My wife’s aunt suggested that I could take reader questions about my ostomy or whatever else I’ve written about thus far. I think that sounds great, so if you have a question you’d like me to write about in a future post, you can:
- message me on Facebook or Instagram
- leave a comment on this post
- send a letter via electronic mail (e-mail, they’re calling it) to npfehr [at] gmail [dot] com
- or I guess just ask me in person!
One thing Aunt Bev had wanted to know herself was about dietary requirements these days. Were there definite do’s and don’ts, or had they changed since before having a colostomy? I looked back on this blog and it looks like I wrote about some stuff we were trying in the weeks after I got home, but not much after that.
Generally speaking I am still working with the advice my dietitian gave me last year; avoid heavily processed or cured meats due to nitrates and their link to increased colorectal cancer risk. Red meats are a ‘sometimes’ food, so as a household we are still in the habit of mostly eating chicken or plant-based proteins, but I’ll definitely have a hamburger here and there.
Post-surgery we had read a lot of advice about different kinds of foods to focus on or avoid with an ostomy, but it turned out that was a bit of overachieving on our part. When I spoke about this to the Ostomy Program nurse, I was told that a lot of online dietary advice is for people with Ileostomies rather than Colostomies. An Ileostomy is higher up, exiting from the small intestine instead, and I’m told they are more finicky and difficult to manage. The intestines have had much less time to do their intestiney things when food exits. The nurse reassured me that following the ileostomy dietary restrictions would certainly not harm me, but it probably wasn’t necessary in the long term.
Turned out they were right; looking back I think it mostly just took time for my guts to heal and settle down from major surgery, rather than reacting to any specific thing I was eating or drinking. That said, the things that upset my tummy before, like large quantities of onions, dairy, or watermelon (as it turns out this week) will still upset me now. For the most part, these days I do not worry about what I put in my body beyond my general health and the cancer risk guidelines I mentioned earlier.
I will admit — Sorry Kim! — that the dietary advice to avoid things with increased cancer risk seemed like too little too late at times. I only got this advice after I was already diagnosed, and wouldn’t it have been more beneficial ten years earlier? Why am I trying to mitigate my cancer risk when I’ve already been diagnosed? Why close the barn door after the horses have already escaped, to coin a phrase? The rationale at that time was that we were giving my body its best fighting chance, instead of continuing to pile on the things that had gotten me in trouble in the first place. I didn’t always feel like it, but I went with it.
Continuing to follow these guidelines still feels a little silly, because now I’m like: “yeah, but I already DID the whole cancer thing, and we fixed it.” As though there’s no way that particular problem could ever come back. As though cancer has a Double Jeopardy rule and the same kind won’t harm the same person twice.
I know this isn’t rational to think, and I’m going to keep trying to do right by this body of mine. But, I’m sure I’m not alone in getting through a difficult medical situation and feeling as though that particular problem is done and dusted forever.