Adaptation

If there is one thing I've learned form my diseased colon, it would be the ability to adapt- constantly.

When I check in with Mom, every time she asks, "So, are you getting used to it," meaning the bag. The answer is always the same: I don't think one gets "used" to having a bag of pooh hanging from their belly.

I am getting better at it...

I have adapted to life with a bag just as I adapted to life with a diseased colon. I knew the flares were eventually going to come and eventually go. I'd stop drinking when I flare, and I would eat like a high school boy when I was in remission. And more often than not, I would limit my food to low fiber or even to clear liquids.

I've started visiting an on-line support group when I often hear new-bees complain about the diet restrictions. I can tell they are new because they have not felt the pain of high fiber or solid food during a flare. They'll learn and hopefully find solace in the words of other UC patients on that support site.

Eventually we all adapt. The new-bees turn into the seasoned veterans who offer the advice, tell the new-kids-in-town what to expect, and usually how some amazing seed or diet or oil or pill they took reduced flares. Once I thought of myself as the sick girl, then, I really was sick! Now, I am the bag girl and in a month I will just be me...

Although I am anxious to get this bag off and my intestine inside my body where it belongs, I may even postpone the surgery so I can have a long weekend on the beach with my bag buddy. Then again, maybe not. :)