Baggie

Like most guys, I still like a good poo or fart joke. So there's a good place to start. My dad taught me that it was always better out than in. He used to let rip at any time, it was just what he did. At least when I do it I have a little giggle, his was a serious rip, no joke, it was like a medical or health thing for him. Maybe he thinks he is going to blow up if he doesn't let it go.

So these days, I no longer poo and fart like most people. I wear a bag, I am a Baggie. On October 14, 2014, Dr Pete took around 35cm of my lower bowel (along with a pretty large cancerous tumour), and then on my right side just under the ribcage brought the bowel out and sewed it in. It's called an illeostomy, as the illeum is the lower part of your small intestine, the ostomy part refers to the stoma which is the bit that sticks out. We call him Bob (don't we Dazza).

It's a hassle in some ways, but pretty amazing in other ways. The stoma, which is the little bit of bowel, is a couple of cms diameter and sticks out a couple of cms. The bag has a sticky part which is about 10cm diameter with a hole in the middle which goes straight over the stoma. It has a charcoal filter so doesn't smell, I empty when it fills up, and change the bag every couple of days. I have no control over what happens, so Bob tends to fart a bit. All I can do is put my hand up, yep, that was me. Licence to fart I tell the fam.

I had a great mate that is currently wearing a temporary bag, so when I knew that it was happening, I grabbed him and we had a few coffees and chats. That was essential in me coming to terms with wearing the bag. Plenty of people struggle with bags, both physically and emotionally. They become sore, sometimes you have blockages, some people have blowouts (ewwww), but lots of these things would be hard to deal with. Early on I had a couple of leakage issues, which I didn't deal,with well. The stoma nurse at the SAN saw me right. I can't thank enough the value that came to me from my great mate who talked me down on this whole issue and brought me very quickly to acceptance.

So now it's just another series of tasks that I have to do, like putting out the bins. Although I don't put out the bins, I make the kids do it. I hope to get a reversal later this year so I can go back and poo and fart like a normal person but will deal with that later.

One last thing, one of the first things my great mate asked me was how many people I know that wear a bag, and I said I don't know any. His response was that I bet you do, but you just don't know who they are. They are more common than you may be aware. Good call.

Tomorrow is always another day.
Trev.