Enjoying Spring with a Stoma

Spring is here and it makes me so happy.  I enjoy Easter for sure, but my part of the country starts becoming nice in the weather for being outside.  But if you find out that an ostomy surgery is going to be scheduled and it is for you, your mind starts to wonder.  Sometimes this is a scary moment.  Many people think this is the end of their fun in life.  I was totally afraid that my outdoor life would end once I got my stoma, but in fact, I was totally wrong.  I had a lot of fears that were not necessary and completely wrong.  This was a wonderful thing to find out, but a lot of it was more along the lines of me learning the hard way.  I had seen many people simply give up and live a sedentary lifestyle with a stoma in I was totally not a fan of it at all.  Now I write a ton about my stoma and talk to as many people as I can to help them with their fear.  I want people to live happy and active lives and know how to do it with a stoma.

One of my favorite things to do is be outside and enjoy the wild weather.  But with spring here I can enjoy amazing weather. I have always been an avid hiker, backpacker, and jogger.  These things are what give me joy on a daily basis and something that I really like to do.  So to me letting them go was not going to be a possibility unless there was no other choice. My journey to being outside has been just that a journey. Make sure you are researching and learning all you can to ensure you can do your favorite things too. You may be surprised by what people are doing who have stoma's.

Now it took me a long time to get back into the swing of a gym.  After a surgery you need to heal and recover.  If you have a six-pack and want to jump back into abs you may have to wait a little bit.  You are now more prone to having hernias and no one wants that to happen.  So for me, it was a process of heading to the gym and walking on the treadmill.  This was a huge step because it was outside my home and neighborhood and had a possibility of bad things happening in public.  So that is why I started slow and just walked for some time.  After a week, I added elevation and then slowly moved into doing ellipticals too.  It took me a few months to feel confident in my gear and in my ability to jog in public.  Confidence is not an easy thing to get, but in time it comes and you can really start living again.

My journey took me to a lot of social media in the healing stages. I was lucky to be able to spend time listening to others and learning about gear and how to use it.  It was pretty cool to find athletic people sharing their lives for free. I don't care if they were getting paid by Youtube, they were and still are helping me.  That is pretty darn cool if you ask me.