- So, since my stoma surgery,
I have made quite a few videos about it
but I noticed a trend in some comments,
such as, WTF is a stoma?
I can't seem to understand
where the stoma is located inside the body.
When you first talked about the stoma,
I didn't really know what it looked like.
I would have thought it had a piece, plastic,
or some kind of valve with a threaded
or connectable feature which the bag is attached to.
I didn't realise it's just an opening
with a bag literally plastered over it.
Kind of makes me wonder how the function
could change to where the bag attached
differently and is more plug and play.
Being ignorant on the topic,
is there a specific reason you've been informed
about as to why the stoma doesn't have a feature like this,
where the bag can attach mechanically
and/or some kind of fashion that isn't so tasking?
I'm not sure what you mean by plug and play (laughs).
There are two piece bags
which have, like, a more mechanical attachment.
I don't know and it's not about tasking to be honest.
And so, I literally don't understand the concept.
Is there a hole in your stomach?
And what the hell is a stoma, am I missing something?
So, I thought I would answer your questions
by showing you my stoma.
Her name's Mona.
Please be nice, okay?
We're gonna cut to me in the bathroom
and then we're gonna come back and have a chat.
She was not active at all whilst I was filming,
so don't worry, there is no poo in these clips.
She was very well behaved.
Even if there was, I probably would have edited it out,
so you would have nothing to worry about.
So, my stoma is my small intestine
that is sticking out of my body
and that's what you're about to see.
Dun-dun-daa.
Hello, welcome to my bathroom.
So, I have just taken off my old bag
and cleaned my stoma and here we go.
Dun-dun-dun-daa.
Internet, meet Mona.
Mona, meet Internet.
I have like the wipes
around my underwear and in my hand,
just in case she starts being active
but she's been well-behaved this change so far.
But yeah, there we go.
She is bright red.
She is moist and there are no nerve endings,
so I can like touch it and I don't feel that at all.
It's really squishy.
Definitely been getting used to it
and the change is getting a lot easier now,
like I've kind of, I've got a system.
I've got a routine.
Yeah, there we go.
Bow-bow-bow-bow-bow.
Here's my scar.
This is pretty much the full length of it.
Also, I don't know if you can tell
but my belly button is now, like, at a diagonal.
My belly button has entirely changed shape
because of the way that they are cut around it.
I also have a little scar here, whicch was where
I had my wound drainage tube in,
which was like a long, yellow, corrugated plastic tube
and that took forever to heal.
So, it's scarred a little bit.
It's really weird, I was contemplating
whether or not to do this and one of the reasons
was I was like, oh, maybe not
is because it feels really intimate
like I'm showing you my genitals
and then when I think about it,
I'm actually showing you my bumhole.
This is my new bumhole.
So, there's that.
Right.
Because she's being well behaved
before it all gets too wild,
I'm gonna put a new bag on, yay!
Oh, the other thing I forgot to mention
is that she, like, moves and changes size and shape
and you can kind of just watch it happen.
She wasn't really doing it then.
That's why I forgot to mention it
but yeah, she kind of, I don't know,
you can see her just go (humming),
which is very strange and quite fun to watch, to be honest.
Right, there we go.
That's all stuck on and now I just hold it down for a bit,
make sure that adhesive is all stuck
and at the moment, I'm changing my bag every other day,
which is what the stoma nurses
recommended when I was in hospital.
My new stoma nurse has said every day
but I can't be bothered with that
and I've also heard that some people
change theirs every three days or once a week.
So, I have no idea.
Maybe it depends like what kind of stoma you have
and what kind of bag you have.
But every other day seems to be working fine for me.
Yeah.
There we go.
And then there's this little see through bit here,
so I can kind of keep an eye on her,
make sure everything is grand.
There we go.
You're welcome.
So, I thought I would take this opportunity
to do a bit of a health recovery update as well
because a lot of other new things have happened.
Yay, my body being gross again.
I am gonna talk about some gross things.
I don't know, gross?
Yeah, probably.
So, if you're squeamish at all
or just don't want to hear about weird bodily functions
then maybe don't listen
but if you're curious, then blease do keep watching.
(laughs)
Blease?
Blease do, blease do.
I made notes so I don't forget anything.
Huurm.
The main thing, the main thing.
So, when they did my surgery,
they took out the whole colon but they left my rectum.
Now, by leaving my rectum,
that means that I am eligible
for potential future surgery called J-pouch surgery
which would reverse the stoma
and fashion a new system out of what I have left.
I'm not making any decisions about that surgery just yet
but basically, I have a rectum
and one of the risks of still having a rectum
is that I could get inflammation there.
Ulcerative colitis could show its nasty head
in my bum and guess what?
That just happened.
You know, you'd think that I'd had enough
for one year, but no.
My body is still torturing me.
I digress, I digress.
We need to rewind a bit.
One of the things that your rectum does
is it produces a mucus which helps lubricate
the poo coming out.
Now, my rectum does not realise that there is no poo
coming out but it still produces the mucus.
So, I've mentioned it before,
I get these phantom poo feelings
and basically, my IBD nurse was like,
next time you get some of those feelings,
if it's not going away, try sitting on the toilet
because you might pass some mucus.
And I was like, I'm sorry, what?
No one told me about this.
As it so happens, a few days
after I saw my nurse, that happened
and it was like weirdly painful sensation.
I don't know, mainly because of the pushing
and the fact that I don't really have abs
or a strong core at the moment
and lo and behold, it was some mucus.
So, my nurse told me that everyone is different.
Some people don't pass any mucus at all.
Other people, it will be like once a day.
Majority of people, it might be like once a month.
It varies.
So, I was passing mucus like every few days,
I think, and it was fine.
I would just go sit on the toilet
when I got those phantom poo feelings.
But then, there was some blood in it
and that is a bad sign, my friends.
So, I called my IBD nurse and I said, there's some blood
and she was like, uh, that's a sign of inflammation.
So, I was like, great, now what?
So, she prescribed me some suppositories.
Now, this is the fun bit.
Da-da-da-da.
I went from being on all of the medication,
to being on no medication, to now having one thing to do.
So, these suppositories are like little pellets,
tablet things that you put up your bum
and then it kind of dissolves
and it's like a soothing cream
to soothe the inflammation.
I will say, it has worked.
There is no more blood coming out of my bum anymore.
But I still have to finish the course, basically.
I was doing it every night
and now I'm doing it every other night,
putting a pellet up my bum.
My favourite thing about this,
is it weird to have a favourite thing about this?
So, this is the pellet.
This is the size of thing.
Err.
It's like this.
Da-da-da-da.
Come on, focus.
Not on my face, don't focus on my face.
This is why people put their hands up,
so it doesn't, there, so, that.
I shove that up my bum.
So, I was reading the instructions of how to do it
and it said put the barrier on your finger
and I was like, a barrier?
As in, like, a condom?
Am I supposed to put a condom on my finger
to put it up my bum?
And then I dug further into this box
and da-da-da-da!
These are my favourite.
These are little finger condoms.
I've got a little box.
They're like this and then you just roll it down.
I'm not gonna fully roll it, 'cause I want to use this
but yeah, (laughs).
Look at that!
I just, yeah, roll it, roll it, roll it.
And I got some little finger condoms.
I want to know where you can get these.
Like, if you can buy them anywhere.
I'm sure you could buy them online but oh my god.
I mean, silver lining guys.
This is great.
So, that's that update.
Hopefully once I finish doing that,
the blood doesn't come back
and my rectum remains un-inflamed.
My scar and my physical recovery
is going well, I guess.
It's at the point where it feels like diminishing returns,
like I've recovered so much, I've come so far
but now every improvement is just smaller
and less noticeable.
Yeah, it's kind of frustrating,
'cause I'm still not, like, okay.
I still use my stick.
I don't really need it.
I have gone outside and walked around without it
and I'm fine but I do need it
if I know that I'm gonna be out for a long time
and I'm gonna be using public transport.
And the other day, me and Dan
actually had to rush for a train.
And I can't run.
I cannot run.
I was like hobbling and walking as fast
as I could with this stick.
We made the train.
I don't know how we did it, but we made the train
but just that quick sprint, my sprint,
it just completely destroyed me.
I was in a lot of pain and couldn't really breathe.
My heart rate went up so fast,
as if I'd just done some extreme exercise
but all I'd done was, like, hobbled a bit faster.
So, that was a real wake-up call for me, I guess,
'cause I was just like, oh, I'm fine,
I'm moving around, I'm walking, da-da-da-da,
and then that happened and I was just like,
oh, I am not a normal person right now.
What is normal?
Ugh, hate that word.
Mentally, not doing so great.
I think it's because of the diminishing returns,
in terms of recovery and also my mental capacity
just isn't there and I find, being a self-employed person
and my job being very, like, self-starter-ey,
I need to be able to motivate myself.
I don't have somebody being like, do this,
do this, do this, which I would really appreciate right now,
'cause it's like I don't have the capacity
to really embark on big projects.
I can do these videos, I can do little things
but big stuff just overwhelms me right now
and my brain is just like, nope.
And I think because my brain can't do a lot
and because my body can't do a lot,
it just makes me sad (laughs).
So, I'm a bit sad right now.
I actually wrote out a big blog post about it
when I was having a really sad day.
I don't know if I'll post it.
My website has relaunched by the way.
So, I am gonna be writing more blogs.
So, I may post that depending on how sad it is,
'cause it was definitely written in like, ughh time.
But yeah, HannahWitton.com.
Diddle-dun-duh.
Travel!
So, I have booked my first trip.
I have booked a trip to California.
I'm so excited.
I'm going to LA and Palm Springs.
I'm so excited to get some sun and holiday
and I used my air miles to upgrade to premium
on the way out and upper-class on the way back.
So, I'm just like, I need this.
I might just cry with happiness.
Uh!
There is an update on my health
and recovery process and you have now met Mona.
I very much value and appreciate the folks
in my community who also have stomas
and all of your lovely insight and support
that you have given me, like, oh my God, thank you so much.
But I have a question about the bag thing.
Do you think of your bag as part of your body
or do you think of it as an accessory to your body?
'Cause I'm trying to get my head around
how I should relate to it.
Thank you for watching.
Please give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it
and didn't squirm at my stoma
and the talk of bum mucus.
(laughs)
Don't forget to subscribe,
'cause I make new videos every week
and hit that notification bell so you know when I upload.
Alright, bye.
(relaxing music)