@walkerlsroche
Good morning,
My Connect name is Jofree: I have had a colostomy since 1999 resulting from colon cancer: I was 54 years old then and I am now 80. My experiences were at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fl. and from the diagnosis to the operating room was less than 4 days. I was given an option to have a short term Ostomy and my surgeon expressed that there could be complications to resect me so I informed him that I would rather have an ostomy than have issues later on. That was that. Six hours after the procedure I awoke to an ostomy pouch on my left side.
True my wife and I were no longer able to appreciate our intimacies; the radiation and chemotherapy at those times were fairly radical, the whole procedure was radical, but my cancer was gone and has not returned. We had a tremendous challenge in front of us and with the follow-up help from the Mayo Clinic folks we made it through our first year. I have never regretted ending up with a Colostomy. The appliance is not openly visible and with practice and maintaining our regular bike rides, within the 3rd year, we realized how much more life we were facing together and thanked our spiritual God for these challenges.
Please do not take the road that leads to feeling valueless:
Your obviously near the end of your tolerance for your situation and I can honestly share with you that to hold an attitude that you have a worth, a value just around the corner and your persistence to desire more from who you think you are is but one day at the time.
That is how my wife and I faced our situation: there was really no choice that we could make to return to what we thought was our normal ways. What we have discovered is that our relationship has grown exponentially and we discovered a new dynamic with our own attitudes and how we responded to what was left of us.
You can do this: talk with your physicians about an ostomy: two years after my experience I rode my motorcycle from Florida to out west to Sturgis motorcycle rally and back through Canada and home to Florida. No one knew I had a colostomy and quite frankly, one never needs to use a public toilet again. I consider this in and of itself, a plus.
Keep your head up, talk with many different people and began to live your life again. You are in my, our thoughts and write back anytime. Just don't quite now.
Jofree