From burying 25-year-old demons and walking 32 miles to Peel in the Manx Telecom Parish Walk to emergency surgery within 48 hours.

I’d naively assumed I’d cruise through to my 60’s relatively trouble-free, perhaps a little flabby from a life behind a desk but nevertheless unscathed. 

But life has its little surprises.

Turns out the discomfort on the Sunday was half walk-related and half ruptured bowel. Initially, it showed as appendicitis symptoms so I was admitted pretty quickly.

So I went under for routine key-hole appendicitis surgery and woke up with a stoma after a section of Bowel was removed. Thankfully it was all caught and treated quickly due to the incredible doctors and nurses.

Thanks to the drugs I was sufficiently spaced out to take this without question. A bit of a shock for Donna coming in to see me after surgery though.

But there are plenty of positives in all this.

• It’s likely the 32 miles increased the symptoms making it clear there was something going on. 

• It’s likely it could have gone on for some time and perhaps caused infections if I hadn’t got it sorted so quickly. 

• It’s not a result of anything more serious that could add further complications or challenges.

• It’s highly likely that I’ll be able to get surgery to reverse this at some point in the next 6-12 months.

• I’m here and feeling pretty good considering what was going on inside.

Before the op, stomas and colostomy bags had a very dated perception in my head. So I thought I’d use this opportunity to beat the stigma that exists and share what it is and what it’s like living with one. 

I’d always seen it as something old people have but actually people of all ages, for a whole range of reasons, live with Stomas. 

However, they are actually incredibly discreet, clean and manageable.

The chap in the bed opposite me in hospital put a positive spin on it straight away telling me through my drug-induced haze that he’d had his for over 6 years and would never go back.

Basically, and very cleverly, they re-route your bowel to an opening they create in your stomach, stitching the bowel to fix it in place. A small, sealed bag is then placed over the opening to catch any output (poo). The bag attaches to the skin with a flexible adhesive layer with a hole cut to the size of the stoma. The bag can either be one that can be emptied when required without removing or single use. I’ve got single-use bags so I just change whenever needed. They’re also waterproof so swimming is possible, although I’m a way off testing that out. 

Changing a bag takes less time than going for a poo normally and can be done when convenient, as long as it isn’t over-full! You also don’t need a public toilet as there are no pants getting pulled down. So I can kind of see why the chap in hospital was content with his. Although I wouldn’t recommend the surgery and recovery to get to that point!

The stoma nurse told me there are between 30-40 new stoma patients on Island every year, so I suspect there are people we all know living with a stoma that we’d never realised. 

I hope this helps in some way but happy to answer any questions, just send me a message.