Ostomy in dreams

I have a recurring dream: the pouch (ileostomy) is full and I'm hunting for a bathroom, but invariably the bathrooms are occupied or locked or not private or filthy! Sometimes I finally find a clean and quiet place and start the emptying process (which sometimes goes horribly wrong), but usually I wake up during the search, and take care of business. (And I'm relieved when I realize nothing horribly wrong actually happened!) After that, I quickly go back to sleep and get back to the important things, like soaring through fields of wildflowers! 🕊️🌼

 😉

Same, glad I'm not the only one!  I've always had the "searching for a decent public toilet" dreams even before the ostomy, stall doors that only come up half way so everyone can see what you're doing or don't close properly or worse no doors at all and just an open plan bathroom - no privacy at all. 🥴😂

Since having an ostomy its all about the bag ballooning to the size of a football and have to make a mad dash to find somewhere to "release the kraken"! 😮‍💨

Hell Shawn.
Thanks for sharing your recurring dreams.

I don't think there is any need to try to analyse the meaning of this one, as it seems to be quite obvious.
However, you might like to know that there are ways that we can 'control' (or at least divert) our dreams so that they are no longer nightmarish.

I have practiced this technique of dream control for many years and have found it very useful to alleviate anxiety and wake up knowing that we can be in control of this aspect of our existence as well as that which exists during waking hours.
Best wishes

Bill  

CONTROL YOUR DREAMS.

Dreaming and thinking are the same.
But each has its own dimension.
Controlling both has been my aim.
And my ongoing intention.

I learnt so quickly as a child. 
How to control my dreams.
For in real life I was defiled.
And no one heard my screams.

Through dreaming I escaped the fate.
Of many of my peers.
Through verse I’d like to illustrate.
Those fears from younger years.

When I was young abuse was rife.
We saw it everywhere.
War saw no value in a life.
And no one seemed to care.

Adults came home brutalised.
So brutalised their own.
Although it seemed uncivilised.
They brought their problems home.

War demands aggressive ways.
The enemy to show.
The harvest of those wartime days.
Was what I came to know.

All the beatings and the pain.
Might have broken me.
But I learned a little game.
That helped to set me free.

I split my body from my mind.
My thoughts would drift away.
It’s this technique that I still find.
Is helpful still today.

It mattered not what people did.
Or what they said to me.
For in my dreams I ran and hid.
And there I stayed carefree.

In dreams the problems of the world.
Were taken in my stride.
In dream world they were all unfurled.
And  nowhere could they  hide.

In dreams it seems there is no pain.
And problems are all small.
There is an air of sweet refrain.
And I control it all.

I love that time of in-between.
When sleep and wake will merge.
It is a dreamer’s perfect scene.
Where creative thoughts emerge.

I can hold on to this state.
Of floating animation.
I can guide my dreamer’s fate.
By my anticipation

My dreaming is original.
Where I can think things out.
Just like the aboriginal.
When they go walkabout.

The British did not understand.
They simply could not cope.
No way could they control dreamland.
It was a forlorn hope.

There is no place for bullies there.
My dreams will keep them out.
The world out there is my nightmare.
And nothing to shout about.

I sort my problems one by one.
And have the ways and means.
There’s nothing I can’t overcome.
When I control my dreams.

If I no longer had my dreams.
 I would not want to live.
For dreaming is my life it seems.
And life’s what my dreams give.

Many others in their time.
Have utilised their dreams.
In art and science, wit and rhyme.
We see the dreamer’s themes.

I would urge you one and all.
To use your dreaming well.
So that one day we might all fall.
Beneath that dreaming spell.

                              B. Withers 2011
 (In: My Colourful Rag-Tag-Bag.2012)

I carry a plastic container with a lid (not a large one, lol) with me and doggie bags to line it, so when I can't find a bathroom or when driving—I live very rural and everything is an hour and a half away—I use the container.

They say that what is uppermost in your mind will appear in your dreams. That's true for people also, but watch out, if it is someone who is no longer in your life or passed away then it can be disturbing.

How to Manage Ostomy Leaks with LeeAnne Hayden | Hollister

Indeed - All stuff is processed over time

Hug

J

The Psyche can be spot on - waking us up 'just in time' so we may negate an unpleasant reality ..... and then resume our nightly freedoms

BW

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ waves ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

from the hills

Jayne

Dali held a spoon over a metal tin - in order to wake him up when entering the 'dream time.'

Do you ever use this, Bill - perhaps when maybe a rhyme is not quite coming together?

Apparently, Edison and others employed similar techniques...

Lucid dreaming can be very powerful and helpful in good ways - if set up carefully.

BW

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ waves ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

from the Hills

J

Wow!!!! 🤩 That poem really got me Bill. Not only were you able to find a positive way to overcome your personal issues, you put it into rhyme so elegantly. Thank you for your story. You are an inspiration to so many.

Hello Jayne.

It's an interesting thought that these people have wanted to escape their dreams. The answer to your question is a definite 'No'. I am much more likely to welcome the dreaming state than I am to want to escape it. I also think that it is probably closely related to the OOBER (Out Of Body Experiences Recorded) which I have outlined in other rhymes. 
For me (because I have control over it), dreaming is akin to independent and creative thinking, which I value greatly.
Best wishes

Bill 

Living in the country... get behind a tree. I know Tennessee is full of them, and empty. 👍

No ostomy dreams. 🤷‍♂️ Train wrecks sometimes though. 

It's been so long I can't remember before the ostomy, but I don't recall having this kind of dream before then. It's not a nightly thing and it doesn't particularly bother me it's just amusing. As for controlling my dreams, sometimes I'm able to do that and those are the best! 

Shawn, I have them, too, in some form. My bag is visible to the outside world and I'm looking for a private area and can't find one - the doors are missing or don't close all the way, etc. It's not like I'm anxious about it during my typical day but the concern must be there because it shows up at night. Maybe I'm afraid I'll be "found out?"

My dream was that my stoma fell out and I had to travel 140 miles to a different city to find it but I woke up before retrieving it. That was just a few weeks after having the op, just coming up to a year ago.

Stoma dreams and bags are never ever present for me. Nope.

I don't get that at all, but if that's in your head, it will come out in a dream or nightmare. Just like anything on your mind like a job interview, surgery, or upcoming date.

Nobody dreams of finding their mate out there? Or a James Bond fantasy adventure?

My recurring nightmares were/are actually pre-stoma realities. Trying to attend a live show/event in NYC when the severe ulcerative colitis went on the offensive. The experience gives a whole new meaning to "incoming!" I remember scrambling to the nearest restroom, praying one of the stalls was unoccupied and clean, covering the seat with tissue paper and doing all of the necessary cleanup (even balancing on the metal handrails on each side of the stall to change soiled clothing after taking off my shoes while trying not to touch the floor). I carried 'everything' with me in those days and all too often needed *everything*+. Sometimes my dreams take me there if triggered somehow during the day. My stoma, my bag (with all of the supplies that go with it) and the medical wizards at Mount Sinai in NYC, gave me my life back starting in 2016. That's when my nightmares ended and I was able to dream again...    

I have had this exact dream, except about my period.  It went on for many years, even after I was done with that whole mess.😁. 

Kinda like the dreams when I forget my locker combo or can't find my class!

Hah, I wouldn't mind losing my stoma for a while! That would be the opposite of a nightmare. 😉

Shawn, a nightmare all of us osteomates face, kept me from traveling far from home. As a hiker, I used to worry about "releasing the Kraken" in the middle of nowhere. In another post, I gave away my solution: a three-sided graduated medical container, easy to hold between your knees. I dremeled two tiny holes, halfway down so a bag can expand into it (I marked the holes in red). The Hollister baggies (10 in the pouch box) fit, as do the black doggie poop bags,
🔒 Login to see image
on all trails. Pre-torn TP sections inside, to be ready for wiping. Have a pack of wipes (post-Covid) for my hands. Ate too much cold chicken near Calgary and was bulging before Ft MacCleod. Pulled off on a gravel road and emptied, no problem.

I like that in most of my dreams, I don't have a bag... It's just not an issue and I've had my bag for 15 years.

I had all four of my surgeries at Mt Sinai. I agree, they are wizards!

I had all four of my surgeries at Mt Sinai. I agree, they are wizards. Btw, sorry about your emergency situation. That must have been so frightening.

It is said... dreams are rarely remembered... so you guys are dreaming and remembering some serious stuff...

Whoa...

You might start out dreaming about someone or something... and it can go south, east, or west... nightmare.

Here's something I thought might give pause to how certain people dream.

Just my 2 cents worth. Sharing.

Culturally born Deaf people dream in sign language.

(Note capital D)

Myself, as stated in my profile, became deaf from what I firmly believe was from IBD... profound deafness, talking about the ability to sleep at rock concerts.

I learned sign. Have Deaf and *late deaf friends...

The former dreams in voice, not sign.

• Late deaf [lower case d] is a term used by people who become deaf late in life for whatever reason. Post-lingual deaf. Thus the voices... oh, the voices...

There now. You learned something neat, huh. 😉

Wow, that IS so interesting. I have a Deaf fellow in one of my classes and have been looking into learning to sign. I've known the alphabet since college but have been wanting to know more.

Shawn:  I have the same dreams:  filthy bathrooms, no doors, no privacy.  The frequency of these dreams has lessened over the years, but I still have them occasionally.