What Can I Eat? – A Recurring Question for Ostomates - By Bill Power
Image Credit - UOAA web site
Our first general meeting of the calendar year for Ostomy Halifax Society coincided with a messy, snowy weather system that kept many people away. Where we might typically have 40 to 60 people at a regular general meeting we had 14 people at our meeting on January 5th. We had a rap session scheduled for the meeting already so with fewer people present it just made the conversations a little more intimate.
We typically break into groups by ostomy type, with SASO (Spouses and Significant Others) often breaking off to speak together and sometimes those who want to share travel trips doing the same. In January with the relatively small number of folks present, we broke off into two groups to allow individuals to ask any questions on their mind and / or to share whatever they wanted with the group. In my group a topic came up that often plays a significant role in these rap sessions, eating – i.e. what ostomates can eat, what they cannot eat and blockages?
I love eating. I think I love eating too much sometimes 😊. Like most ileostomates I am interested in eating for enjoyment and health and I absolutely want to avoid blockages. So, at the meeting we all shared our perspectives and stories about eating and our experiences with food and how it may affect us, etc. As you can imagine, some ostomates have never had issues with what they eat or with blockages. Some people have. Everyone is different and, so it seems, no two ostomates will have exactly identical experiences with food.
I am not a health care professional so nothing here should be construed as a recommendation or advice. I did, however, want to share some helpful information to new and curious ostomates looking to eat well and comfortably.
There are some really great online information sources to help ostomates. I found this very good general article at the UOAA (United Ostomy Association of America, Inc.) web site - Ostomy Diet Guidelines After Surgery. It is a good article and it offers links including to Coloplast Care online which offer diet tips for ileostomates, urostomates and colostomates.
There are many more resources than this for ostomates looking to eat well. I hope you find what you need and enjoy your food journey.
Until next time.