A Compassionate Guide for Intimacy After Ostomy

Imagine if we didn't survive what we survived? We'd be dead. We would never get to feel the tender touch of a lover or the intense love that comes from companionship.

But we DID survive. We DID live to see another day. So, why do so many of us waste our precious days trying to convince ourselves that we are not worthy of tender touch or intense love because of our bags?

Sadly, the surgery that made us well, also made us feel broken and unworthy. But it doesn't have to be that way. I had a temporary ostomy in 2012 and thought I couldn't stand to live if they didn't reverse it.

But when I faced a permanent ostomy surgery ten years later, I knew I had to deal with my issues because I didn't want to crumble like I had ten years before. This time, I was determined to get through it all with my confidence and self-worth intact.

To that end, I explored techniques and engaged in practices that profoundly transformed my second experience of having ostomy surgery. Consequently, I was able to continue feeling confident, desirable and sexy; even with the bag.

I want others to feel the same freedom I feel and embrace the second chance at life they have been given. I am proof that a second (and third and fourth) chance is sometimes the best chance because it is lived with supreme gratitude.