Hi my name is Hannah, I’m 24 years old and I have an ostomy! It saved my life, just as it does for thousands of other Canadians each year.
I was diagnosed with moderate ulcerative colitis at the age of 16 after having symptoms off and on for about a year. I was expecting the diagnosis because the blood in my stool coupled with the fact my mom had received the same diagnosis years earlier when she was 15 were pointing to ulcerative colitis. The doctor started me on a low dose steroid and Imuran right away. A few weeks went by and I started getting nauseous every morning from medication side effects, I ended up missing a lot of school and most of the fall season training for track and field. But then things got better, I was in remission for almost 2 years when I received the news that my colon had stopped responding and my inflammatory markers were high again. So I had another colonoscopy and was diagnosed as moderate to severe and was told I would need to move up to a more intensive treatment – biologicals. These put me into remission for about a year and I hadn’t felt better in what felt like ages. Then all of a sudden my health plummeted and I was going to the bathroom over 10 times a day, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I felt so fatigued I knew I had to go to the ER. That week in the hospital would be the first of 3 visits that year, with the last visit ultimately ending in surgery. Looking back on 2020 I missed out on literally every moment of life; time with friends, family, school, work.
October 2020; the third hospital admission that year, changed everything. The two prior hospital trips that year lasted a week each, I was always put on IV steroids and they would work and I would go home. This time was different though, even after 4 days of IV steroids I wasn’t getting better, in fact I was getting worse. I was going to the bathroom 10 to 20 times a day, I was losing weight rapidly, I was puking multiple times a day, I was in so. much. pain. I truly have no idea where I would be or what I would have done if it weren’t for my mom. She gave me the strength I needed to advocate for myself and my health. When I was first diagnosed with colitis I was terrified that one day I would need surgery, I cried the day I got diagnosed for that exact reason. Well fast forward 4 years and I was literally begging to have the surgery. I am so lucky that I knew someone who had the same diagnosis, underwent the same surgery that I was considering, lived with an ostomy and now lives with a j-pouch. I am not sure if that hospital trip would have ended with surgery or not, I do know that eventually I would have had to have the surgery no matter what.
My mom helped me make a list of pros and cons to the surgery and when the surgeon told me he didn’t want to “give me an ostomy at such a young age” she gave me the strength to fight back. I told him I needed my life back, I told him I was 20 and I should be out doing things with my friends not stuck in the hospital for the 3rd time that year – I told him not only did I want the surgery but that I needed it. He agreed, and 6 weeks later when I went to see him for my post-op he mentioned how much happier and healthier I looked. He also said that I would’ve needed that surgery down the line either way but he was just trying to “exhaust all options”. But I was exhausted. And there has not been a single day I have regretted that choice. Some days are harder than others, especially on days where a leak happens or I’m just not feeling confident, but days like that happen to all of us. What I do know is that now in 2024 looking back on the past years since October 2020, is that I would have never been able to do everything I have done if I didn’t have an ostomy. I graduated university with honors, I’ve been on road trips, I’ve been skydiving, swimming, running, I moved cities and started another degree. I have lived, not just survived. What I didn’t know was that my ostomy was not the worst case scenario, not only did it save my life, but it gave me my life back and the freedom to live a fulfilling life. This year will be my first time participating in Step-up for Ostomy but I hope to help raise money and raise awareness and to fight the stigma that having an ostomy is the worst case scenario
