Update and exercise

Hello,

I thought I'd give a quick update and let everyone know that I am finally starting to overcome my nightmare 12 months and move forward with my life. I have spent a number of weeks feeling relatively normal and I have even returned back to work albeit on a restricted office basis only working 4hrs, 3 days a week.
I did suffer a slight setback a week after returning to work where I managed to pick up all the office germs and with my immune system being so low, I ended up spending a few days in hospital with pneumonia but I soon recovered from that and went back to work a week later.

I am also starting to try and be a little more active now, I have started going on regular walks with my wife and 4 month old son, I have started cycling although as it stands, I can only manage about 5 miles at a time before I am ready to collapse. I even attempted 6 a side football for the first time in over a year after my 8 months in a hospital bed. I didn't feel I did too bad, however every time I trued sprinting to make a tackle, I found my legs were instantly like jelly and I felt like i was stumbling forwards to fall flat on my face (luckily it didn't appear like that to everyone else). I also suffered the psychological barrier of spending every second worrying i was going to get smacked on my stoma and collapse in a heap on the floor.

How many people have returned to regular physical exercise and are feeling normal whilst doing these activities? I can't believe how weak my legs felt whilst trying to run and even now 2 days later, my hamstring is so tight that I can't walk properly. I would love to go back to the gym and build my strength up but my surgeon has stated that I am not to life any weights as my insides won't cope. Has anybody else been told this? Can anyone suggest any good ways to start building back my strength in both my arms and legs and how to get over the mental concerns of physical sports? I just want to start feeling normal again and get back to doing everything I used to do.

Simon

Wow petal!! You have had quite the experience. I had my surgery Aug 30. I was on Pred for a year and finally got off of it at the end of Nov. I've had a bumpy recover (although it wasn't to the extent you had issues).

I just visited my surgeon's office for a stoma problem and the Dr. said to be kind to yourself. All I'm thinking is "I want to freaking workout like I used to!!"". Seriously, it's been six months since my surgery, four off of pred and I'm still a physical mess? She emphasized I had been through a lot.

What I'm getting to is I think you're doing great. I would consider holding off on the football for another month or two of working out to get some sprinting stamina back. Consider getting an ostomy guard for your stoma so you don't have to worry about it. I'm guessing you are playing what American's call "soccer" as opposed to American Football? I know it's hard and it sucks but baby steps is the key! It sounds like you are doing that!

I ran a marathon two years after my ostomy. I love to exercise and do it alot as I teach cycling classes and do triathlons all summer.

Had ostomy Aug 09 and did sprint triathlon(just one) the next summer in June.

Tried 5 the next summer and one was a half ironman distance, survived.

Last summer did 9 triathlons and two marathons and survived them all!

this summer competing in World's triathlon competition in England and 8 other triathlons of various distances and a marathon. :(Really want to qualify for Boston before I get too old!

So the point of all this (which I hope isn't to braggy) is to say if you start slow and be careful I'm sure you could get back to whatever you want and more.

Quick excertions like playing football, sprinting, raquetball and stuff like that is very hard on the immune system in my opinion and needs to be trained for from scratch once you have a big surgery and down time like you have.

I started walking in the hospital and it took me 4 months to be able to walk a mile. I kept at it everyday. Now I run 26!

You can too!! Take it slow and steady. have the whole family do things together. I lift weights and I know other ostomates the do so may want another opinion on that one. Weights just need to be carefully executed and built up slowly.

Good luck and god bless.