#ostomy

[gayaest]

[Description in Alt-Text] 🐛🍎⭐️

Re-done OC: TWIG 🧃

[crippl-hacker]

My number one priority for needed medical equipment: decoration.

[piqu3d]

will this make sense without context? maybe not, but that just means you should read the proof is in the pudding by @star-byrd. In it Obi-Wan has an ostomy, Fox has an ng tube, shenanigans occur as well. a good time.

[dreveel]

Ostomy Covers; {Credit}

[oldfangirl81]

It just dawned on me to look up where my ostomy pouches are manufactured because it hit me tariffs will apply to medical supplies too. Fun. 🫠🙃

[cecile-dormeau]

[itslunchboxworld]

Tummy Tuesday!

[alaydabug2]

I'm in the car and I'm bored en

SO HERES A LIST OF MY MEDICAL ISSUES IVE HAD THROUGHOUT LIFE 😃

Vaugly related to my fanfic

Tetrology of Fallot (tof): congenital (born with it) heart defect that is basically 4 defects in 1 (I do not have the energy to look up or type all those scientific words rn so sorry)

I've had 3 open heart surgeries to fix it o e at 8 days 10 months and 5 years

Died 6 times on the second one 😃

Ngl life isn't too different with it

If you don't count the yearly doctor visits and can't play contact sports

I mean there's more to it that that obviously but it's mainly small things like getting out of breath quicker and I bruise easy because of having to take baby asprin

BUT the doctors ORIGINALLY said I was never gonna be able to walk or talk or do anything for myself

God vetoed that decision 😌

NOW I NEVER SHUT UP 😁

Got a nifty battle scar down my chest as a souvenir ☺️

And I used to be called smurf baby cause I turned blue alot

I make jokes about it now (hush I'm allowed to )

Ngl pretty sure I'm short cause failure to thrive as a baby cause of that 😭

Don't think there's any scientific backing on that tho for tof patients

Imperferated anus + colostomy bag: basically means I was born without a butthole

Not even joking on that i wasnt

But had to have three gastrointestinal surgeries from that

Don't know the ages or many details but I'm pretty sure I was two for the last one

And I had to have a colostomy bag

Thankfully don't remember it

Buy my waste went into a bag that had to be changed out

Ik it got infected so the scar is bugger than it should be

Seizures: if you've read my fanfic that's explained in detail for how it feels

But that was from aged 5-10

We never found the specific reasons for it

But we do hypothesize it has something tk do with possible scar tissue on my brain

Either from a heart attack/stroke/lack of oxygen from my second heart surgery is what we think it could be from

During a seizure my heart would start beating weird (not good description ik but idk how to describe it really) and my vision would start to tunnel out my tongue would tingle and then I'd black out

During a seizure I couldn't hear anything or see anything but my head would completely start to tingle

From my parents I was told during them I would stiffen up and lock my joints and almost seem to hyperventilate

It was control moderately well by medicine but I thankfully do not have them anymore

Hard hearing: im not like deaf or anything nor do I use hearing aids but my hearing isn't what it should be for a normal teenager lol

This is because during one of my heart surgeries they gave me a drug used on horses and a little too much if it at that (ketamine?)

Legally blind: yeah come to find out last year found out my eye sight is actual crap

Without my glasses I am legally blind

I've got 20/200 vision 😭

So I've got these crazy thick glasses now

Tourretts: neurological disorder where I make these random noises and movents

Got diagnosed back in sixth grade

My tics ate ill make various sounding noises (all kinda of variations of a hiccup for visualization) and my head will jerk back

It was awful before we found out what it was

Got picked on for it quite a bit and a certain teacher of mine essentially told me "just stop bro lol" and I'd get sent out of class for it even after we had doctor notes for it

Just get up out of that wheel chair then then buddy ☺️

They'd get set off my certain things

Music being one of them so I would carry around these earbuds when there was music around so it didn't get set off

I'm on medicine now for it and it's a LOT better

And a recent development (in the past 6 months) I've been able to listen to music again!

The tourretts aren't going away tho

If over been without medicine for more than 2 days it's BAD

Ovarian cyst (possible pcos?) : this has happened over this summer so you already got some rants on that lol

Buy I've got an 8cm cyst on my left ovary

Hurts like a beach 😃

In fact this Friday I was holed up in my room hyped up on narcotics cause of it

Fun stuff 🙂

Surgery is supposed to be on October 5th so we'll see how that goes

Yeah so medical history of mine 😃

That's fine

We'll see what comes next to the collection I can add

Also here's some pics of a couple of my scars (that I can show several are in places I'm not keen of people seeing 😅)

That's my colostomy scar

And near the top you can see a scar from a chest tube from my third heart surgery

And here's a really good picture of my heart surgery scar that I have (goes down to under the ribcage)

On my neck you can see a breathing tube scar

At least I think that's what it is

Also the corner of my lip I have a scar from some sort of tube from surgery (can't see it well on camera

Tbh idk what half these tiny scars are from

I just know they're remnants of surgery

Any way I do know kw I have a couple of other chest tube scars

But they are not in places to be shown

Same with a few dimples near my tail bone from gastrointestinal surgery

But those are there too

[gailyinthedark]

I think

I think I may desperately need to design myself an ostomy cover in the style of a Jacobean-era under-skirt pocket

[phdbabygirlism]

Self projecting at its finest

[goaskalexonline]

𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒥𝓊𝓃𝑔𝓁𝑒 🍃 GoAskAlex x CorwinPrescott

[gayaest]

I do draw cute disabled boys too — just gotta make it mega gay 🌈🏳️‍🌈!!

[crippl-hacker]

I am super privileged to have the family support that I do.

I currently am in WA through Job Corps but my family lives in AZ. My GI surgeon who I need to see is in Seattle. Due to my declining health I have had to drop to part time college and am not able to stay in Job Corps so they are sending me back home to Arizona.

I made an appointment with my surgeon in Seattle in November under the assumption that I was going to be a couple hours away and able to easily attend. Now that I’m moving to Arizona that’s not the case.

My parents care about my health and are willing to pay for me to fly to Seattle several times to first consult with the surgeon and then actually have surgery for my ostomy.

I am such a complicated case surgically due to my history of J-pouch and J-Pouch Prolapse. My surgeon who fixed my prolapse was considered an expert at this surgery and she had only done it twice prior (three times now due to me ^-^). I’m going back to her since she will know best how to work around the mesh implant and all the work that she did.

I’m not looking forward to an ostomy for the sake of having my intestine poking out of my abdomen but I’m excited to stop being sick and dealing with chronic pouchitis.

[docktowns]

growing up, i had an illness. i was born with it, no one thought i'd survive, or that i'd be frail and sickly my whole life if i did. i am pretty sickly, i'll give them that, but i grew up to be about a foot taller and 200lbs heavier than they thought i’d ever be. i am my parents' miracle, and i have grappled with that my entire life.

read now on substack.

[space-spring]

Ostomy Awareness

October 7th 2023 is Ostomy Awareness Day! So I'm going to make you aware of ostomies whether you like it or not!

If you've never heard of an ostomy before, the first definition I get searching it is, "Surgical construction of an artificial excretory opening, as a colostomy or ileostomy." Which is just sort of a complicated way of saying, "the end of your intestines/urinary tract is surgically placed outside the skin such that the stuff that comes out of it ends up in a disposable bag."

Ostomies are, in general, considered a gross thing to talk about for a lot of people (which, alright. it's poop/pee. fair). But getting an ostomy is a life-saving procedure that about 100,000 people undergo in the US alone each year. The most common reasons for getting an ostomy are:

medical issues where the intestine or urinary tract is causing active harm to the individual, e.g. ulcerative colitis or colorectal cancer

specific injuries like car crashes that result in trauma to the abdomen

things like bowel obstructions that require surgery or removal of parts of the intestines

I couldn't find a great public domain image of what they look like, so here's a quick drawing:

The red bit is called a stoma, and is made up of a part of your intestines/urinary tract. The placement will differ slightly depending on the situation, but it'll always be roughly in that lower abdominal area. The bag is made up of plastic and rubber, and is made up of two parts: a base and the pouch itself. The base is made of a circular rubber "wafer" adhered to the skin using strong glue, and is replaced every few days or once a week. The pouch is attached to the wafer, and is replaced more often as needed. The one I have pictured here has a clear plastic front, but most people who have ostomies for an extended period of time end up using ones with non-transparent fronts (some people also get cloth coverings to go over the pouch that have fun designs).

I had an ostomy nearly a decade ago as just a temporary thing between surgeries, but I still think about it a lot. For me personally, my ostomy ended up being a really painful, embarrassing experience. I was in high school at the time, and having the whole "there is bodily waste coming out of my stomach" thing going on on top of just the general stress of having severe health issues was a lot. Nowadays I feel strongly about making it a more normal, commonplace thing to talk about, if just for kids who have to go through that sort of thing themselves.

But all of that said, I'd be wrong not to mention that there's a ton of people who have had ostomies for the majority of their lives and feel really happy with them. Ostomies can mean a huge relief in terms of chronic pain, and over time, it just becomes a normal part of people's lives. Chances are you've met someone with an ostomy before and never realized, due to the fact that it's often hidden under clothing.