Latest / Beyond the Pouch / Sophie on Travelling, Hiking & Exploring with a Stoma | Beyond the Pouch S3 EP3

Transcript

Sophie on Travelling, Hiking & Exploring with a Stoma | Beyond the Pouch S3 EP3 · Beyond the Pouch

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: So when you had your surgery, how did you go about getting active again and finding that confidence to get outdoors?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I remember being excited, although obviously it was emergency, everything, I was actually excited thinking, this might change my life.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I might be able to paddle board.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I might be able to go for a walk.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Never thought about climbing a mountain before, but I thought I'm gonna climb a mountain.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: You've flown a few times.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's another experience that people get very nervous about.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I do put everything in place as a precaution.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: So my supplies are packed across everything.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: So if I go around the family, my supplies are in their bags, my bags, hand luggage.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I actually feel having a stoma has given me more confidence than what I've ever had in my life.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've just gotten to a point where I'm like, this little thing like literally saved my life.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be grateful for that.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: Right, welcome back to Beyond the Pouch podcast, season three, episode three.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: And this week we've got an incredible guest coming.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited for this one.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be spectacular.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: Who we got?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: So she is known for her walk and talks.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: She is known for her cooking, and she is known for being very outdoorsy.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: And she is a good friend of mine, and her name is Sophie, and her bestie is called Mona the Stoma.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we are gonna cover so much in this episode, aren't we?
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it's she's gone on such an incredible journey.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: Like you've seen her grow in terms of her body confidence, like the way she is with everybody, and she's such a kind, wonderful human being.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: I cannot wait to get her on.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it is gonna be a good one, guys.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right, let's get into it.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Woo! Okay, now the next person we have on this episode is if you should know her, if you're on social media, she is everywhere.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: She's a friend of mine, she's incredible.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's Sophie.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Shepherd.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Hey Sophie! Thank you, Baby May.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: How long have I been saying you need to be on this?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: You have.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: A long, long time.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: A long, long time.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: I actually didn't think it was ever gonna happen.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: But you're born for stuff like this.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: You are you're huge on social media in terms of the reach you get.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: People gain so much from your content.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: It is incredible.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for being here.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you thank you.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna start off with some quick fire questions.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: Just quickly.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: Biggest myth about stoma is you want to bust.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: That we all stink.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, great shout.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: That draws me to the same thing.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Great shout.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: It does drive me the same as well.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um most empowering moments since having a stoma?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I would say most empowering climbing a mountain.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: Oh.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because I could never have done that pre-stoma.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: And then um one one way to describe your relationship with your body at the moment?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know the um status online?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's complicated.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's go with that one.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then last but not least, because we're talking about food and other bits and pieces, what's one food that you can eat with a stoma which you've been told maybe you shouldn't?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Mushrooms.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're not allowed.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, mushrooms.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Mushrooms in everything.
• 3:00
  unknown: Okay.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, there's so much we could talk to you about.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, can you let everyone know, first of all, your background, what you do?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because you I know when I first found you, you were so for the paramedic.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_03: I remember seeing those stories.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, how you had your stoma kind of similar actually we all had them at a similar time, actually.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: COVID.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Did you have yours in the city?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: We were under the same surgical team, everything.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_03: That is a small world.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_03: Big up Dr.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_03: Campbell Smith.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: Let's go.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, yeah.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't my second opinion.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh right.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, can you give us a quick summary of how you came to have a stoma and yeah over it?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I had 13 years of mis misdiagnosis before getting my stoma.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it was always IBS, IBS, IBS.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: 13 years.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Seven years into that, I was diagnosed with serrated polyposis syndrome, which is an aggressive polyps.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it started off, they went in with colonoscopy, there was like one polyp, a year later, tens of polyps, a year after that, hundreds of polyps.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Till eventually my colon was a blanket of polyps, like thousands of polyps.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: So fast forward, obviously I was diagnosed with ultra of colitis, and that's why I've got a stoma.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: However, even if I wasn't diagnosed with that, I would have lost my bowel to serrated polyposis syndrome anyway.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't even know that was a thing.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so yeah, so long and short of it, it's obviously I'm diagnosed IBD, so it's ulster of colitis, serrated polyposis syndrome.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Mona was born peak of COVID 2020.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: She's a 2020 baby.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: Very similar to me, but my stomach, yours is 2020 as well, didn't it?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I remember I'd had my surgery and you were the first, the first person I reached out to and had the confidence to say, hey, I've just seen you had your surgery, so have I.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I think straight away, I think I was like, I think I sent you a photo of my snowmoving.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: You probably did, right now.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: What if I go into that?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's another part of it.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: I I literally, yeah, I remember I sent you when I was.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because I had to have mine refashion because it was a mess.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I think you're just one of those people that you you want to help everyone.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Your content is educational, it's inspirational, it's very real.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it's very raw.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_03: Genuine.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's why you have such a big following because people love that.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, you make yourself so vulnerable and you put yourself out there so much.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I know a lot of people gain a lot from that.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's just in my nature.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you know, I've worked clinical for like 18 years for the NHS, and it's just in my nature to wanna I just want to support and help everyone.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I can't you can't help everyone, and I can't solve everyone's problems, but to get those messages every day, I'm just like, oh, I'm trying.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing my part, I'm trying.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_03: I've seen your stories and even all the stuff you've done, like, even like work-wise, like we've seen all those bits like you know, being a paramedic, stuff you're doing at the moment, all the content you put out, like it just comes from such a good place and it comes across that way.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I do try.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's why we're so excited to have you on, because that's what we're doing, right?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we could talk about so many different topics with you, but if we'd have we'd be here for 24 hours.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: So we we had to whittle it down.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll just have to whittle it down.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: But um you love to get outdoors.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I do.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: You're very active.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think that's one thing that when you've had stoma surgery, a lot of people are very nervous about.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um so when you had your surgery and you've had multiple surgeries, it's not like you've just had one.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: How did you go about getting active again and finding that confidence to get outdoors?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what's funny?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm sure I should have been born outdoors.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like I just l I should live in nature.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I love being outdoors.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: However, before my stoma, I was so confined to being at home that I remember being excited, although obviously it was emergency, everything, I was actually excited thinking, this might change my life.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: I might be able to paddleboard, I might be able to go for a walk.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: We live on the Ashdown Forest, and I'm like, I might actually be able to walk up the Ashdown Forest with my kids, because I could never have done that before without proving myself.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_03: Or having to run to another toilet, that's like.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I was actually excited about getting into fitness, being outdoors, enjoying all these sort of things that I know so many people are just so anxious around, aren't they?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's but it's just doing it in a safe way.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think when you initially get your stomach, it's just making sure you do it safely, isn't it?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_03: Walk before you can run, literally.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: Speaking of like walking, um, I appreciate like you've you've got a couple of photos you've seen later and things.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: What some hikes, some like where's the best places you've been?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: Like outdoors, not just when you're travelling, but like you've done like amazing walks, things like that.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So funnily enough, my favourite walk is literally where I live.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about your walk and talks.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh they weren't very quiet, didn't they, for a while?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because obviously I lost my best friend, I lost my mojo on Instagram, um, but yeah, my morning walk and talks every time I'm out there, and like hey, happy.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: These sunsets and these sunnahs.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's literally a walk just up the road from my house that I do every single day with the dog.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that is like my happy place.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, I don't walk with people because I'm like, hang on, you're gonna interfere with my vibe on this walk.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, but other amazing places, Snowden, that was incredible, and that for me was because that was huge.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as I had my stoma, I was like, I'm climbing a mountain.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Never thought about climbing a mountain before, but I was like, I'm gonna climb a mountain, and yeah, so I dragged the kids up Snowdon with me.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting up the mountain.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Snowden, um done old man of Coniston up in the lakes.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a whole list ready for the lakes of I want to do quite a lot of um fells in one day.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I just I love it.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: How do ooh, so when you go on these walks, how do you pack and prepare?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: So do you take supplies with you?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: What what do you do?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I wear I think it's called a bladder bag.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I wear a bladder bag.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've got quite a big one.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I will overload that with electrolytes.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's on my back with the little tube, and so I can just drink throughout the whole.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I definitely I'm so hot on being hydrated.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like the second I'm not hydrated, I'm just a craggy, horrible person.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: Do you feel it a lot though, like when you're dehydrated?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I feel dehydrated.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Did you actually say that as water?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, does it go doing great?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's what you are.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Your skin is glowing, and you just you do look very hydrated.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that does make sense.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's I think you can tell, unless you've got a ton of makeup on, when someone is hydrated when someone's skin is like me.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And electrolytes every day.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: I swear by them.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I just I add electrolytes to everything.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because I mean, there's lots of people that um put electrolytes out there, like recommend it.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know about you, but because it's January.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: My feeds are full of adverts for electrolytes and these patches for losing weight, the injections and all this.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, how does anyone know where to start with electrolytes?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Where would you where would you start?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I started with what's the good old NHS one?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: St.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Mark's Solution.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: No, Diorolite.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: So St.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Mark's Solution, I should say, that's when you make it up yourself.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: I did do that.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think I overloaded on the salt.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: I was like awful.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: But no, I just I don't even know how it started, but I just came across a brand, tried them.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's quite nice.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let's try another brand.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're gross.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I've just done that.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've ping-ponged my way through different brands and just finally found ones that actually I'm like, I really like these.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'm not too fussed if, you know, because some people could be like, oh, but the sugar content or this or that.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, look, we need electrolytes.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: We don't our bodies don't absorb liquid like someone who's got their entire colon.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we need electrolytes.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I've just gone through lots of brands, and I still at the moment use three different brands.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so going back to hiking, I will have my bladder bag.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got that the whole time.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Muffins, chocolate chip muffins.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Muffins.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're a good fuel.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: They are starting to like this.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Muffins and bananas.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So what I will do is I will tend to stick to foods on a hike that I know will normally cost me quite thick output.
• 11:36
  unknown: Yeah.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because the last I really want is just bags of water.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because I unfortunately do have very, very liquid output.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I do um I've always got a leukocide as well.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Just more extra less.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Do you take a bag change or anything like that?
• 11:54
  unknown: No.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I've always been known for never carrying spare supplies.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's the one thing I do or not, just in case I get like a little bit more.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I do.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I've I've actually started now because I'm like, you're gonna get caught out one day, so yeah, I do take I don't take loads, just literally what I need for one bag change.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean what a place to have to do it if you did.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: At least there's a view.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's nature.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's nature.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: At least there's a view.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: I mean I mean the goat's all of dog walking the same and then looking at it.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: You're complaining that the goat's doing it.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: No, I remember when um Jake was, I think he was three, and I needed to um empty my bag because we were on a walk, and I there was no way to do it.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: There was no way, and I had like a waste bag, and I just had to squat down behind a like a tree or whatever to try and make myself really small so no one noticed.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, oh, this is fine.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: If people walk by, they're not gonna see me.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: But he ran up to me and went to these people, it's alright, my mummy's just emptying a stoma bag.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's fine.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was like and then that people are going, What?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's like, yeah, have you have you ever had to empty your bag in any weird and wonderful places?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: I actually haven't.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it's always planned.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, you know, when we did the old man of Coniston up in Lake District, thank God I didn't need to empty because I'm not even lying when I say the winds at the top, like 70, 80 miles an hour.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine trying to empty your bag?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if it was liquid.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if it was liquid, it would have just literally been slapping Ryan's face.
• 13:28
  unknown: Could you imagine?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I haven't, but I wouldn't be concerned if I had to deal with it.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, because we don't we don't do really popular hikes.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't go on these ones, you know, where you're gonna there's gonna be tons of people doing the same walk at the same time.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: We tend to go off different places.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't you know, we've been on hikes where we haven't seen anyone for hours.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't bother me if I've got to deal with it.
• 13:53
  unknown: Yeah.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um To be honest, like people have been doing with nature Wii's and stuff like that anyway.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is it in the car, Pringles tube?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, I have not done Pringles tube in the car.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: I've never done that.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: I've done I've I have emptied my bag like out, like um on a on a hike once, but only once.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: But even then, like it's like most things, you're hydrating all those other bits of it.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: I have, this is a bit of a gross confession, but hey, here we are.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um I've had to pee in a nappy whilst driving.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was that or we myself in the car.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: I can't remember this conversation.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: I probably voice noted you.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: But I was desperate for a wee and I was on the motorway and I couldn't get off and it was grid gridlock traffic, and I was like, there was an I always keep spare nappies and I was like, I just had to get my nappy there.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Where you gotta go, you gotta put it my nappy, my one-year-old's nappy, and just pee.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it I know it's weird, but honestly, that is a top tip.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: People don't understand after you've had a baby, you you can't hold a wee.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't hold it.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, if ever your type of people that need a wee and have accidents, carry a nappy, you will find me.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're if you guys need a nature poo, are we doing it in a bag or are we just doing it where are we going?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um And I'm not meaning like nature, like you're walking down the high street and you're just gonna poop in a bin in the high street.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_03: The one the one time I did it was behind um like I was literally just on some leaves and covered it up.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_03: Because I was like, 'cause animals will do that, and therefore that should be fun.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: You're an animal.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so would anyone else that has still got their butts.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: If they need to poo and they're five hours off a mountain, they've got to go.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's true.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: It feels a bit more I don't know, because like mine is really liquidy.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if you do it into a bag, are you carrying the bag for the rest of the hike?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: But you could get away with that and start out if you've got dogs, because no one's gonna question it.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: We'll soon find out.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: Please let us know in the comments.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: And therefore, I haven't done it if it's illegal.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, people need to come back to us and let us know on the hole.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, like, because if you were just peeing on the side of the street, I'm thinking, yeah, you can't pee and poo like in your high street.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: I mean you shouldn't.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's people that probably do.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_03: There's a top tip from this podcast.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: Don't do that in the high street.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure in Cardiff on a night out, there's plenty of people doing that.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: If you know Cardiff.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure there is.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway Back to back to travelling and hiking with other bits and pieces.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, I mean, you've flown a few times.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's another experience that people get very nervous about.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um so how did you go about that and doing that with confidence?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually something so many people message me about this.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: So many people message about.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not like a frequent flyer, you know.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's just something like that.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some myself.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some yeah, I'd like to be.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: But that's a good one.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: The brands come forward.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, come on.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: When was the last when was the last time you went away?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: That was Oh, that wasn't long ago.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Just not long ago, yeah, actually.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't actually remember when.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: September.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: September went to COS with my daughter.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: Lovely.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Which was lovely.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: But no, so I c I do put everything in place as a precaution.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I do get the whole I print off my prescription so that I've got proof of the prescription, you know, stick it in my bag.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Some people say you need like a doctor's note.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not paying my doctor to write a note for me.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I have actually, on my first ever holiday where I was really anxious about all this, I took my discharge letter from hospital.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Just it literally said what it was that I've got.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know what no one in a in the airport is gonna understand that, are they?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they're gonna read it like, what is this jargon?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so I did take the prescription, because a lot of people say that, because if you're travelling with meds, I do.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think they do, yes.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: So and it's no harm to stick that in your bag, is it?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit of paper.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: So um I do those things, and then I have got one of the lanyards.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_03: Do you feel like they work or not?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_03: Because I get lots of Oh, that's interesting.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: I obviously use the sunflower lanyard, and I don't feel it's something I should admit, but I do feel slightly embarrassed by wearing it, which I absolutely shouldn't.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's just an insecurity of mine of I don't like drawing attention to myself, I don't like people looking at me.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's one of those is everyone looking at her and thinking, what's wrong with her?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: sort of thing.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: But they're absolutely not, and I was so wrong, because I I've used it on each time in the airport, and I have had such a positive experience.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I've gone through special assistance instead of going through um normal what's that first bit called?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: When you're securing it weave in for security, yeah.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um special assistance at Gatwick is shared with the family bit.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes that could be pat and actually get through quicker the other side, but it hasn't been.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I've gone through, been amazing.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then obviously you go through the first set of bleepers.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: With or without a stoma, I have always activated those things.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Whether I look like some little like hoodlum walking through, I don't know.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: You don't look like a hoodlum.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: I activate the thing.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well like coffees, you always travel in coffees, don't you?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I activated that, so then I had to go in.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're like where you guys travel from.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: They've got the big stand-up ones now where you stand on the legal, yeah, yeah.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Gone through that, yeah, that's activated.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: So then they have to do the full pat down.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember the first time going away, I could see on the screen what kept coming up.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you see you get that little X across the bottom.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you can see like your body on the screen, and I said to them, Oh, I've got a stoma.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Pardon?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I've got a stoma.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And they were they were like, Oh, okay, do you mind if we go to a side room and you show us?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm happy to show you here.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've got no shame in showing my stoma.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest, who do you look at going through security?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're looking at anyone that's going through you're really you're paying no attention to the street.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: You're like, don't arrest me, don't arrest me.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, did I take my iPad out of my bag?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so no, it's been really, really positive.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had no issues as well with anyone understanding.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's been that initial, oh sorry, and then I'm like a stoma, and then I'm like, oh okay.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then they've offered to sort of take me.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um the best airport by far was Budapest.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, really.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: They were incredible.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like they saw me in a queue, but it's like, come, come.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh no.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: Special favorite.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they all knew you were and were fans.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't go through any of um didn't.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Mona, come on um.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: But no, so I've had really positive experiences in the airport, no issues whatsoever that I can think of.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: Because that's a real anxiety for certain people after surgery.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people try and put stuff in hand luggage and their main luggage so that if for some reason something goes missing, they haven't got no supplies.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: So my supplies are packed across everything.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if I go around with a family, my supplies are in their bags, my bags, hand luggage.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I always take two to three times what I would need in an average week, which is way too much.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if for some reason, God forbid you had a stomach bug or something and you don't agree with food on holiday.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: You're better off doing that than not, aren't you?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think it's things like heat, you know, when we've been out to like Greece, how hot it is, you know, the stomach can play havoc and I was gonna ask about this, because my experience with like going away, I sweat.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like, come on, I'll I'll go and like lay by a sunbed, suntan, like lotion, etc.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: And then like, oh I I worry that my bag's gonna peel off.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_03: So if you're sunbathing and like by a pool or jumping in the pool a lot, have you got any tips that that you would you would like acc accommodate?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: So this September was the first time ever since having a stoma that I went in a pool or the sea.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: I had a mental block and I could not do it.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why, but I just couldn't uh prior to this holiday or Yeah, prior to this holiday in September that I've just had, um since I had my stoma, I have not been in a swimming pool, a sea, nothing, because I was just I don't I can't even explain to people why.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a mentor thing.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: So um this year I was like, right, I'm doing it.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing it, and I had Madison to cheer me on Bless her.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: She was like, You can do this, Mum.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've got it on a video, like, yeah, get it as I'm walking in the sea.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I used what is the proper term?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: The the bananas.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: The flange extenders.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: Quite like bananas actually, that's what I think.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_03: Bananas flange extenders.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I used them, and again, it was for the sweating as well.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because the first day we were there, my bag did start to lift slightly and then the anxiety comes in like, Oh God, what if you know 'cause the last thing you want when you just when all you've got on is a bikini.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you have a leak.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's not quite so hidden, is it?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I use them just as that little bit of protection.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um but nothing else.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't ashamed, I didn't hide it in a swimming costume or good for you.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: I remember you um you posted a reel in your bikini.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it that was a big moment for you.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: So like how has your confidence changed from when you had your surgery or you've been through since to where you are now?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Massively.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still not confident in myself.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: We all know I've got all these body issues, but the confidence I actually feel having a stoma has given me more confidence than what I've ever had in my life because I've just gotten to a point where I'm like, this little thing like literally saved my life.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be grateful for that.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like and it just, yeah, that and my job, two things combined, have just made me see life, you know, and other little things along the line.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's just you have got to live life to the fullest.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I was like, I'm going in the sea.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing it.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I was literally terrified, but I was like, so much love, didn't you?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it was so lovely.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think because everyone knew, like everyone's known.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I voiced it a lot online how I felt about swimming with a stoma and that.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: And again, I think this is like a big key thing though when people go on holiday, like, especially like women like are wearing a bikini, having your stoma bag out, they get so worried about it, getting into the sea, swimming pools, whatever.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like most of it is it is in your head.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_03: It's you, it's no one else.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: It is.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: And then you like you do it and you're like, why is I so worried?
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this is great, and then But that's what's so brilliant about you and your account, is that you share when you're venerable, when you feel you can't, but then how you've got to where you are now.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just I'm in my bikini.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: You can do this, anyone can do this.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's context behind it and there's there's growth, and that's why, you know, it's I love that.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Ray.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well it's your journey, isn't it?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: And that's the point.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's that that'll be so relatable to so many people.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: I always promised myself when I first started on my socials, I did it as a diary for myself.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was literally to document what I was going through, the medication I was on, all that sort of stuff.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I was like, I am not gonna hide any side of this because I don't want to be one of these accounts you come across that everything is positive.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the time of getting my stoma, there were some really, really awful stories in the press about, you know, a couple of people with stomas that were not coping with life.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: That you know it wasn't.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, no, I'm not gonna be a person to fluff this all up because it's just not it's not reality, is it?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: You can't it's not.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not to be like that.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Which I love about you guys as well, because you're the same and Well you know you've got to be real be real with it.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_03: Be real.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like because again, to your point, if you're too not that you're too positive.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a very positive person just by like default.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_03: I'm always super happy.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_03: But uh you've gotta sh you have to show the roughness move.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_03: You've got to show the other side of the coin.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you're like when you've had your prolapse and Oh god, I forgot about all those prolapses.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_03: Touch wood, I can't touch wood because I've got to mess the recording, touch these things gently, gently.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: We just know if you saw it laying on the floor, we know what's going on.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: What's the best way, isn't it?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Gravitate.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: Put it back in.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: I just thought you were like to lay down.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just that laid back, mate.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_03: Just on the phone.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_03: Just lay back in lying down, listening.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um I wanna I wanted to go into um obviously you go on holiday, eating new foods, stuff that you won't necessarily get like, you know, day-to-day in the UK if you're having like interesting cuisine.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: How have you like navigated doing those sorts of things when you're away?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Carefully.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: So what what do you look for?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_03: Are you looking like for I'm definitely just gonna have like something very simple that I would have at home?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_03: Do you be experimental?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely experiment.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I do, because that's the best thing about holiday.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Trying all the foods.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: But just carefully.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Some old, you know, you just test the waters, don't you?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: You start it and think, is that gonna break down?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's go for it.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and I oh got chew.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, chew chew.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is you know, it's just it you you forget.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so chewing makes a difference.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: The same on holiday for a lot of people, don't you find they eat really late?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: People tend to die in like nine o'clock.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, well, you're not in bed, come on.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, that's not happening for me.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, no, we s I still keep a bit of a routine on holiday in the sense of like I still want to eat fairly early because I'm the one then that's up all night, dealing with my soma while everyone's you know, snoring their heads off all refresh the next day, and actually I feel pants the next day.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we still, you know, dinner will be more like sort of seven on holiday.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I won't push it as late as.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um but no, I love to experiment with everything.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm careful, you know, but I'm really fortunate, really fortunate that I can eat a lot of that a lot of ostomates can't eat.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Mushrooms.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Not gonna lie, I get blockages.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: I do get blockages and they're not nice, but I'm just yeah, I just try to be careful with the chewing.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I was gonna say, like, you know, about routine stuff, blockages.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_03: How have you managed how have you managed them?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've experienced them from eating some bits and pieces, but what's your So my blockages before my hernia repair last year were horrific.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it was actually like so I initially thought my hernia, I thought was just blockages because I had them every day.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it was every single day I had blockages, and there was nothing that was doing it, and it actually turned out it was all because I've got a kinky bow.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got a bowel with a lot of kinks, and it just it has to work hard to pass everything through.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um But my yeah, the the tips I give everyone for blockages is just drink plenty of fluids.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Try and not really eat throughout that time, because whatever you're putting in, it's then just gonna add to it, isn't it?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: But then I don't always say don't eat because you know, sometimes I still need to.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: But eat peppermint tea.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't know why, but it is a saving grace for mine.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Movement.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if I'm like I had a blockage a few weeks back where I couldn't even get to the top of my road.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, no, this is you know, when you get clammy, you're sweating, you're like, this is awful.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: So no, back home with that one.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: But normally I will try and do a few laps like round the block just to get that movement, lay on the floor, cycle the legs.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a brilliant electric heat pad.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I've been really lucky, unlike you, Anne, to manage mine at home.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: I've managed most of mine at home other than two.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: That one in hospital was peppers, wasn't it?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: No, um, oh, I thought why does I think it was peppers?
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_03: One of the first ones was um tender stem broccoli, and I just did chew that.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's another thing.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: I do cook veg almost within an inch of its life.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not so it's much, because I love veg.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I won't ruin it, but I will cook it to a level where it's not coarse.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: So like broccoli, I d I just won't eat it if it's that little bit coarser.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: But um I love mushrooms.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, well, hey, I ended up in hospital after a wagon mumma's once.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: I had um a bowl of I don't even know what it was, but it was just all veg and it was, yeah, that was a I think that's another thing is not to overload.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, not to have an entire plate of Yeah.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard though, isn't it?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because when you I don't know, if you want to eat healthier foods, if you want to you know, I think if you were I don't know, I get in the mindset of if every time I'm gonna be having a blockage or feeling uncomfortable with foods like that, I think, well I can't eat them then.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: But then you feel like rubbish because that's the type of foods that give you nourishment and make you feel good.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly that.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: So then you it's finding that balance, isn't it?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: I remember coming out of hospital and I was literally given a sheet and it was just like, here you go, here's a five-year-old beige diet.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, gosh.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_03: I was living on smiley smiley faces, like the living the drink, smiley faces.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Smiley faces, mashed potato, chicken and fish.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, I can't I felt like rubbish because I wasn't having all that other stuff.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I do really, really feel for people that because another thing for me was weight gain after stoma surgery, which you know, I wasn't small before my surgery, but the the weight gain after, because I couldn't eat well, and the amount of people that reach out to me about that, I just find it's so hard because it's like you know, I can eat these things.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you may not.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: But if you can't, I can't give you the same guidance that I'm going for.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I just say to everyone, you know, just try.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Try things, really chew them.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, some people have keep a food diary as well.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: Food diaries are underrated.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like you if, you know, the the worst thing you can do is go to say a stoma nurse and say, Oh, I'm getting blocked.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: You go to a what have you eaten?
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: And you go, ooh, yeah.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think it happened last week one day.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you know it's really good to do that, especially in the early days.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can sort of definitely.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it's that I remember coming out of hospital and obviously being given this sheet and not knowing what I could and couldn't eat, but then that was the thing because I didn't know.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, well, I'll start experimenting, but then you forget internally you're still healing.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: So externally you're like, okay, my wounds have healed.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, internally takes so much longer.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: You've got so much inflammation still in there.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just, you know, making people aware.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Go slow.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, totally.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you're cook you're you went through a period of doing cooking videos.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: I will go back to them.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: I love them.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've this is what I mean, Rachel.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've lost my mojo on socials, I've lost my mojo in the kitchen.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: It will all come back.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: We'll head into spring.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get a spring in my step.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, no, you you gained a lot of followers.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: There was one reel that just blew up.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, why?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_03: What was it?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_03: The dish?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_03: What was it?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, what did you cook?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_03: Come on.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was something so rubbish.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like a glass dish with dry rice.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the abuse I got for dry rice on that but I had to turn comments off because honestly, the comments.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was literally it was just like a rice, chicken, some veg, some pesto, whack it in the oven.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so obviously some stock in it to cook it all.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it was the song or what it was, but overnight it was like it had like three and a half million views or something.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what the followers, the followers would just go boom, boom, boom.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Every day.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh my god.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was sitting there like terrified, like, uh, another hundred, another hundred.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, stop.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because then I did get into like a panic.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh no, no, no, no, I can't have this many people watching me.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like, no, they'll they're they'll watch you for all of your amazing stuff you'll do with your actual social media, not necessarily the cookies.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: I would title Yes, you can eat this of a stoma.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, which again, there's always I put a disclaimer on them, this is my experience because a lot of people do like to say, oh well, I can't eat that.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm really sorry you can't.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: But you can't like you can't cater for everyone.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like all our experiences are very different and you can't please everyone.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: So um I love food.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: So Oh yeah.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I g if we link that back to like going on holidays and things, are there places where you want to travel to?
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_03: And like, I don't know, I don't know if you've travelled all around the world, but if you like go to like the Far East and you go, Oh, I'd like to try that cuisine in this exotic location.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like, have you got any places you want to travel to?
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm obsessed with Greece.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've been to Greece all my life.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: When I say Greece, all the Greek islands have been going there all my life, so I love it.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: I love Greek food.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing is I come home and get cramped really bad in my legs because of the amount of salt in their food.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's the salt, because then you come home and you deplete yourself from that salt because you're not adding that volume to your mission.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I will have severe.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: I just thought it was the alcohol I was drinking.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, I will have severe leg cramps for good two, three weeks after whenever we go abroad, and it's yeah, it's but Greek food I just love, love, love.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um What's your favourite Greek food that you've had abroad?
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_03: So you haven't had to worry about stoma stuff with that necessarily either.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: No, again, I've been just simple.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: Really lucky.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: So again, like that would scare me eating that.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because of how I react to foods.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: But then for you it's happy days, so it just shows, didn't it?
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's just yeah.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: What did you So we've we've had a weekend away.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: We've been away, but we didn't even have proper food then, did we?
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: We've been just on sweets.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: And chips and dick.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, that was that was terrible.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: We were just very unorganised, weren't we?
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we didn't bother sorting anything out.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think we were more interested in having a drink and eating sweet.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, no, it was all good.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_03: All about balance.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's all about balance.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_03: We definitely need to have those days, right?
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_03: And reconnect, have a laugh, eat sweet.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's enough thing though, on that note.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Chocolate causes mastoma.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Does it?
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_03: That really surprises me.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it gives me high output.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_03: Is it but is it particular types of chocolate, like dark or no any chocolate.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how do you deal with Easter?
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Not just to heat it.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And deal with the output.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm gonna be lying down for a little while, guys.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: I do not eat chocolate just at Easter.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're like out and about, you're away from home or far away from home, how do you navigate facilities that maybe aren't a standard or they're completely lacking, or how I don't know, I've it that makes me quite nervous the thought of maybe going abroad and then not having the good enough facilities or things nearby.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: How do you deal with that?
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: You've got a story there, haven't you?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just probably don't know.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_03: Some countries don't have toilets, it's just a hole in the ground.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: A hole in the ground, Thailand.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_03: So how have you how have what's no I will find somewhere else?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, no.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: When I was in Thailand, I went to a Thai boxing match.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember saying to someone, oh like, where's the toilets?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, what?
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Where's the toilets?
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is pre-stoma days.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they were like, behind that curtain.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, it was a shower curtain on a on a post that was just hanging.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: So the shower curtain was like, look like this.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was a hole in the ground.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be quite cool with that mustard.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: Just what just empty it.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: Is it like a compost thing where you chuck stuff on top and it's like camping?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, when we do while camping, you know, it is just like these compostable toilets.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um I am still quite funny about like if I share houses with friends.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: So like when we went away, we were quite good at making sure we had a few bathrooms, didn't we?
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: We a couple of us, I think I I think I was jammy and I had an ensuite.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: You were en suite, yeah.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: I do still get a little bit anxious with friends.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but all friends are like, they'll love you, they know what's happening.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_03: Do you know what I mean?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_03: Like I've I'm I'm very much the same.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like, even like if people come around and be like, I'm going downstairs.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: You have all you can use a toilet upstairs, I'm going downstairs.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_03: And even I'll get like droplets.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's good to know though, that others are feeling like that.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_03: Honestly, honestly, when it's not all my friends, don't don't.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's a thing.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and also I need to know what the flush is like.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_03: You were saying this earlier, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you flush first to see what it's like, then what if it's a system that takes 15 minutes to fill up and you're in there by.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you know you can't leave your bag fill it really a lot because then it ain't gonna flush.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's the thing that like I was saying about when um I was saying to you earlier about looking at a house.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: One of the first things I when I was viewing houses, I'd sneakily want to flush the toilet.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because if that thing wasn't hustling, I'd like to.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh, yes, you know.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Mental breakdown online and everything.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that so that was something else.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: In the end, I emptied I was put in my black bags into a jug, and then I was emptying into that toilet bags to get rid of the bags because I was like, I can't do this.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: With an ileostomy, you're emptying so much more often.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like than And I had flu as well, so I had high output.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was really not very well.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um yeah, a non-flushing toilet in a house of you know, a family.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're just like, I can't cope with this.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, right, the poo bathrooms downstairs.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is strictly for wheeze and shower.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, not showers, we couldn't shout well.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was just it was awful.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can't.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: Everything's all sort of analog, but thank God.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: How many homes did it affect?
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was three.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: One over 17,000, yeah.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that was just our town.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there was Tombridge Wells, there was all the other towns.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: But no, so going back to holiday, I do still get the anxiety of like, you know, when you're going out for a day and you you're just not familiar, you've got no idea.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I do still get the anxiety, but not like I did pre-stoma, because pre-stoma, I was having to poo blood up to 50 times a day.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: On a good day it was 20 times-ish.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: On a bad day, it's 50.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I was I was working frontline during that.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: I would remember I would remember getting to patients' houses and I'd have to bypass the patient for the toilet quick.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so I still have anxiety around that, you know, when I'm going somewhere that I'm completely unfamiliar with.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I just want to know.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not as stressful now, because I've got that little bit more control.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: But um Yeah, when we were in Greece in September, I remember we were on the beach and I got into a little bit of a panic because I was like, God, can you just go into like restaurants?
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Can you just nip in anywhere?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because they weren't like public toilets on the street or anything.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it was like, but thankfully they're so accommodating, like they're so lovely.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Could you go in?
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: Could go, yeah, could literally just go in.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't expect you to buy food or drink.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's good.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: But then I didn't think about this with Budapest being a city, every toilet you had to pay for.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly like London.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I didn't even think about this.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so I then had to um get a little doggy bag of cash for every toilet.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because they didn't know no restaurants, even McDonald's didn't let you in, choose the toilet.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: They had barriers, everything.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh so I do get anxious around things like that, but not actually having to deal with my stoma.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very much like, just suck it up.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: I completely understand people that are offended and upset by the state of disabled toilets.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm thankfully chaos at times, isn't it?
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think as women we're a little bit more lucky that we don't we don't really need to worry about every time using a disabled toilet.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_03: You know, with you guys, you've got those manky urinals and it's like it's there's there's it's just known if you're going into a cubicle, you're going for a poo.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's just not nice.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I'll deal with it in public toilets and everything as I need to.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I've not I don't think I've had any massive issues other than I went somewhere, which I won't say, because it won't be good to say.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: But the disabled toilet was just full of stock.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've got that a lot.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_03: I've been to like I've I've gone into disabled toilets and it's just full of their stock.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's why I I mean I I I it doesn't really compute in my head because it's not a cupboard.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: And why are you putting your stuff in there?
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_03: Like you have a toilet that people will use.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's literally a dumping ground.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: They use it.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I when I used to do supply teaching, the schools they all use the disabled toilets as a stock room.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you can get a lot of people.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like and you can barely get to the toilet.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't it's very common in schools.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's um it's shocking.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how this.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: No, they should be completely available because you know, when you're changing your bag, you do want that extra bit of space, don't you?
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean the one massive advantage I think from having a stoma is like we like I don't know how you were pre-stoma, but I know before I had accidents all the time out and about.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_01: I remember as a kid I'd have accidents on the school bus because I could not hold it in.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: I just there was nothing I could do.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: But with a bag, you've got that time, haven't you?
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: You it it does take away a lot of that anxiety.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if people are really worried about having to find somewhere to empty and having to do this, just no you it does give you more time.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's not as bad as having accidents constantly and trying to press toilets.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: Poot myself on the school playground, yeah, shopping, yeah, everything.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was all the time.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was just awful.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_03: I think as well when like when you've got a stoma and like your bag and all these things now, like even like travelling, going hiking, doing whatever, like you do have that time.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_03: And also but you can just use toilets, like there isn't any issues around it, especially on planes.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you can, if you've got your waste bags with you, which you should, if you're really desperate, you just find somewhere discreet and you empty it and you find somewhere to dispose of it.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a lot it's quite freeing.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's quite a common routine for me as well.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: Everything I do, I always make sure my bag's empty.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so just before getting on a flight, my bag's empty.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Just before going out, my bag's empty.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_03: I'll always um probably spend When you go on a flight, I've 'cause um I want to ask you this, like, do you find that your output gets higher or anything like that?
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_03: Literally.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely nothing changes with mine whatsoever.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, I have not had my bag turn into a crisp packet.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: I can I can get why people worry about that, because it genuinely, when you take a bag of crisps on a flight, it does blow up, doesn't it?
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: Your stomach bag does not do that.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if it has for anyone else, then I'm very sorry it's happened to you.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: But no.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've had absolutely no change with my stomach on a flight.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_03: When you're like picking seats or choosing seats or flight, do you sit in near the aisle to get near enough out of the toilet?
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_03: Because I've I've started to do that.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_03: But on longer haul, because I don't want to jump over someone.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: Went away, sorry.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: When me and Madison went away, I booked, because she likes a window seat, I booked the window and the middle seat, because it was just two of us.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we got in the seats, and then an old boy ever sat next to me, which is fine, but then I started getting a little bit anxious, thinking he was he was quite like frail and everything, bless him.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, This is gonna be a hassle for both of us.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: If if anything does start, you know if I do have a leak or if I do urgently need to get out for any reason, you know, it could be that I've got to wake him up.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or if, you know, he's unsteady on his feet, whatever.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: So actually on that flight, it was quite a quiet flight, and I actually just nipped off, said to one of the um They're not air hostesses, are they?
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Air stewards?
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: Stewardesses.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Or whatever they're called.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: There'll be a flight attendants.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: I went along to one of them and I just said, I've got a stoma and I just feel a little bit anxious climbing.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Of this guy, do you mind if we sit in the row literally behind because it was free?
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: She was absolutely fine with it.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love it.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I so that really relieved my anxiety, you know, because I think I would have probably been a bit anxious.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's a tip for people if they're in the same situation.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: Book an aisle seat.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_03: I've started.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_03: I book ILC.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's going forward now, it will always be an ILC.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_03: Although my when we went to we went on our honeymoon, we did a 13-hour flight.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_03: My wife was like, Why have you picked that seat?
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, I know I'm going to keep getting up.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a lot of fun.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to be up at least four or five times, and I don't want to have to annoy whoever this is or you by getting up.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_03: Because if you're asleep, I'm not climbing over.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: No, I mean yeah.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's fine if it's like your own family.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know when you're going to have the kids, it's the three of you in a row and you're stumbling over each other and whatever.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: But when you've got that extra person that you're not travelling with.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I remember flying back from New York pre-stoma and um I was next to an old not an old guy.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, he wasn't.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lie, Sophie.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: He was just a gentleman.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he fell asleep for the whole flight.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: I held a wee for the whole flight.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: I needed to go.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: The pelvic floor must be insane.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe back then.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: That was pre-kids.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, no, I just didn't want to wake this guy up.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas, yeah, the an the anxiety is a bit more, isn't it, with a stomach?
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're like, well, no, I want to be able to get in and out and deal with it.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, definitely top tip is aisle seats.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: Just so that you can um get it.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, freedom of movement, isn't it?
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I've had no issues.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: I even gone to the toilet with my stoma emptying my bag on a flight.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_03: Have you had a bag change on a flight yet?
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: No uh no.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, but I emptied in mega turbulence.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was in I literally just got into the toilet and the seatbelt things went off and I was like, Madam returned your seat.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: I can't, I'm empty.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: I just sat on the loo, you started to empty it, and it was like, oh my god.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: How do you empty then?
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_01: How do you you just said you sat on the loo?
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh empty between my legs.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh kneeler.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: I used to kneel, yeah.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: So why did you change from a kneeler to a Because I felt the that part of my legs too short that I couldn't quite reach the toilet.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't feel I had the height, actually.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't quite getting in there.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_03: I have experienced it once where I've kneeled down and gone.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_03: This is a very high bowl.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but no, I'm a sit down and between my legs.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_03: You're just a splash and dash, aren't you?
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: Splash and dash.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: That terrifies.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: Terrifying it.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because I do it on the side of the bowl.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: So and I put tissue down, so we have Amy on.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but every toilet shaped different.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_01: And some don't have the same shape.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_01: How did you just make it?
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_03: I just You've clearly perfected the technique.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you should do a reel about how the different things.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to inspect your white jeans next time you're wearing them.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: You won't see me in white jeans.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's there you go.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_03: You've brought a couple of photos on that we wanted to talk to you about.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_03: You've got two.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_03: Just talk us through like why those two photos are important for you and like just describe them a little bit for us because of the people listening as well.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: So this one is me at the summit of the mountain.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_03: What mountain is it?
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: That was the old man of Coniston in Lake District.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was just such a huge achievement.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was just something that I never ever thought would be possible.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, 13 years of like undiagnosed bowel disease, not knowing what was wrong with me, avoiding everything that involved, you know.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was just such a huge goal to climb a mountain that I was just like, you know, so that I just look at it and I'm like, I'm just proud.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna achieve and if anything, proud of Mona.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm like, you have given me that.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like so I know a lot of people don't like the whole my stone is amazing, blah blah blah.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: But it bloody well is.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: Why is it that you should celebrate?
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's just a picture of like being really proud that I actually managed.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: And also I was not fit or well in this photo.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was really quite sick.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: This was quite soon after surgery, and wasn't well, had a hernia as well, and it was just everything came out, it was a struggle.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: But it was like, no, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it here.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_03: You said earlier you set yourself that goal, that target of climbing the mountain, and that is the evidence of doing it.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_03: Do you ever reflect back on that when like you have like hard days and you're like, oh, I I did that, I did the hard things.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: I do every now and then.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, once once in a while.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to bring yourself back to reality, haven't you?
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: And things like that are what does it like, yeah.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: I have overcome this.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: I have overcome that.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that was that one.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_03: Amazing, love that.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then this is getting in the water.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that was that um holiday last year of Madsen where I haven't swum with a stoma, I haven't been in the water.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, showers and baths, guys.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm not gonna.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was gonna say, I didn't want to say it out loud.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but um I was just like you could you know, if you see it close, I was beaming because I was just like, I didn't believe this was possible.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it was one of those things actually got in my head or genuinely believed this is not gonna be possible, I'm not gonna be able to do this.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_03: So um It is a such a weird but like uplifting experience the first time you like go swimming and like into the sea with a bag because you're like, how's it how's it gonna move?
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what's gonna happen?
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_03: You're like, nothing's happening, it's fine, crap.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: So this what I think when I look at this is actually I've got trust in myself on my bag because it's like I did it, it was fine.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is that getting over it, isn't it?
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's doing those things which so many people avoid so many things because they're like, oh, I'm too worried that X, Y, Z.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, you will not know unless you try to.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: Though it people have got to come to it themselves, haven't they?
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_01: They've got to be mentally ready and it's taken me five years.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you did that in your own time and yeah.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I still wouldn't have done it on that holiday if I didn't feel it was right.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I was like, no, this is yeah, I'm ready to do it.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's so empowering though, it really is.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_03: Because there'll be lots of people that are listening to this and watching this that will go, I'm having those same anxieties and issues, like I can travel, I can do this.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is it.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's just making people realise the smallest things they they are achievable.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, break them down.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't don't um don't overanalyse it.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can you can do anything.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_03: Just one step as well.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_03: 100% love that.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_03: Got a couple of questions from our audience that we'd like to ask.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh god.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um Do you say it with a big thing?
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_03: Do you say who it is?
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I can go back to them like Thanks.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, this is coming in from Rach, no I'm joking.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um you've already asked one about bags inflating on flights.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_03: So put that to bed straight away.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um now you said about coming through security with um like a lanyard and stuff.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like I had heard of it, I haven't done it, but if you haven't got a uh a sunflower lanyard, what other tips would you give people getting through airport security that are a bit nervous?
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think just have the confidence to be able to say to someone I'm feeling anxious in this moment, like you've got all the special assistance staff that work there, and that is their job.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're there to assist you when you're going through these things.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need a lanyard, you don't need a sign to say, I've got a stoma.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you just it's just having that confidence to be able to approach someone and just ask for help, which I think so many of us are good at not doing.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we none of us want to ask for help, but it's like actually no, it's totally okay, and that's what they're there for.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think it's just doing that.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously at the airport you can pick up those lanyards as well.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't already got one, you can actually get them from like a special assistance center.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that's right for every airport.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's still good.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, to be fair, like I'm sure they've all been like trained in so many things, yes.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's it is something that I know I've taken part in stoma training for staffing Cardiff.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_01: You have, haven't you?
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_01: And it hopefully by now quite a few in the UK have had that from different companies.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: But I know Respond and other companies, they all have travel guides, most of them do, where you can fill in all the information about your diagnosis, your supplies, and all that.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that just if anything, it kind of gives you another tool to be able to, if you're nervous about discussing it and saying it out loud, just going, look, I need to show you this.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_01: Can I have some assistance?
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you can also get the little booklets that say you've got a stoma in X amount of languages.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: So they're really good, you know, if you're worried that you're going somewhere and then you're not going to be able to do that.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_01: And they're all free and available online, like you don't have to pay for them if you go to your stoma provide your stoma.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: Which I've taken all those things with me before as well.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I put all these things in my bag and it's just if it comes up and you need it, it's there, isn't it?
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_03: Well, look, I'm glad you've had so many positive experiences.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_03: I really have.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna go and bite me on the bum soon, isn't it?
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um so unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't want it to.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I mean, I think the the last question that we end on is I mean, you've covered so much and you've given so much advice, but what would you say to someone that's newly adjusting to stoma life?
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly what I've just said, reach out for help and support.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_00: You've got so much through all the comp you know the companies, their own guidance, their support, you've got everyone online.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's just reaching out and talking to people that have lived the experience, they've all been through it.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're the best people to talk to.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: We genuinely are, aren't we?
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like if there wasn't you for me to chat to, and you know, it is just it's uh you can learn so much, yeah.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it is the best thing to definitely reach out for support, so definitely that.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: Ask for help.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_02: You've been incredible! I'm so pleased to go in the show.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's been a pleasure.