Deal Ostimates
Edit: Dear Ostomates - stupid auto-correct
I just want to say that you lot are a bunch of awesome human beings, as good as it gets.
This comes from a dad who was unexpectedly thrown into this ostomy-world by means of his 5days old son. The little one had a small intestine atresia, which led to a loop Ileostomy. Followed by >6weeks in the hospital, multiple infections, learning about ostomy-care, being faced with SO MANY products and brands, learning to reinfuse 💩 into the lower part of the intestines, figuring out the correct setup so bags stay on 12h instead of 90min, being sent home to “recover” only to rush back to the hospital a few days later with a Prolaps, which just wouldn’t go back in… which ultimately forced the surgeons to pull in the reversal surgery which was scheduled for weeks later, which is now almost a week gone.
The smallest portions of breast milk are being bottle-fed into a VERY hungry, tiny human and it’s hard to understate how much joy & relief it brings to say:
Ladies and gentlemen, there’s 💩 in the diaper.
While this experience was incredibly scary at first and the future is still uncertain in many ways, I learned through communities like this one, that “this world has always existed”. What I mean to say is that it felt so unreal being faced with an ostomy, because it’s something I’ve never ever considered to even exist.
Communities like this taught me that while everyone’s journey (and ostomy) is unique, no one is alone - and there are people (and products and procedures) to help.
I’m a big fan of talking about things and creating awareness, so learning that ostomy-influencers exist, gave me hope that social media is not always terrible, but can be used for incredibly good things, too.
P.s. apologies if some of the language would be considered offensive, it comes from good intentions, filtered through English as a second language.
P.p.s once insurance has been dealt with and we only need diaper changes on a regular basis (every 3h, instead of a bag change every 2d-3d …) we will look into donating/sharing the month-worth of supplies, so if anyone is interested in that (located in Germany) or has any good ideas, that’s very welcome.