Life can throw some pretty crazy things at you. One day you may be living a normal life and the next you may be in immense pain and headed to the hospital. Later on you may find out that in order to help save your life you are going to end up getting an ostomy. Then you finally understand what that means and that you are going to live with a stoma and an ostomy bag for the rest of your life. This is one thing that literally scared the crap out of me and I was so not looking forward too. The truth is I had always made fun of those people who had one and felt like this was simply a terrible form of justice. What also scared me was that I am a big runner, well more of a large-bodied runner and not a professional one. I really enjoy jogging on a daily basis in order to stay in a kind of not super round shape and enjoy the time outside as a way to recharge after a long day at work. The thought of losing that recharged and free time in my life really hurt me and scared me.
I honestly thought that I was going to have to give that whole running area of my life up. But luckily with great training and schooling from the hospital staff, I found out I was so wrong. It was part of my Ostomy Nurses first question was what I like to do that is active. She played some hilarious and cruel jokes on sex and hiking and then started to break down how my life would most likely stay the same. A few minor changes would take place and maybe some positional things as well, but for the most part, life was going to be rather normal as long as I learned the basics and grew on the gear and things I would need from there. It was a really great conversation and it let me know that in a few months I could start back to getting my body ready to jog again.
Normally, I just like to jog some local trails at a city park after work. Sometimes it is for 30 minutes of sometimes it is for a few hours depending on how I am feeling or how much I want to push myself. That means that I like to also jog trails and with that comes a certain bit of danger and a rush. I have also learned to jog in different styles with different footwear over the years and it turns out that one style works really well for my stoma and ostomy gear over another.
The idea of barefoot running is a great way to minimalize shock to my body. The regular jogging gate caused by normal shoes actually produces more shock and jiggle in my body and the barefoot running style which is more of a forefoot or balls of your feet running style helps to reduce that. This means that I had to use my minimalist or barefoot toed shoes. They are much lighter and don't make heel striking fun at all and that is why you learn to run differently. So if you are having issues with movement with you ostomy bag give those a try.
No comments:
Post a Comment