Fitness with an ostomy
On February 10, I went in for surgery to have one of my ovaries removed. I woke up to an ostomy bag attached to my body.
It was a complete surprise procedure, but it turned out that the reason my ovary had become infected (and hence needed to be removed) was due to a parasite that had also infected my large intestine and caused an abscess that needed to be removed as well. I had a colostomy procedure as well as my ovary and appendix removed. A colostomy is when your colon is separated from your rectum and loops back up so that it sticks outside of your stomach instead. The opening is called a ‘stoma’ and it is covered with a bag that collects your poop instead.
I had this operation 4 months ago and I have had to learn everything about stomas from scratch. There’s been a lot to learn.
As a person who exercises a lot and lifts weights, I was devastated to hear that I was not going to be allowed to lift more than 5 kilograms while I had my stoma. I was really frustrated with how little information I was given around exercising. Plenty of information pamphlets I had been given in hospital talked about the importance of exercise with a stoma, yet gave little more detail than ‘walking around the block’, ‘light stretching’ and ‘easing back into routine’.
I tried to ask my stoma nurses (I had seen two) and my surgeon. None of them could give me more detail than what I had learnt in the pamphlets the hospital had provided. I actually found the most helpful source of information to be on YouTube and Instagram. I found out that there were bodybuilders, weightlifters and other athletes who all competed at high levels while having a stoma. I was so confused by how this didn’t add up at all with the advice that my providers were giving me.
From 2 weeks post surgery I started doing body weight exercise routines, about 2-3 times per week, and using the stationary bike. At about 2 months post surgery, I started adding yoga into my routine and very gentle run/walks. I was just trying to listen to my body.
I tried to ask within a Facebook support group for people with ostomies how they got back into an exercise routine. The general advice was to speak with your stoma nurse or surgeon, and perhaps they could refer you to a physiotherapist or exercise physiologist who can help you build strength again.
I asked my stoma nurse if I could see one of the rehab physios they offer for stoma outpatients. My nurse told me I probably didn’t need one so she never referred me.
I began to do my own research on rehab specialists. At 11 weeks post surgery I found a training centre that specialised in recovery. I booked an appointment with one of the physiotherapists there. We tried doing weights for the first time since before my surgery, and to my surprise I wasn’t as weak as I thought I’d be.
We started off with a full-body, dumbbell weights workout to set as my new programme that I would do twice a week. I did that for 3 weeks, along with yoga one or two days a week, and one or two runs a week (no more than 5km).
At week 14 I was able to start doing barbell work. I did box squats and Romanian deadlifts and was able to go quite heavy. I worked up to doing 75 kilogram box squats for 6 reps.
The most important thing I needed to work on was maintaining and building strength in the core and obliques. As long as I was correctly bracing my core, I can do probably any type of exercise that I want to.
I am now training 4 times per week doing weights, as my goal is to build as much muscle and strength as I can before my reversal surgery.
Now, I have no specialised training in this area, this is just my anecdotal experience. To anybody else in my situation I recommend doing what I did and seeking guidance and support before starting a training regime. However, I really hope that this gives people who are recovering from major injuries like me the confidence to have a go and see if they can work back to where they were before!
I am super open to discussing my stoma experience with other people. If you have more questions please feel free to email me!
