Recently the lovely Christine Kim, creator and founder of the fabulous website Ostomy Connection, asked me to contribute to a post explaining my personal reasons for showing my ostomy bag on social media, and why I show it and don’t just talk about it. Here’s why!
There are some people who say, “why not just talk about your ostomy, why do you need to show it”?
For me personally there are several reasons I show my bag on social media. I don’t do it for the attention, I don’t do it for the likes, I don’t do it to help with self-acceptance (I accepted my ostomy a long time ago). I do it for anyone out there who might need or wake up from surgery with a bag attached to their bellies thinking that their life is over, scared, embarrassed and full of uncertainty. I do it to show people that isn’t true. Your life is not over, in fact, for many of us it is a new beginning.
If you follow Stomalicious then you’ll know that most of the photos of me showing off my bag are in iconic and beautiful destinations around the world. I love to travel and it breaks my heart to hear ostomates say that they have not been on a holiday since they had their surgery because they are too scared. A big fear for many ostomates is travel (airport security, carrying ostomy supplies, being away from the comfort of their home/doctors/support network). This is completely understandable, but I want people to know that there is nothing to fear! The main reason I show my bag on social media is to show other ostomates that travelling (and living out many of our dreams) is 100% possible with an ostomy! If just one person sees a photo of me showing my ostomy in front of the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum and it helps them jump on a plane and give them the confidence to take that trip, then I am happy!
Why show it and not just talk about it? Well it doesn’t have the same impact. Does it? I’m a big advocate for spreading awareness of ostomies. I’ve explained my ostomy to many people (non-ostomates), and for quite a lot of them they still don’t really get it. It’s a hard concept to grasp if you’ve never heard of a stoma or have no idea what ostomy surgery is. Sometimes the easiest and best way to explain something (an ostomy included) is to show people. I (and many others) have even posted pictures of our naked stomas **gasp** on social media! What better way to help people understand what a stoma is and how it works! They say a picture paints a thousand words, right?!
The other reason is: Why not?!?! I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m not ashamed. I don’t NEED to show it, and it’s not like I walk around all day with my bag hanging out, but I think by not showing it it’s like I’m hiding something. Even fellow ostomates have commented on some of my photos saying that it’s disgusting and there’s no need to show it off. Well that’s my personal decision. I’m not flaunting it. I’m purely showing a part of me that I am proud of because it has given me back my life and allowed me to live a fulfilling life again, and hopefully I am helping a few people along the way.
I just finished reading a great article on Ostomy Connection by Lisa Goodman-Helfand, and she puts it perfectly … “there are many people out there contemplating surgery that would result in living with an ostomy bag. They are terrified. I wrote this for them”. I, and thousands of others like me show our ostomy bags on social media for those same terrified people. We do this for them!
stomalicious 