Super Andee

Being a girl who focused on having a flat stomach, a stoma was a nuisance. Now, don’t get me wrong, I welcomed my ileostomy with open arms knowing that it would lead me on to a better life. And even though my ostomy was a bit awkward, I was still beautiful. While I was in the hospital I had multiple friends visit me, one even poked my stoma through the bag. My girlfriends made me feel so great. But at the time, I was dating a new guy. He, unlike my friends, could not handle my stoa. You know that terrified shriek you hear in horror movies? That’s the sound he made every time he even caught a glimpse of Stan, my stoma. As a 16 year old girl, that was self-esteem killer. So I did what I needed to, I booted him. I was not going to let another dictate how well I looked. I have pictures of my removed colon and my old stoma on my phone (talk about a conversation starter). My friends and strangers love seeing them! In the words of a fellow teenager, “Duuuuude. That’s cool!” They knew what I looked like under my bag and they loved it! There will always be people who describe ostomies as disgusting; my ostomy was not, nobodys is. Stan, the stoma, gave me my beautiful life back and he deserves that praise. A toast to stomas! Now I have reversed my stoma to continue life as a J-Poucher. Although I’ll admit my “dirty” wound has some less than pretty qualities, I can’t wait to show off my scars. As I’ve seen before, “scars are just tattoos with stories.”