The one part of life that can seem to be a little complicated is something that I have come to terms with.  I know that my own health is something that has been an issue and now that I feel normal again with the addition of a stoma I am always trying to encourage everyone that I can.  I am a big fan of the outdoors and always trying to find new people that enjoy the joys of nature that I do.  To me, it is a wonderful thing to be able to be active and free and it is sad to see when some people are simply afraid of doing things that they love out of irrational fear.  I see the fear in people all the time.  They believe something that is simply not true and has allowed it to overcome their lives.  This is not just in the ostomy world, but vastly true in politics.  It really hurts to see this in real life, but so many people are living in fear and sometimes that fear is that they will make a fool out of themselves or that their health will be in jeopardy if they have a stoma leak.  

The fact is that these fears make me angry.  I get mad at people who have engineered their entire lives around lies and neglect to live a happy life because they won’t learn or get over their fear.  I think it is just sad.  One reason that I think it is sad and silly is because of all the proof and facts that are out there that people with a stoma can pretty much do anything.  You can live a normal life and also be an extreme athlete as well.  It is just true that technology is amazing and that the gear needed to be a fun and even wild person is possible of being.  I know that some people don’t like to play with their health or test out new things, but when teh facts of life are there it is simply hard to deny.  

Now, why would I say all these things and not share a bit of my own story.  Well, I am an outdoorsman, and when I started having a lot of pain in my body doing normal things I knew I needed help.  Having an ostomy was a big life-saving ordeal to me and I was also a bit afraid that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy hiking, hunting, or playing sports again.  But this was all before I spent five minutes on the phone researching.  I found people who ran iron man competitions and were professional cyclers who had stomas.  I saw people running marathons and swimming miles in teh ocean in the same day with a stoma.  It was crazy to think that a stoma did not hold them back from being professional athletes.   It was a big boost to me and the more I researched and found people on social media I saw people lived normal and in some ways crazy lives. 

Don’t be afraid of your body.  Learn all about it and get amazing gear that fits it well.  Now with this in mind go out and enjoy the things that you like. Thanks for listening.