A few years ago, an actress shared her photos on Facebook, revealing the colostomy bag she was wearing at that time. Her attitude towards not being shy of letting everyone know about this hidden secret is exactly what a colorectal surgeon Jean Ashburn wants to see in her patients.
According to Dr. Ashburn, most of the patients need a colostomy or ileostomy bag temporarily – usually for three to nine months to allow their intestine to heal from a condition or surgery effect. The ones who need to live with an ostomy bag for the rest of their lives get an ostomy due to conditions such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, or the aftermath of surgery to treat colorectal cancer.
“Good for her,” Dr. Ashburn says about the actress. “People need to be brave and face this pathology. It doesn’t get a lot of attention because it’s very private. People do not want to talk about poop, stool or gas.”
Dr. Ashburn says further that familial and cultural barriers keep a person with an ostomy to talk about their condition openly. It’s mainly due to the other people’s joking or mocking attitude towards the subject.
“It’s something that people in their own way make fun of, which can be very sad,” she says. “This is a life-changing event and can bring a dilemma to the patient and to the family. A patient who requires a bag, even young patients, should not be valued less than anyone else. It is about making inner peace.”
Having to wear an ostomy bag is one of the biggest challenges a person with an ostomy has to overcome. According to Dr. Ashburn, there is no reason for those patients to feel ashamed. They need to enjoy their lives because they have earned that right by going through a lot of pain and suffering.
That said, the impact of an ostomy is tough for on anyone, but having to wear an ostomy bag is more psychologically difficult for younger patients since they have several years of life ahead of them. They may have to engage in many activities that could result in a greater likelihood of their ostomy bags becoming visible to others.
According to Dr. Ashburn, the key to living a healthy and active life after ostomy surgery depends on the thinking in a positive perspective. If you have any kind of ostomy, you need to keep in mind that this ostomy saved you from bigger trouble, which could have made things worse in terms of your health. The reason you have this bag is that you had to get rid of a diseased body part, which could have resulted in a more painful and life-threatening condition.
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