Seize the Bag: Life After Colostomy

11/13/2025

Good morning, fellow ostomates! Are you getting ready for Thanksgiving? I’m happy to have my digestive issues under control so I can enjoy the holiday foods.

11/13/2025

Cheers! 🤎☕️

11/11/2025

Sorry for the long absence. My body is failing me and I fear my mind is not far behind. I cannot walk at all now (osteoarthritis) and my stomach has developed a stabbing sensation. Dealing with the pain makes me nauseous and my brain goes fuzzy. So, I just have to work twice as hard and fast during my moments of lucidity. Any advice on pain management is greatly appreciated.

10/31/2025

It’s a Journey: Not One and Done, But Won and Never Done

I’ve always been a “one and done” kind of person. Finish the task, close the chapter, move on. But life—and faith—don’t always work that way. Thankfully, God isn’t a one and done God. He’s a never-done-with-us kind of God. A God who stays, heals, restores, and walks every mile of the journey.

I thought about this again when I remembered my mother’s lost battle with breast cancer—and my own diagnosis, almost twenty years later to the day. Unlike hers, mine was caught early. No chemo. No radiation. No reconstruction. Just surgery. Done. Over and out.

People kept saying, “It’s a journey.” Some even looked disappointed that I recovered so quickly. The sympathetic nods. The “poor thing doesn’t know what she’s in for” glances. But nobody was more ticked off at my lack of suffering than Satan himself.

While I spent the next year bragging on God’s healing power and thanking prayer warriors across the country, Satan was busy planning his next torment. One year and one month after surviving breast cancer, I was in ICU fighting for my life—diagnosed with ARDS. That battle was longer and tougher. But my God is able. And He prevailed again.

Satan is a stubborn cuss. He didn’t quit. Next came eyelid cancer. Eyelid cancer! Who even hears of that? It took part of my eyelid, my eyelashes, and eventually my beloved job. I was forced into early retirement. Still, God healed. God provided.

Then came severe osteoarthritis. My mobility was stolen. But God is still making a way. And Satan? He’s still attacking. A colonostomy. Pulmonary embolisms. Not one-and-done problems—but healing journeys. And through every step, my victorious God walks beside me.

I think Satan would love to be a one and done attacker. Strike, destroy, move on. But my God—my Great Physician—is a won and never done victor.

Breast cancer may have been one and done for me, but life itself is a journey. A journey with a destination that’s anything but final. A destination of hope, peace, and ultimate healing for all eternity.

The rest of my journey may be long or short. But whatever comes next, I will trust God, my pilot. I’ll buckle up and enjoy the ride—because I know where I’m going. And I’m certain I’ll arrive safely in His arms.

Isaiah 46:4 (NIV)
“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”

This verse affirms that God isn’t just present at the beginning or end—He’s the sustainer in every season, the rescuer in every battle, and the One who carries us all the way home.

10/30/2025

My brain/mindset today:

10/27/2025

10/22/2025

This hasn’t been a problem since I stopped depending on my doctor to get my supplies through Medicare; but if you can’t order your own from other sources, or need a back up plan:

Learn what to do if you run out of ostomy bags. Discover practical steps for managing the situation, finding emergency supplies, and maintaining comfort.

10/22/2025

Anyone else have issues with edema? I have had lymphedema since my 2012 mastectomy. My right arm and leg are twice the size of their left counterparts. After my ostomy, I developed weeping edema. When my body did release lymphatic fluids, they were exiting through my skin. Not a major amount of fluid, but aggravating and potentially embarrassing nonetheless. So my doctor recommended these “boots” that use compression to draw out the fluid. After a couple of weeks of treatments, my skin became scaly and very very itchy. It got so bad that I had to go to the ER to get some relief. At the ER, they told me this was a normal reaction to the treatments. Shouldn’t my doctor or the technician who brought me the equipment have mentioned this? I felt like a fool. And I still “leak” all the time and wish I could claw my skin off my body.

10/22/2025

Life would be so much easier if everything had a one and done cure or treatment, unfortunately, that’s not how Satan’s arrows work. FORTUNATELY, that’s not how God works either! No matter what comes our way, God is here to show us the way to Him.

10/21/2025