature of water itself. Nothing lives without water. It energizes everything. It is the most sensitive and dynamic substance on Earth.

Water has a unique ability to hold and transfer the specific energetic vibrations of substances it is exposed to. Every substance radiates its own energy as a unique vibrational pattern or frequency. The reason the Great White Shark can smell blood over one mile away is because the blood's energetic frequencies (not the blood itself) are rapidly transferred outward through the ocean's water.

However, the miracle of water is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, water makes all forms of life on Earth possible. On the other hand, water is so sensitive and such an effective carrier of energy that its life-sustaining energy can easily be altered by the extremely potent and harmful energy of manmade substances, processes, and industrial by-products.

Today, after more than 100 years of massive environmental abuse (pollution, deforestation, nuclear testing, etc.), the energetic quality of all Earth's drinking water has been permanently degraded to the point that it can no longer optimize hydration. Nature simply can't purify and energize fresh water fast enough to keep pace with humanity's relentless violation of natural processes.

Modern technology can purify water, but purification systems cannot restore water's natural vital energy. There are many different technologies that attempt to improve the quality of water. Virtually all of them are artificial and not based on how nature does it. One bottled water company ultra purifies municipal tap water, and then adds oxygen and ultrasound energy to raise the osmotic pressure. This artificially pushes the water into the cells for a short-term effect. However, nature doesn't do that.

Learning from Nature


Nature purifies and energizes water with two primary forces: motion and vibration. As water travels through an ideal natural water cycle in a pristine mountain forest, its motion, as it falls, swirls, spins (vortex), folds, bubbles, and flows, causes the water to be highly energized with beneficial energetic properties.
As water is moving through this cycle, it's also exposed to specific vibrational frequencies from the energy fields of the earth, soil, bedrock, minerals, and vegetation. These two forces combine to form a combination of energetic properties that are ideal for hydrating your body, including a natural polarity that matches the body's own battery-like polarity.

It is the energetic properties of water that determine its hydrating capabilities. Your body is a highly organized complex of vibrating energy systems that uses vibrational frequencies as its primary language. In 1999 Gunter Blobel won the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology when he proved cells use frequencies to find and transport protein (peptides) and nutrients to the cells that need them.

Although most water in nature looks the same, the variations of energy in water from different sources can be huge. Masaru Emoto, a water researcher from
Japan
, proved this by photographing different waters as they crystallized into ice. The energy patterns revealed from the ugly pictures of tap water and polluted water compared to the beautiful snowflake pictures of natural spring water are dramatic.

The Biophysics of Hydration

Hydration is not well understood by most people. It's not like filling up your car's gas tank. Optimal hydration is an optimal relationship between the dynamic flow of water between the inside and the outside of your cells.

The fluid that surrounds your cells (extracellular fluid) largely determines the health of those cells. The energy of that fluid is of primary importance. Many substances and body processes contribute to the energy of your extracellular fluid (e.g., electrolytes, etc.), but the energy of the water you drink has the most powerful influence on your hydration.

In order to optimize hydration, the first thing to do is drink water that is bio-compatible with the energetics of the water in your body. First, it must contain a natural polarity that matches your body's own battery-like polarity. Any type of artificial process, such as running water through pipes, strips the polarity from water. It must also have the naturally high electromagnetic frequencies that nature ideally imparts to natural mountain spring water.
When you drink water without the energy to match the energetic needs of your body, it cannot maintain an optimal relationship of water flows in and out of the cells (hydration). This is why today's low energy water does not effectively hydrate your cells and why you can drink plenty of water every day and still be chronically dehydrated.

Bringing Nature's Energy back to Water

Recently, a new nature-based biophysics hydration technology was developed that restores the natural polarity and energy to drinking water by mimicking how nature energizes water with motion and vibration. By simply adding a small amount of this super-charged water product, called Hydra Booster, to any clean drinking water, you can re-energize water the way nature intended for optimal hydration, detoxification, and cellular energy production.

The benefits of reversing chronic dehydration are immediate and can often times be dramatic. Many people feel a natural lift of energy and less stress within a couple of days. However, the real benefits are long-term because you are rebuilding your health at the most basic level: cellular energy production. With more energy to work with, every cell, tissue, gland, organ, and system of your body will work better to heal, revitalize, and energize you.
Better hydration improves the results and benefits of any diet, protocol, or health program. Nutrients are more effective, acid waste is eliminated more rapidly, tissue pH balances faster, skin improves, sleep patterns improve, detoxification is more efficient, weight is easier to lose, the aging process is slowed down, and your goals of better health, energy, and vitality are easier to achieve.
MissMeganM
Mar 20, 2014 7:10 pm
I'd ask to have some bloodwork done; it's the only way you'll know how deficient you really are and what you're deficient in - and honestly you probably won't be able to get B12 out of tablets, I can't.  I have to have it injected.  50,000 IU of vitamin D once a week will make you feel like Superman, trust me LOL