It may be true that I spend most of my time in the house due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. But that is no excuse to not look spicy when I go out or end up on a full-body zoom call. Just because the year has been a little wild doesn't mean I should skimp on my fashion sense. There is a huge movement that overpowers many people who just get out of surgery. If you have a stoma, many people simply give up on looking normal and run for the baggy clothing all the time. The truth is that you don't have to give up on being spicy and feeling the same. It is really just a state of mind and I have to say that if I had listened to all the talk about looking bad with an ostomy bag I would probably get pretty depressed. But I didn't give up and you shouldn't either. I want to walk through my journey of finding out about ostomy fashion and how to keep up with the trends and times without feeling left out due to my stoma.
So I will admit I am new to having a stoma. I ended up needing a colostomy later in life and even though I was not really happy about it, it made my life much safer and better. So I was later determined to not give up my look just because I had a stoma. My ostomy nurse was great but seemed to really steer me away from looking good and wearing revealing clothing ever again. Bless her heart, but having a stoma is not the end of looking good. That goes for both guys and the ladies. So don't give up and simply stop trying to look good.
My first idea was to head to the wonderful world of Instagram. I knew that there had to be more people who had stoma and were dedicated to fashion. The truth is that I was right. I found a lot of different people who were dedicated to showing their lives with an ostomy. I love it and it was a real big motivational boost to me. Now they mostly all said the same thing in their own different way and that is that we are not all created equal. We all have different bodies and our stoma's are in different locations. That is the best information and that helps keep people from having expectations that are false. Hearing this gave me realistic hope and that is what I needed the most. This was a great start and from Instagram, I moved to Youtube.
I like the ability to follow a channel and see videos of people who are being active and looking good with a stoma. It allows me to see what really works and I love hearing stories of people who had accidents and how they overcame them. It is also nice to know what caused it in the first place and that helps me to be able to not make the same mistakes. Having those lessons available from people who are living lifestyles like mine is really motivational. It gives me confidence and lets me know that hope is real and looking good and being confident go hand in hand.
