Author Archives: Stephanie Hughes

About Stephanie Hughes

I am a writer. I have Crohn's disease and an ostomy. I am a triathlete. And I created The Stolen Colon to bring them all together.

So you want the good news or the bad news?

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Today has been a mix of good and bad. It started off with a film crew and an in-person meet up with someone I’ve connected with online – but more about those later. Most of my morning was taken up with my follow-up appointment with my surgeon.

unc chapel hill hospital surgery recovery follow up appointment stephanie hughes stolen colon crohns ostomy blogWith yesterday being two weeks since my surgery, I met with my doctor today just to make sure that everything is healing like it should. It’s good to get past this point after a surgery. Beforehand, you just don’t know where you stand. I’ve been feeling good overall, but still dealing with some pain, discomfort and even a little blood. I wasn’t sure if that was normal or something to be concerned about.

So first, the good news: thankfully, my doctor said that those are typical things to be dealing with at this point after surgery and I shouldn’t worry too much about it. He said that all of the incisions are healing nicely, even though I do have a minor infection around the wound. It’s actually an issue I had prior to surgery, so I do have some medication for it and he believes it should go away in a few weeks. So I will plan on going back to see him at the beginning of next month, just to make sure that it’s clearing up like it should.

I asked him about running and swimming and all of that and he said that it will be fine for me to get back to those things. He said what’s most important at this time is just to listen to my body, to start slow and to stop if it begins to bother me too much. He said it will likely be another three to five weeks for it to really heal.

relax pain recovery stephanie hughes stolen colon crohns ostomy blogBut then the bad news: my doctor went ahead and removed some of the stitches that were no longer necessary and that has caused more discomfort than I had anticipated. Driving home was difficult and I have spent the better part of the day on the couch. I took one of my pain pills earlier, which has helped, but it also has made me feel a little nauseous and dizzy.

Since I haven’t felt like doing much, I’ve been trying to get a jump on packing since my husband and I are taking a much-needed mini vacation to the beach. I think it’ll be good for me to get away for a few days before officially diving back into the real world and starting back at work.

Even with some of the pain today, it feels good to know that I’m on the right track and that the healing process is working like it should. I’m ready to get back to living… but I think I’ll plan on starting that tomorrow.

Got my new shoes on

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It has been two weeks since my surgery. This means it has been two weeks since I’ve been able to do much of anything. I’m getting a little antsy.

Especially with having the surgery just two days after my half-marathon, I went from being very active to not active at all. It has made me feel very cooped up. Thankfully, I have been able to make it out of the house a little this past week. I have been off the pain meds for the most part and have been feeling well enough to drive a little bit. I even made it out to pick up a new pair of running shoes.

During my first season with Team Challenge, I won a drawing to get a pair of shoes from Omega Sports. (Let me add quickly what a big fan I have become of theirs. They do a lot to work with the CCFA, plus, they are always so helpful and willing to spend the time to work with you.) But when I won the drawing, I had just bought a new pair of shoes from there less than a month before, so it seemed silly to get a second pair. But I realized that after two half-marathons, my current shoes were well past their expiration date.

tennis shoes running sneakers altra racing race run roadI made a big change from my other shoes, moving from a very supportive pair to a much more minimalistic running shoe. I’m interested in seeing what a difference it makes. It’s making me look forward to getting back into a training routine. I still have the idea of completing a sprint triathlon by the end of the season, but I’m not quite ready to commit to that yet since I’m still feeling out this recovery. But I don’t think it’s out of the question at this point.

I have my follow-up appointment with my surgeon tomorrow. I’m hoping for the go-ahead to start getting back to these other aspects of my life. It’s hard to be out of a day-to-day routine for this long. It looks like this will be my final week off from work. I started thinking that I might consider going back a little sooner, but I’m realizing now that another week will be helpful. It has taken two weeks to get back to feeling mostly normal. I think it’s smart to let that set in rather than jumping on to something else. But I’m itchin’ to try out those new shoes!

Our scars make us

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When I was first faced with the decision of going through with having my colon removed and getting an ostomy, I was very concerned about the scars the surgery would leave behind. I don’t consider myself a particularly vain person, but as a 26-year-old woman, this was a very difficult idea to come to terms with. I was married less than 2 years at the time and I was afraid of living a life where I no longer felt confident or attractive.

For me, this was one of the more difficult things to accept. But ultimately, I realized that it didn’t matter. It was a small price to pay for feeling better and no longer living with the day-to-day symptoms that I had grown very accustomed to.

I have also been very blessed in the course of this whole thing. For one, I have an incredibly supportive husband. He has always assured me that it would make no difference in our relationship and it never has. On top of that, I have a great surgeon right around the corner from me who has walked me through this whole process and done both surgeries completely laparoscopically. There was a chance both times of needing to have a larger incision, but neither time was it necessary, and I’m very thankful for that.

Such of big part of my recovery this past week and a half has been allowing these new scars to surgery recovery scars pain stephanie hughes stolen colon crohns osotmy ileostomy blogheal. They are still covered in this hardened gel and a little sore to the touch or when I twist the wrong way. It’s hard to tell in the picture, but I have 10 small incisions now: 6 from the first surgery and 4 from the one this month. Plus, my belly button has been opened twice and of course there is the ileostomy itself. (And you can tell how white my stomach is because it hasn’t seen any sun in quite a while!)

I have come to realize that these scars say a lot about me. And I’m sure that your scars say a lot about you. Every scar comes with a story, a memory. Our scars make us who we are. And I’m not only talking about physical scars. We have many scars on our heart and in our mind. Some of these we proudly show off as a sort of trophy of our accomplishments. Others we prefer to keep hidden and perhaps some day forgotten. But regardless of that, every scar has changed the course of our life and is proof of what we’ve been through and what we’ve endured and made it through.

I wouldn’t change one scar. While there are things in my life I wish I would’ve handled differently or avoided altogether, I can never regret those decisions or experiences because they have made me who I am. And I’m OK with that.

Stephanie’s Craft Corner

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I’m constantly wanting to redecorate and update my home. It has been just over three years since we moved into our first house. And that’s been pretty amazing for me, to have a place to put down roots.

My entire childhood I spent in one home. My parents moved there shortly before I was born and I stayed until I left for college. After that point, I do a whole lot of moving. Between moving in and out of a dorm for my first two years, then getting an apartment and moving back and forth from South Carolina, I ended up moving 13 times in a 6 year span. Needless to say, when we bought this house, I was ready to stay put.

I had never had a place before this that I ever took the time or energy to decorate. As you can tell, I moved about every 6 months, so there was never any point. The best I got were a few pictures hanging on the wall. Now that we’ve been here, I have enjoyed being able to put a little of myself into it and making into a “home” (with the help of my sister, who is a fabulous interior designer!) But at the same time, I haven’t done much changing since we originally moved in back in 2010. I never could bring myself to spend that kind of money on something that we already had.

Recently, my mom has taken back up some sewing projects. She used to sew a lot when I was growing up. I can think of so many outfits that we had that she made for us. I’ve actually always been a little sad that sewing wasn’t something I had picked up from my mom, especially when I have so many memories of her working at her sewing machine, making dresses or costumes or long, flowy (by the way, I just realized that’s not an actual word) skirts that we could twirl in. But my mom has been busy making pillows and such for her house and beach condo and I mentioned that I’d love to have some new pillows here. And since I’ve been looking for a new “recovering from surgery” project, it seemed like perfect timing.

So we set off for the fabric store today and picked out some lovely gray and blue fabrics that we pillows craft project sewing sew handmade homemade stephanie hughes stolen colon crohns ostomy blogbrought home and got to work on. It definitely took some time… I’d say just over an hour a pillow, between measuring and cutting and lining up the sides and sewing in the zippers and putting the whole thing together, but it was totally worth it. Plus, it was a lot of fun to get a lesson in sewing from my mom and to pick up one of her hobbies.

I also found out that sewing is not as difficult as I had imagined. I’m not pretending that I know what I’m doing beyond stitching two pieces of fabric together in a straight line, but I started getting the hang of it by the end of the day. I think it’s something I’d enjoy continuing with in the future. Maybe even some day I can make some cute outfits for my kids that they’ll have some great memories of wearing.

Back home… and a little bored

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This is actually one of the hardest parts of recovering from surgery… that first week back home. At this point, I’m feeling really good. The pain is manageable, I’m back to eating normally and I’m able to get up and around on my own. But at the same time, it still hurts to get up and down and it takes a lot of energy just to do small things throughout the day.

The only good part about getting sick, just in general, is having that day to sit on the couch all day and watch TV and do nothing else. But I’ve already done that for four days. I’m ready to actually get out and do something… but you realize how quickly that drains all of your energy.

I do have to say how good it is to be home. My bed and couches are so much more comfortable, I relaxing at home resting post-op surgery recovery stephanie hughes stolen colon crohns ostomy blogdo have my own food that I can eat, I don’t have people stopping by to take my vital signs every few hours. It feels good to be able to relax in my own surroundings. I am a little bummed that it’s so dreary outside, though. Tropical Storm Andrea is bringing lots of wetness to the Carolinas. I was hoping to be able to enjoy some time outside, since I really haven’t seen much of it since my run last Saturday.

I am thankful that it’s Friday because that means my husband will not have any work to worry about for the next two days. I am also glad that my mom and I put together those meals last week. I can tell they are going to be a blessing over the coming days and weeks because standing for long periods of time is one of the more difficult things for me to do right now.

I know that taking it easy is the best thing for me right now and just allowing my body to get back to normal. I guess I just have to suck it up and watch another 12 hours of TV. (Just kidding, I’ll throw a book in there, somewhere!)