#auguts hard to talk about
Life is full of surprises. Life is not a return to normal. Life is not full of us who can apparently easily deal with a stoma.
Life is full of surprises. Life is not a return to normal. Life is not full of us who can apparently easily deal with a stoma. Good for people who can but let’s get realistic. The whole business can be messy, degrading, and at least partly limiting. Less than two years ago I had to have a permanent stoma. I named it after a colleague who was full of crap but once did me a massive favour. Loud farting was the first of many embarrassing events but not so funny are the occasional accidents – which shouldn’t happen but are common with having to wear a hernia belt. These aren’t funny especially if they happen somewhere difficult or at work. Cleaning up is usually not a problem but the smell and leakage are. Some foods and drinks are to be avoided – anything fizzy remains as such. Holidays are good – though insurance is difficult – and lacking in confidence means I wear special high waisted swimming trunks.
So in short I still struggle at times with my stoma but 18 months of experience has helped. If only it wasn’t for the damned hernia, the massive plastic surgery on my bum and a cancer spread to my lung all would be perfect.
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I was born 8 weeks premature with Intestinal Malrotation. My understanding is they weren’t sure what was causing me the pain as a newborn, being premature too. When surgery was eventually done it was found my bowels had twisted. Corrective surgery was done. I was christened in the hospital as it wasn’t looking great.
I have diverticular disease on the right side of my body and I believe only a few people have it on this side.
Mr Frank McDermott is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon and Cancer lead for the Genomics Medicine Service Alliance in Southwest England. His grant with Bowel Research UK why some patients with diverticulitis experience serious complications such as blood infection, while others have milder disease.
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We brought some of our patients, researchers and our CEO together to talk about what makes bowel disease hard to talk about and hard to fund. Watch them share their stories and join the campaign.
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