Take time to recover from the surgery. Take it slow with physical activities and listen to the advice of your health team.
Sport and recreation with ostomy
Regular exercise is useful and recommended to keep our body healthy. Apart from that, it can positively affect our mood. The good news is that, after the surgery, you can practice virtually any sport or activity you love and had done before.
It is very important that you first recover from the procedure and start with physical activity gradually, listening to the advice of health professionals.
You can, for example, hike, run and swim because ostomy systems are waterproof. However, contact sports require additional caution as accidents are always possible, and depending on your specific case, your doctor may also advise you to avoid them.
Can I bathe and shower without fear?
We described this topic in more detail in our article Stoma hygiene and peristomal skin care. In short, you can bathe and shower without fear, but for practical reasons it is advisable to do so when the stoma is less active.
Do I need a special diet after ostomy?
Although you have probably followed your doctor’s instructions and a certain diet
after the procedure, after recovery you can choose the diet that suits you best. There is no “universal diet” for people with a stoma.
It is certainly advisable to slowly introduce different types of food to determine how your body reacts to each of them.
If you know how certain foods work on your digestion, it will also help you control the smells and sounds of your stoma. For example, before meetings, socialising with friends and travelling, you can avoid consuming foods that inflate you.
Find out more about this topic in our article Ostomy and diet.
Conclusion — remember why you have a stoma
After ostomy, you are undoubtedly going to face changes. It takes some time to get used to your new condition. What is encouraging is the fact that ostomy usually enables the solution or at least alleviation of health problem as in the case of inflammatory bowel diseases. This is why the stoma, despite some challenges it brings, is likely to have a positive impact on your everyday life.
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