Guest post: Where in the World is Luciana’s stoma?!

Luciana came in second place in the “Where in the world is my stoma?” quiz earlier this year. Here is a guest post she wrote about some of her travel experiences, her love of travel, food and hiking, and how an ostomy has not held her back from doing things she loves.

Thanks Luciana and congrats again 🙂

Not all disabilities are visible – a close-to-home reminder!

Not all disabilities are visible. I know this! As the mother of a daughter with Crohn’s, I remember all too well the years of “Can’t Wait”, rushing to get to the nearest toilet, researching where the toilets were wherever we might be going, anxious train trips, anxious car trips, uncertainty about whether to push Laura to do things or encourage her to rest . . . yet her disability was largely invisible to the regular on looker – sure she was pale and thin, anxious and exhausted, but aside from that  . . .

20 Years!

When a member of your family has a chronic illness, be they in remission or otherwise, that fact tends to colour all other life events. So it is, with great joy and gratitude, I celebrate my daughter Laura (aka Stomalicious) and son-in-law Mikey’s, 20^th anniversary of being together as a couple.

On being the parent of a child with a chronic illness – Part 1

Another guest post from my incredible mum.

Any parent will tell you, it’s their worst nightmare: to have a child with a serious or chronic illness. So, it might surprise you to know that I have a child with a chronic illness and (now!) I hardly give it any thought at all! How can that be?

Laura’s Crohn’s disease was diagnosed about six years ago now and for four years or so after that, it was pretty much all I thought about and, like any other parent, I would have done anything to take the illness away.

A response to Invisible Illness week: Promoting “Awareness”

Here is the first GUEST POST contribution for Stoma-licious. A response written by my beautiful mum Vivienne to my recent post and those of others following invisible illness awareness week.