My Push for a quick reversal
I eventually left hospital in what I can only describe as the biggest relief ever, but I was under no illusion things were going to be easy. I left hospital a different person than I went in that’s for sure, I had to learn a new way of life, but I had to over come my emotional and physical level at the same time, I wasn’t in a strong place with either.
So, what was my new focuses/goals. To gain strength, learn my new way of life and focus on the reversal which the minimum time I could have it done was 16 weeks, and if I’m totally honest the stoma life wasn’t 100% in my list of priorities as I wanted to be rid of it anyway.
As the days went on and the new way of life settled down, I started to think about the things I felt that could be improved for stoma patients locally, so I started to look for support and groups that might be able to help on my journey, I started to look at social media and possible charities that may be able to help. There wasn’t any, the only thing I came across was the IA (ileostomy association) Devon and Somerset branch I joined it and went my first meeting, I wasn’t sure what to expect to start with, the meeting was in a village hall on the Devon and Somerset boarder which seemed quite far away from what I would call local. After the meeting I went away not feeling I had gained any inspiration from it so it started me on a very thoughtful pathway, as I became more stoma aware I had this need to look at ways I could help others whilst trying to prepare myself for my pending reversal surgery.
i approached a local health care connections about what i was looking to do and had to meet with them and go over my visoin to see if they would help it come to life and help others.
