It is freakin' cold around here right now. And what am I doing? Getting ready to get out of bed and go to work. Definitely didn't think out this medical leave right. "I'll start at work the beginning of the New Year." "It will be a fresh start". I'm an idiot. It's minus 40 something with the wind chill and I'm going to have to get out of my nice warm bed and get dressed and drive in to work.
It could be worse of course, I do have heated underground parking at work and a nice cushy office but still.
So it's been two weeks to the day since I went back to work. How is it going? Good! At least I think it is.
The first week back was a 4 day week and the novelty of being in the office was kind of nice. People were excited to see me or they were at least putting on a good show of being excited to see me.
Then week two rolled around. Funny how after time off the second week back is harder than the first. Not only was it a full five days (which is a lot when the most you do for several months is go grocery shopping for a couple of hours in a week.
By Friday I felt like my brain had been run through a cheese grater.
I also went swimming without Chuck for the first time this month. It was AWESOME! I like going swimming. Makes me feel like I'm on holiday even when I'm not. And swimming without an ostomy was a joy. When I went swimming with him I was constantly worried. Is he sticking on? Is my swimsuit top riding up and people can see it? I made the mistake of a bit of horseplay with my sister in a pool in Florida and it managed to get knocked around and unstuck and that was the end of swimming for me that day.
Then when you get out of the pool you have this spot on your stomach that just doesn't dry like the rest of you. You can choose to blow dry your pouch until it's not soaking wet but that takes a long time and you kind of have to be flashing it around to do that. Or you can get dressed and wander around with a giant wet spot on the front of your shirt which looks weird and is darn uncomfortable.
I also spent some awesome quality time in the hot tub, something I haven't done since I got Chuck because the hot water made him not sticky and kind of angry.
This past weekend I went back to the gym and went for my one hour step class. I haven't done anything except light yoga for three and a half months so I was pretty nervous that I was going to spend most of the class with my head between my knees trying to not vomit. But I rocked out on the baby step and I killed it if I do say so myself.
The best thing about working out Chuckless? I have some control over bathroom time. When you have an ostomy you can control how it empties a little bit by your diet and when you eat. But that's about it. When it decides to fill up you have no say in the matter. And when do your insides get working the most? When you do physical activity. And when you're scared I guess...
So I did a whole class without my ostomy bag filling up to the point where I had to leave class and empty it. I also didn't worry that any of the twisting or movement would cause any problems with it sticking.
In all I'm really enjoying my new Chuck free lifestyle.
I am getting a lot of questions about what I can and can't eat. I can eat anything, but I feel best when I follow a pretty strict food plan. A lot of lean meats and vegetables, definitely breakfast, lunch and dinner with snacks. If I'm going to have grains then whole grains are best. That's the diet most of us should be following but I notice a huge difference when I do it simply because the digestion train in my body has way less tracks to cover.
If I eat beets at 6 p.m. beets are leaving the station by 8 p.m. And if I'm not careful they're leaving the station in a hurry.
By carefully watching what I eat I don't have to take any anti-diarrhea pills unless I'm not feeling well or I'm attending a special event. I know a lot of post-ostomates take them daily but I don't.
I have a scope next week - sigmoidoscopy - just to check and see that everything has healed well and that I have no signs of illness in there. I feel amazing, but I'm always nervous about what they're going to find. I don't know if exercising, being careful how I eat and taking good care of myself will make much of a difference in the long run but I know it sure can't hurt. I am on a mission - a mission to not have to go through surgery ever again. Hopefully with the advancements in medicine and a focus on my health my zombie tummy has seen it's last slice.
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