Having the right mindset for your ostomy

I think that knowing what is needed and having the ability to get it is important in life.  I know also that having the right gear for your stoma can be the difference between having a wonderful life and a bad one.   Mentally you can really help and harm yourself by thinking badly about your situation. Now luckily in my life one thing I love to do is hunting and I have never let my stoma stop me from enjoying it.  I have been told many times that people who have stoma's shouldn't go out and be active or enjoy the great outdoors.  I know that these comments came from ignorant people who had no knowledge of what they were talking about or who had simply given up on life.  That is a sad thing to see and many people who are convinced that life won't get better usually are simply completely to blame.  My stoma works for me and not the other way around.

Even with an ostomy bag you can go out and be an active person. I am rather athletic and in pretty good shape and I do it all with an ostomy bag on my hip. The truth is that most people can live an active and full life with a stoma and those who don't choose not to.  I first learned of people who had run the Iron Man competition with a stoma and then I found not one, but two guys who had done it recently with a stoma and normal ostomy gear.  Just think about it.  People with an ostomy bag went out and did some of the most brutal physical challenges in the world.  That is a crazy amount of running. But these guys didn't just run 24 miles, they also swam two miles in the ocean before doing that.  Now swimming in the ocean is no easy thing! So he went with is ostomy set up and transitioned from swimming to running back to back.  After all of this, they also biked 100 or so miles and that is just wild.  How could I not be active knowing that this could be done. 

What I do is nothing in comparison and this gave me a lot of confidence. I do some pretty physical things, but nothing like that. I have to be able to climb into a tree stand and also lift heavy animals.  Some states require you to drag your animals out while others allow you to carry only the meat.  This means that in some cases I may have to drag a super heavy deer half a mile.  This means I need cardio and also a whole lot of strength.  But with the right gear, I am able to keep my stoma safe and since I work out knowing this I prepare for the amount of weight that is needed to be pulled or carried. It is not the easiest thing in the world to do but I train for it and don't let my stoma get in the way.  I love the journey and learning about how to get right in the mind. It is part of being whole with life and living a good one. So don't stop learning and don't be afraid to fail.