In honor of National Ostomy Awareness Day, blogger Tina Aswani Omprakash shares her journey with an ostomy and how she broke through the taboos she faced.
By Tina Aswani Omprakash
Originally published in Everyday Health on October 2, 2019: https://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/my-health-story/one-woman-shares-her-gratitude-on-world-ostomy-day/
I woke up from surgery feeling like someone had taken a hammer to my stomach. The strong smell of antiseptic assaulted my nose as I struggled to take in breaths of air. I cracked my eyes open and looked around my white hospital room. My nurse and her aide pulled back the curtain separating me from my roommate and I lay motionless as they transferred me from a stretcher to the bed.
From the bed, I craned my neck to catch a glimpse of my brand-spankin’-new stoma. It reminded me of a dog’s nose, pink and wet. There was a plastic, transparent pouching system around the stoma and blood-covered wound-closure strips over all my laparoscopic incision sites. I remember my husband, then boyfriend, Anand, sauntering into my room and calling my stoma Mr. Snuffleupagus after the character on Sesame Street. He said that my stoma reminded him of Mr. Snuffleupagus’s snout. We laughed, and I thought, “Thank you.” Thank you, Mr. Snuffleupagus, for saving my life.
To read more, please visit Everyday Health for the full article: https://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/my-health-story/one-woman-shares-her-gratitude-on-world-ostomy-day/
**As always, I appreciate your comments and feedback on any and all I write. Hope you find the experiences shared useful and positive!**
~~LOVE, LIGHT & PEACE ALWAYS~~
