If I haven't said it to you before...don't get a bag...

     I joke with Stephanie probably too much about this but what an adjustment to life if you plan to keep as active as possible.  It gets in the way.  It dicatates the type of clothes you wear.  It is another chore to do weekly or less depending on your activity level.  It is a process that not cared for properly can lead to skin breakouts and breakdowns.  It is something that you either tell people about when the unexpected happens, or you say nothing about and try to "muffle" the sound, or you laugh it off but I haven't been successful with any of those solutions.  I am more comfortable around family and they sure have given me a lot of grace.  I can't seem to laugh about it.  I live with it and sometimes wish I had a third hand just for muffling purposes.  Am I getting a little to personal here?

     This is what I wear.  I use the two piece system.  The flange is like a big super sticky band-aid that I relish taking off if only for a couple minutes in a week's time.  The picture doesn't show the elastic belt that goes with it.  So I have a bra strap that just rides a bit lower.  It requires shaving that area of my stomach and application of powder and film barrier to protect my skin.  Even with a perfect fit and no problems with output, my skin can breakdown because of the band-aid adhesive away from the stoma.  So life is more than just having a stoma, it includes dealing with skin management.

     What can I say on the positive side?  Digestive health surely is the key to this process.  Making sure you are putting into your body only things that God has made is so important.  My trek in this has now stretched since January of 2012 of consuming no animal products other than honey.  I back up to the time of surgery in July of 2011 and consuming no red meats and eliminating man made ingredients or additives.  October of 2011 starting the juicing phase and now we have a Vita-mix that is getting a workout everyday.  I have made some radical changes to my life but they have been worth it by the numbers but this blog post is about the bag and I am sure I would be in worse shape if I didn't follow this path with "that" appendage strapped to me.

     I have seen it in the past and in other areas of my life that God uses those experiences to help others so I am just waiting for God to use the "bag" for His good.  I guess I need to get myself ready to be used that way.  Happy Friday all.

Adam
A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlier in  Ga
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course everything was quite a bit dirtier when
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following the Sunday morning worshi
Read more