Activity levels and being athletic is something that is not generally tied to having a stoma. Most people believe that you should be ultra-careful and stop living an active and fun life. Well, I am not in that boat of thought at all. When I found out I was going to go into surgery and a stoma would join me on the other side I started to research the extremes. I wanted to know what the worst-case scenario would be and the best case. Now on the best regular side, most people don't have to change their lifestyles really at all. That is because you can be as active as you want for the most part with a stoma. There are so many incredible stories of people doing insane nearly non-human feet with a stoma, and for me, I only wanted to see if I could head to the woods in November. The truth is that my favorite sport is still in my grasp and I have enjoyed hunting with my stoma for many years.
This is the one thing that I love doing and that is being in the woods during the Fall. When I first heard that I was going to end up with a stoma due to some complications I was a bit worried about me being able to enjoy the great outdoors like I used to do. But I was happy to find out that I was wrong in that assessment and that the wonderful world of the outdoors was and is still available to me. I will say that it did not come instantly though. Going through surgery and knowing that I now have a stoma left me knowing that I was more prone to hernias, ulcers, and abdominal injury. So I decided to start training and working on my body to be able to rock this new body I found myself in.
Now I know that my work in the woods can sometimes be really physical. When I am lucky if I end up getting a dear in the Fall I may have to be able to drag up to 200 pounds for hundreds of yards. Or I may have to end up carrying that weight for a long-distance depending on the location. That means that my body needs to be in shape and my stoma and abs need to be protected. That meant for me that I had to get into the gym and start working on my body so I wouldn't get any hernias or simply make my stoma worse. This meant I needed to start slow and build up strength and endurance. I found that using the right ostomy gear during this time was key. I ended up calling a bunch of companies and talking with my local pharmacist on what might work best for me and what I could do to make my working out comfortable and to forget I had a stoma. With a lot of trial and error I ended up finding a great setup of gear. It didn't happen overnight and I also consulted countless online websites and social media people to see what they used for active times.
But with lots of help and research, I am happy to be outside and enjoying the great outdoors again.
