Hello Sue,
Welcome. This is the place that will help you figure it all out. Imagine, people with ostomies, from all over the USA and the world, sharing their experience.
I'm now at 1year post op. Reading some of my old posts on this web site, I can see how far I've progressed from my dark days after leaving the hospital. Like w30bob posted, you go through stages.
It's very hard at first. Recovering from surgery. Looking at this thing poking out of your stomach. Learning about ostomy products. I remember looking at a catalog of ostomy supplies and was baffled. What the hell is all this stuff? How and why would you use it? Well...post a question on this web site, about anything, and someone in our ostomy world will give you an experienced answer.
We all had surgery, returned home. Had an ostomy nurse give us basic instruction about wafers and pouches. Taking em off, putting em on. And that was it. But there's so much more to it. And that is what you'll learn here.
My time in the hospital was hard. Had excellent doctors, nurses and the best care. And yet everyday that passed... I was going down and no one could figure out why.
And just when I figured I was toast...exploratory surgery and and a colostomy saved me.
I still can't talk about my ostomy medical adventure, get very emotional. I've spoke about it generally.... but cannot get into the details. Even as I'm writing this... I'm feeling it. Not sure I'll ever get over it. And maybe that's a good thing.
When I look down and see the bag hanging from my stomach....it's good. Saved my life.
Give yourself time. My surgical scar and stomach looked like hell at first. A year later... looks OK. Just a thin red line and a misplaced belly button.
You'll get there.
Take care,
Dan