Can you Run With An Ostomy Bag?

I learn things the hard way a lot of the time.  But I am not a huge fan of it anymore.  I like to learn as much as a can and deal with my issues in a healthy way.  Part of how I cope with the hardships in life is to have a good outlet.  We all get frustrated and angry and to me being active and going for a jog at the end of a hard and frustrating day can help me overcome my anger and frustration.  To me being outside on a track and just being alone with my thoughts is an amazing way to overcome hard times.  Now, part of my hardships was also caused due to the fact that I have a stoma and I was not going to let that take my life places I didn't want to go.

Running had become a staple in my life and one of the best things for me and I didn't want to give it up.  But that goes to show that we all can be afraid and all have fears that we won't be able to do something due to our surgery.  I want to let you know that almost all of my fears were really not actionable.  They were overblown issues and my life is honestly just about the same as it was before.  Now I just keep a little extra gear with me in a bag and I am set. 

Learning how to solve problems that others have already solved is key. I wanted to know how to get back into jogging again and as fast as possible.  This is where I was told to really hold up.  Most nurses and doctors said, jogging would be totally possible and that instead of jumping right in that I should start back slow.  First, they said, you just got out of surgery and you will have to recover.  They asked about my previous injuries and my sprained ankles came up.  PERFECT they said.  The healing schedule was actually pretty similar to the timing of an ankle.  They told me it would be a month before I am up and jogging like I was before and I was ready. 

It took me some time to work hard and plan what I needed to do.  I decided it was time to start back up at the gym.  Instead of running and weightlifting, I decided to go very slow.  I wanted to make sure my gear did not embarrass me in public and it didn't.  The elliptical and stationary bike were my friends to start with.  I thought they may actually be the hardest things to learn on so I wanted to test my gear first in the hardest way.  I started very light and very slow so as not to hurt my body.  Hernias are definitely a new thing that can happen much easier now. 

Now I didn't jump into it hardcore, but I started to get back into easy cardio and to keep track of how my body was handling it. I then started to jog slowly.  It took me a long time to get back into shape, but within 6 months I was happily jogging on a track again. So don't give up, search around for good gear, and motivation up and going.