One week to go!

In the 5 months (yes its been that long!) since my diagnosis I've done a lot of reading and research both on cancer in general and colon cancer specifically. But now that I'm so close to having my surgery my thoughts have shifted to the logistics surrounding the surgery itself and the recovery. I'm very confident in the ability of my surgeon (Dr Buie) and feel very confident about the surgery in general. The big unknown for me though is the recovery. Being that this partial colon resection is major abdominal surgery, I'm scared of going from feeling great (like I do now) to feeling like crap (like I will in a week). The recovery will take about a week in hospital and will be a month at home and likely two months before I'm back to my (new) normal self lifting kids, working a bit, going for extended walks etc. I will likely need to forsake solid food for a week starting the day before surgery and can expect to loose 5-10% of my weight over that week. And of course post-surgery I will have either a temporary ileostomy or a permanent colostomy. The prospect of pooping into a bag has seemed to this point like a minor inconvenience when I've thought about it in the past. But as reality has set in in these past days I decided I needed to find out more about exactly what having an ostomy will be like.

Puttering around on the web I found a site called the Calgary Ostomy Society which amongst other things provides experienced ostomy mentors to new ostomates. I sent them an email explaining my situation and asked if they had anyone I could meet with this week to discuss my upcoming life with an ostomy. An hour later I got a phone call and the next day I met up with a interesting guy named Sheldon for coffee. He has lived with a permanent ileostomy for 25 years and was a wealth of information on the ins and outs of ostomy life. He told me all about surgery and recovery and he divulged some of the tricks of the trade for daily life with an ostomy. He has virtually no limitations on what he can do. Ostomates can eat normal food, play sports, swim, drink beer, water ski and do just about everything a normal person can do usually without anyone else knowing they have an ostomy! Ostomies don't emit a smell whatsoever (gas can be expelled wherever and whenever the ostomate is ready) and can be hidden at or below the belt line inconspicuously even when you're wearing only swim shorts. Sheldon has close friends that have no idea he has an ostomy.

In short, meeting with Sheldon has put my mind at ease. I can see myself living comfortably with an ostomy, either for the short term or the long term. While I am aware that it won't be easy or straight forward, I take great comfort in knowing that it has been done before and if others can do it then so can I.