After the Ostomy-Will It Be Safe to Exercise

It Will Never Be the Same Again

So in the aftermath of all of the things you are going through, like before the surgery, the surgery, the 6 days recovery in the hospital and then the healing at home you start thinking.

About What You Say?

Well, there are a ton of thoughts that you are living with.

Questions first?……..

What do I do now? Where do I go from here? Well, the answer to that one I am still trying to grab onto. I was told be everyone, that you can resume your normal life. Well for me that really hasn’t worked out.

What do I mean?

Let’s start with the fact that at the time of surgery I was 61 years old.

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Next I had made my living, pushing racks of bread, baked cake goods by Entenmann’s and SB Thomas’s english muffins and bagels on and off trucks for almost 18 years.

How do I follow that up with the limits I now have on me. Very Different…..

Time To Get Up & Going Again

After I had to shut down it was going to be hard to get going again. Every day for those years I was up at 3 am and off and running for 4 days a week of anywhere from 10-12 hours a work day delivering to accounts. Saturdays were usually only an 8 hour delivery day.

That was my exercise. It had gotten to be a tiresome thing. So being shut down the previous 5 months plus with the Chemo-radiation treatments, and then two months after that my (6 hours plus surgery) had me where I was now.

What Now, I tried to gather up my thoughts. Time to get some goals and dreams going again.

You find that while you are going through the treatments you are focused in on a daily goal. One more day I need to get through.

Then one more week, etc, etc. Or sometimes only two more days of not feeling so well, before I should be feeling better again.

So you are in survival mode much more than looking at things 6 months, a year or 5 years out in front of you.

So I Didn’t Forget the Exercise Question

So as I recovered I still needed chemo treatments every 2 weeks from February until the end of May. I planned on exercising as soon as I had the energy. But that took a good 4 to 5 months after the chemo treatments were completed.

Now I deeply considered what I felt comfortable doing as far as workouts. I knew I wasn’t comfortable bending and folding up, nor putting much strain on the abdomen or lower stomach area.

I had deep concerns about hurting anything or a strains on muscles as well.

So I limited myself to walking, and lifting weights with my arms only, like arm curls and again moderate weights nothing really heavy. I would get my cardio from walking at the mall.

So with time I did discover that I did indeed have two hernias, even though I had been really careful with physical activities.

You can read about my hernias on Discussing My Parastomal Hernia and my other post titled Hernia Belts-Do They Provide Hope or Am I a Dope?.

So I guess returning to my normal work wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t bend over like I used to. I certainly wasn’t going to be able to push racks of product anymore.

I also wasn’t able to do all of the lifting I used to do. I now had an ostomy in my lower abdomen this does prevent me from doing this type of work.

Determining Exercise For You

So I guess you will need to measure yourself for the following areas.

Your age and your physical shape going into this
Your ability to focus on the task at hand and have a positive outlook
The size and amount of chemo that you are getting. How often are your treatments
Your response to the chemo side- effects that do accompany the treatments you receive
I found out just how important my faith in God was to me as well. Are you a believer? Do you have a religion or a faith to hang on to?

What I Discovered

I found during my year that often I drew strength to continue from my believe in an eternal God and my faith in him as a loving and healing God as well.

Prayers do help and they can be felt. I was told numerous times by the doctors that I was responding in the upper 95 percentile. They were very pleased with how I was dealing with the chemo and the side effects.

I would respond that “prayer does work”.

Take Good Care Of Yourself It Is Worth It For You and Those Around You.