Embracing Life

Read stories from our members who are living life to its fullest and making every moment count. How are you embracing life as an Ostomate? We would love to hear your story. Please email info@ostomytoronto.com to be featured on our site.

Feature Friday

Ostomy Toronto wants to get to know our Social Media followers! 
Send us a photo and a short blurb about yourself (an exciting accomplishment, an interesting story, or something specific about your Ostomy Adventure) for a chance to be our #FeatureFriday of the week! We love hearing from you and sharing your stories with local Toronto ostomates. Let’s keep building this great community!

Photos can be from any point throughout your life before or as an Ostomate; accomplishing something great, showing off your scars, cooking your favourite meal, overcoming a challenge, or simply you just being your awesome self! You can tell us about an ostomy life hack, what helps you during tough times (drawing, gardening, meditating, exercising, Netflixing), your favourite Ostomy podcast - whatever! We can either tag you or feature you anonymously. 
Send us your photo plus blurb via Facebook DM, Instagram DM, or email it to info@ostomytoronto.com. 

We’re looking forward to learning more about you all!

How have Ostomy Toronto’s members or services assisted you to manage your ostomy?

Ostomy Toronto has helped me by being a wonderful support team and providing funds which enable me to go to camp horizon. Knowing that they are there and we all represent together makes me feel safe. I also know that there are many support groups in place if I ever need it. I am also glad that Ostomy Toronto is using all the new forms of communication to keep us all connected.

What advice would you give someone who is about to have, has just had, or is struggling with an ostomy? What advice would give their family/caregivers?

My advice for other patients: It’s difficult at the beginning but once you get the hang of it, it’s a life changing surgery you will never regret. Uncover your ostomy/ostomies. BE PROUD of what you have gone through…you are BRAVE!

BELIEVE in yourself and believe you will get better. Tell your friends…don’t be ashamed. They will support you and you have some one when you need them. Live your life finally! My advice for parents: What we are going through is really hard…we are trying to be brave. We are worried it isn’t going to work, we feel different and look different…do you think people will be mean to us? We appreciate all your love and support even though we have probably been mean to you.

How have Ostomy Toronto’s members or services assisted you to manage your ostomy?

When I first had this surgery, I received a lot of help from various sources. One of these recommended Ostomy Toronto meetings. I also benefited from personal help from one of the members who assisted me by phone. I believe the meetings were good for my morale in at least two ways: I saw that people at the meetings looked and behaved normally – you could not tell they had an ostomy; and even more importantly, the content of the meetings and conversations at the meetings not only informed me of different solutions for various problems that I had, but also made me feel more comfortable in that I was not the only one with these issues and that the problems could be resolved.

What advice would you give someone who is about to have, has just had, or is struggling with an ostomy? What advice would give their family/caregivers?

I would make sure to take advantage of any help that is available – Toronto Ostomy meetings and newsletters, any caregivers that offer help, the ET’s (if available) at the hospital where the surgery took place and ET’s in the commercial world (e.g. where supplies are purchased). Family members and caregivers should also provide encouragement to take advantage of all of these help sources above. I always like to say that it (the ostomy) is better than the alternative. My wife Sally was the one who pushed me to go to meetings, helped my recovery and still helps out from a morale point of view and any other help that is needed. In fact, my whole family and (former) co-workers at Waters have been very supportive. When I saw the ad to apply to carry the Olympic Torch, I saw that as a personal milestone. While it was only about 300 meters, I took it as a challenge – that I could have an ostomy and then still run and carry the torch. Of course I could – and I turned it into a personal challenge. It’s hard to believe that the Olympic Torch Relay was almost 4 years ago. I keep the Torch displayed where visitors to our home can see and hold it.

Are you an Ostomy Toronto Trained Visitor?

Yes.

How active are you, living with an ostomy?

I feel I live a very normal life and am able to do all that I wish to do. I did not meet my husband until a year after I had my surgery and we have now been married 49 years. Together we have traveled extensively and have had the fortune to be able to visit 85 countries.

How have Ostomy Toronto’s members or services assisted you to manage your ostomy?

When I had my surgery the mandate of the ostomy visitor was much different then it is now. The visitor would come to the hospital and make recommendations about appliances and how to use them and in many cases they would assist in teaching you how to use and change it. Of course, today this is not appropriate. After I was discharged from the hospital I joined Ostomy Toronto and today I can say that I still belong and have probably missed less than 10 meetings in the past 51 years (only missing when ill, on vacation or at a conference). However, because of the ostomy association (in the early 1950’s we became a member of the United Ostomy Association Inc.) I learned of a woman at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation who was an Enterostomal Therapist (E.T.). As I had done a number of visits and the more I visited the more I realized that the nursing staff was not aware of how to manage an ostomy as was my case when I had surgery. I decided to pursue the possibility of becoming an E.T. I subsequently went to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 1969 and trained under Norma Gill and came back to Toronto as the third E.T. in Canada, and have practiced as an E.T. ever since. I believe I have been involved with upwards of 12,000 ostomy patients over the past 42 years. I have had ostomy visitors for patients when I worked in the hospital. Today in the community I recommend the ostomy association to all patients I see. Some of my patients have gone on to be leaders in the local and national ostomy association. If I had not belonged to the ostomy association I would not have been able to help the numbers of ostomy patients that I have.

What advice would you give someone who is about to have, has just had, or is struggling with an ostomy? What advice would give their family/caregivers?

As a professional, I still recommend the ostomy association to my patients and encourage all of them to join the ostomy association.