OstomyMan

Welcome to OstomyMan.com. My name is Jared and I’m just getting started on this blog. I had Ulcerative Colitis for nearly a decade before I decided to have a colectomy and an ileostomy. While I had Ulcerative Colitis, I can honestly say that I tried just about everything to get and keep it under control. It worked off and on for quite a while, but it finally became too much once I had a baby (March 2007) and things really showed their true colors. I had pushed too long and too far without getting the situation handled, so now it was time to terminatedly handle it so that I could get back from the zombie like state of lethary and become a useful, productive member of society, a pleasant husband and an active dad.

When I was deciding whether or not to have the colectomy and the ileostomy, I found that there wasn’t a whole lot of information available about the day-to-day effects of having that surgery. The nurse gave me a book to read (Alive and Kicking by Rolf Benirschke), which did give me some idea and I really appreciated reading it. And after I had my surgery, I joined a couple of Yahoo groups on the topic and that has been very helpful too. But I didn’t find these things until the very end of my Ulcerative Colitis and after my surgery.

So I thought I would try to help fill the void for anyone that might be going through Ulcerative Colitis or facing a potential ostomy (whether ileostomy or colostomy). I figured I would let people know what I had tried, what I had figured out, what’s going on and how things continue to go in the future. It’s just going to be my experiences (and anyone else I have post), but I think it might be useful to someone facing these unpleasant situations and looking for real, down-to-Earth specifics. Hopefully it will help shed some more light on these areas.

P.S. I’m just getting this blog up and running, so there will be some structural changes or the next little while as I get it set up how I would like it.