Reply To: surgery done…coping with new lifestyle…trying to stay chipper!!!!!

[Susan]

So glad to hear you are now recovering from what sounded like a terrible ordeal, Shelly.
For only 6 weeks after your RC, you sound like you are doing amazingly well, especially considering how sick you were from the clots in your lung. That was shocking to read that the RC was “nothing” compared to those clots. Very descriptive about how awfully sick you must have been.
And when you write about the daily ups and downs you are having now – how some issue pops up every day, and how sometimes you get teary and discouraged – you sure make me remember the first few months after my IC surgery. Everything about wearing and changing the pouch seemed so awkward and complicated for me at the beginning.
But then, several months after the surgery, I remember realizing that I was no longer constantly conscious of the pouch. It kind of disappeared and became part of me.
And the “cancer free” status is such a joy. I wish for you a continued steady recovery, and return to your new normal – cancer survivor and happy ostomate.