Today I am going through all my unused ostomy supplies so I can donate them to Friends of Ostomates Worldwide. For nearly two years I carried extra supplies with me wherever I went. I even took them to the hospital when I went in for my last surgery, just in case. It is strange to think that just like that I no longer need them.
It is hard to understand the great wide world of necessary medical supplies until you need them. I did not know what an ostomy was until I was told I was going to have one, way back when. I did not know what its maintenance would entail until I watched the nurses at Mt. Auburn Hospital take care of mine and then try and teach me how to do the same. In the early days, I would spend at least an hour with the visiting nurse when I had to change my appliance. My first stoma had the awful plastic bridge under it which made it nearly impossible to do, and quite painful, too. The supplies I used were absolutely necessary and made life as I knew it before cancer possible. The only thing I could not do was lie on my stomach - and there are supplies that can even make that possible and comfortable, too. (I was not comfortable with the idea of it; when I had to for radiation treatment, there was a special donut thing I rested on, and it was all very weird. Still weird thinking about it.)
This is just to say that without these supplies I would not have been able to go back to work, ride my bike, even leave my house. To think that there are ostomates who do not have access to supplies or cannot afford what they need breaks my heart. With the right supplies and knowledgeable support, ostomates can do everything anyone else can. Well done, FOW, well done.
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