28 May Uncover Ostomy; Making Changes All Over The World- Hello Scotland

Well I had an interesting experience tonight…

I mean, it was a normal night. Got on my computer, logged onto Facebook, checked Uncover Ostomy, and then noticed I had a new friend request. I always notice. I just. Um. I leave them.

The thing is, I get a lot of people adding me to Facebook because of the campaign. I think it’s awesome that they want to add me. Especially with some of the messages I get along with them. They’re all so sweet. The problem is, I have a lot of personal information on Facebook that I don’t feel comfortable sharing with people I’ve never met and don’t know. So instead… I kind of leave the friend requests until I can message each person back individually and apologize.

Anyways, today I got a little popup saying I had a new friend request. I noticed the name and said, ok I’ll message him later, I’m in the middle of something.

A little while later I get a popup on my msn messenger saying someone wants to add me to their list. The email looks just like the guy who friend requested me. So I accepted msn and started to talk to him. I asked him if I knew him and he said no but he had found me on Facebook and thought my campaign was inspirational.

Ok,  I guess I can talk to him.

Anyways, we continue to talk and I find out he’s a 17 year old who got his ostomy when he was 13 and has been struggling. He hasn’t told anyone he has one . He told me his doctor told him to check out a website to find some answers and help him out. I asked him why he couldn’t talk about his ostomy and he said he couldn’t even say the word ostomy because it bothered him.

“You can’t even say it?! Say IT!”

I told him to get a microphone and record him saying it so I knew he did.

Well, to that, he said the microphone was downstairs and it was 1am.

1am? It was 7pm here.

“Where are you from?”

“Scotland”

Apparently his doctor had given this guy information on IDEAS and through it he found Uncover Ostomy. All the way from Scotland.

Wow.

Anyways, he began telling me that he was trying to get rid of his ostomy.

He wanted to get rid of it so badly that he was willing to be part of an experiment they were doing in Scotland. Apparently, he was going to get a new immune system.

Sound familiar?

He was going to get chemotherapy to kill his immune system and then he was going to have a bone marrow transplant.

I then automatically said, “oh wow, my dad had one”

And then I thought, oh crap I’m going to scare this poor kid.

“Oh but never mind.”

He said he really wanted to know about it all and asked about how my dad’s recovery was.

Well, we all know my dad’s story didn’t end well. But I told him. He considered it.

After that we talked a bit more and I asked him why he didn’t like talking about his ostomy. He said he didn’t like it. We eventually figured out he resented it because it stopped him from following his dream of being an army surgeon. Instead, he had to do it in a hospital. I told him if he hadn’t gotten the ostomy he wouldn’t even get to work in a hospital.

He considered this too. Then began to ask me some personal questions. He asked me about how I started the campaign and how I was able to open up. He also asked me about relationships and I explained the ostomy wasn’t an issue.

By the end of our conversation he told me he was surprised to know there was someone with an ostomy living with a normal life. The people he knew with them, he said, were social outcasts. He was surprised I was real.

By the end of the conversation he said,

“I think I’m going to try a new angle”

“What angle is that?”

“I think I’m going to try to live with my ostomy.”

There we go.

:]