The Social

It's been awhile since I've posted. Hope everyone is doing well. I've been living life, limiting social media stuff and my phone. Been a wonderful respite.

I did go to Opening Day for the Cincinnati Reds yesterday. It was unreal! Ready for some Spring #playball.

YEARS AGO, WHEN MY DAUGHTER LIVED in Brooklyn, I flew from Utah (out of Vegas) to NYC to visit her. There were a couple of places that I wanted to go while there and we took the subway. I’ve never lived where there are subways and she decided that she needed to coach me on my behavior. “Don’t look at anyone, don’t talk to anyone,” she advised seriously. As a film fan, I’ve seen ...

Anyone love food and dogs? Anyone want to meet for a coffee and some conversation or laughs? Seeking to simply connect. Friends or ForMore. Just taking each step as a slow roll.......

"Whispers of the Wooden Realm"

In the veil between worlds, where shadows dance,
A cupboard whispers tales of old romance,
February's moon, a silvery eye,
Witnessed our bond 'neath the star-studded sky.

Ancient oak, keeper of secrets untold,
Your grains map journeys both brazen and bold,
Angles askew, like time's crooked path,
Defying the straight lines of mortal math.

In corners where re ...

Hi guys! I’m brand new to the site and to the ostomy community

I’m 22 and from England. I had my surgery at the beginning of december ‘24 after suffering with complex crohn’s disease for 14 years.

i’ve only got a temporary stoma at the moment but it’s likely going to be made permanent at some point.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as i’m so new to this all aha !

HONESTY IS MY DEFAULT POSITION. If I suddenly find myself compelled to have to deviate from the truth, to avoid insulting someone, for instance, it causes me discomfort. Making something up when I’m writing doesn’t count; it’s called fiction. I don’t really kill and cook mourning doves, for example. But this idea of being honest is something that I drummed into both my kids as they ...

OVER THE EARLY YEARS, I had a few odd jobs. Just out of college, I drove a cab on the night shift in Miami, where I grew up. I thought that I was going to get robbed or killed by one fare, but he gave me a big tip, which was a relief. I did a stint as a pizza chef. It took a while for the oven burns on the tops of my hands to heal. For a few months, I participated as part of a doctoral th ...

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

My name is Maggie. I live in NC with my wonderful husband and 2 Australian Shepherds. I am currently on GJ feeding tube and scheduled for ileostomy surgery on April 9th. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Again, thank you very much

Hi everyone! I can never think of usernames but the cards & letters sent by friends & family had one common theme - my resilience. Cheesy, I know!

I'm a middle-aged mom of 2 college students, married 25+ years, living in an antique home in the country with a really lazy yellow lab, currently trying to get disability as my professional writing & consulting has been on pause since my chronic m ...

WE DON’T HAVE PIGEONS where we live, but we have mourning doves. They must be cousins. The doves don’t poop all over the place like pigeons do, but they’re always chasing each other around like kids on a playground. The other birds are trying to get to the seed my wife puts out for them but the doves come in and start bullying each other and ruining the peace and quiet for the others. ...

While back I posted about coming across some trees that were being tapped for maple syrup and not being able to look at maple syrup in the same way again. They look like they were wearing wearing ostomy bags. It's that time of the year again up here in New York State and came across them again and this time I took some pictures. After reading my previous post Alex T labeled them OstoTrees. ...

I'm new here, semi-new ostomy (8/2023). Found this wonderful community on BlueSky! Super excited to be here after I left Facebook (and an amazing ostomy group there). Looking forward to learning my way around the site and chatting with other ostomates!

ONE OF THE REASONS that I enjoy watching movies is to marvel at the acting performances. It is really an amazing talent, not just to convincingly pretend that you’re a particular character in a film but to learn all those lines. Just as in every profession, of course, some actors are better at it than others. Guys like Ben Affleck and Nicolas Cage seem to have a very limited emotional ran ...

WE HAVE TO BE SATISFIED with ourselves. We have no choice. “I’m not much but I’m all I have,” said one of Philip K. Dick’s characters. As we grow up out of infancy toward eventual adulthood, we get used to what we look like when we look in the mirror. It is our normal, the standard we go by, and the fact that genetics results in us looking at least a little bit like the rest of o ...

I used to work as an artist doing all kinds of different stuff

Then I sold real estate i
n Alaska. I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't been on a date in 20 years but am really starting to miss male companionship. Thinking spoiling a guy would be very satisfying.

THE OLDER I GET, the more I try to keep my life as simple as possible. It is my great fortune to have a very responsible spouse. In so many different ways, it seems apt that, late in life, we revert back to some of our early childhood deficiencies. The age-old comparison of old people to childhood has plenty of validity. If kids say the darndest things, so do old people. Simplification of o ...

New to the site just wanting to say hello and introduce myself. Hello everyone I am Audrey from New York State.

Good morning UK (afternoon , evening , early hours the rest of the world) …

I’ve not posted on here before but think it’s a great idea to have a place to chat to, ask questions & generally try to laugh our way through what can be a very painful, mentally challenging time actually getting used to our stoma’s and new ways of life…

I’ll kick off with seeng if anyone has a funny s ...

I have been living with an ostomy for 6 years after almost dying from crohns and wanted to connect with those who understand this life. Sometimes I have questions or just need support.

EVERYONE HAS SOME UNIQUE FAILURE in his life. Mine is never having learned how to play a musical instrument. It never occurred to my parents, so I never got lessons. Then, as a teenager, my mother was dating an instrument salesman who said he’d get me a trombone, but she threw him over for a shoe salesman, so I got shoes instead. Once, when I was in between jobs, I got to liking Miles Da ...

PERHAPS I COULD USE an appetite suppressant. Being an inveterate snacker, I always seem to be eating something. I’m not talking about meals. I’m talking about BETWEEN MEALS. And then, when I get to the meals, I need to start practicing some portion control. I’ve always been a firm believer in the maxim, ‘If it tastes good, have some more.’ As a child, my mother always insisted ...

Tomorrow I board the Celebrity Reflection cruise ship for a 9 day tour of the southern Caribbean.

We had a great time in Southern Florida. I ventured on some long walks in the Everglades, sure I'd run into Henry.... but suddenly realized: I'm not infamous, famous, or dead yet.

Just finished a yummy chocolate/vanilla soft serve ice cream. I'm relaxing on the beach while Mrs B continues ...

A good friend of mine has just offered us the use of her AIRBNB home for 5 nights. It's a beautiful house with all the amenities, plus it's in a nearby tourist town that I've yet to explore.

Dear husband and I haven't had a vacation long since before my surgery, so we're due for a little getaway.

This will be my first time away from home, so I'm a little nervous about the whole ostomy pack ...

Some pictures from Everglades National Park.
Rare Wood Stork
SpaceX explosion. We watched it tumble, then break apart.
Today we're in Marco Island. Going on a boat tour of the 10 thousand islands area. Then later today, a jet boat ride in the Everglades. Stoma behaving itself.

and after 60 years they can’t really hear you unless you shout and NO ONE ever shouts a secret !!! ask me how I know…jb

WHAT’S IN A NAME?.

What’s in a name? you might well ask.
Well! I have set myself a task
to change one on my contacts list
as I don’t want it to exist.

But, no matter what I do
the old name still keeps coming through
despite that I’ve deleted it
as it’s no longer now legit.

I’ve racked my brain to find out how
I can somehow disallow
this name, which is now quite defunct
to dis ...

Hi everyone . I signed up a few days ago but this is the first time posting. I had my surgery for a colostomy 2 months ago. In the beginning there were challenges. When I came home, no one had set up wound care or home care for me so I ran out of supplies the first week. They only sent me home with a couple 2-piece bags. I think I just fell through the cracks? Luckily I was able to get some su ...

FOR THE FIRST TIME, I just ordered two cookbooks. Both are collections of bread machine recipes, as I recently bought one of those incredible devices. We do have other cookbooks, and I recognize their usefulness. I’ve just never bought one before. I imagine that the genre “cookbooks” is one of the larger sections in a bookstore. As much of a bibliophile as I am, there are a numb ...

Hi All. I’m Lee. Hope you’re doing well. Just bracing myself for the upcoming plumbing operation and it would great to connect with people with fellow urostomates and other ostomtaes. Top tips would be appreciated. I live in Cambridgeshire, England and love to travel when I can, the great outdoors, keeping fit and playing music.

THERE ARE TWO THINGS in the grocery store that always throw me for a loop. I cannot make a choice because I have no idea what to select, a predicament that will never expire unless I take the time to research the topics, which is unlikely. The two things which I am referencing are cheese and wines. Wines have been the subject of ecstatic poesy and research forever, and there was a time – ...

ROUNDING THE CORNER ON my walk recently, I encountered an old bewhiskered gentleman who was wearing 19th Century clothing. It was Alexander Graham Bell. “I thought you were dead,” I said, rather dumb-founded. “Well, I heard that Donald Trump wanted to make Canada a U.S. state, and as a Canadian American I needed to check that out,” he told me, frowning. “Don’t worry; it won ...

IN COLLEGE I READ Ayn Rand’s ‘Objectivist Newsletter.' It was published in the early Sixties. One of her essays considered the tremendous responsibility of having children and how people that don’t meet their obligations as parents fall short and do harm. I thought that was a good theory and so I adopted it. College kids have lots of theories. I told myself that I didn’t want chil ...

A round up of our feathered friends
Heyyyy you're not a bird.. beat it.

I'm currently being lazy (my natural state), in our cozy beach close bungalow in Hollywood, Florida. Spring Break is just getting started, and the beach boardwalk is humming with music, young people, and old toads like me. Lining the walkway are ice creme shops, hotels, restaurants, bars, and resorts like Margaritaville with a Flow rider wave machine out front. Great for viewing drunken col ...

Hi there. Would love to meet new friends in my area that enjoy similar interests and obviously relate to the stoma way of life.

Going for coffee, hikes, events and even join in on any travel groups.

Barby

SOMETIMES I TALK TOO MUCH and I know it. I speak to strangers, I contradict family members, and I suffer from an overabundance of opinions craving to get out. It has taken me a long time to learn that I don’t have to express all my thoughts, and part of that lesson was from watching others, particularly a current obnoxious politician, doing just that. As some observant wag once observed, ...

Hey everyone, just wanted to ask for people to post a meme/photo of something uplifting/sweet/funny etc. or anything you like that is positive. Thought it might be fun.

Hi
I’m Sammi new to this page I’m looking for friendships as I’ve been quite isolated
I have been an ostomate for 11 years permanent colostomy
looking forward to getting to know you all

EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT astronaut Neil Armstrong said when he first set foot on the surface of the moon. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But few people are aware of the second thing he said: “Good luck, Mr. Rosenberg.”

As a teenager, Armstrong had been playing catch in his yard when the ball got past him and rolled under a bush beneath the bedroom window of his n ...

Hi. I’m from Western North Carolina. I love singing, hanging out with friends, joking around and having a good time. I have Cerebral Palsy and MS but they don’t have me. My hubs and I don’t have children, but have a chiweenie, Bailey and a rescued kitten from the bitter cold and snow storm that I, of course named Snow. I found out she’s a rare bred-a snowshoe cat- Elizabeth Tay ...

Today we drove from Marco Island on the Gulf coast to Everglades City. Taking a boat tour of Ten Thousand Island National Park. Wonderful day, sunshine with little wind. Ignoring the backseat driving of Mrs B, we soon arrived and boarded our tour boat. This area is where fresh water mixes with salt water. Take a look:

Airboat heading out

Our comfy tour boat dockside

Leaving Everglad ...

TODAY I FIGURED OUT WHY I like baseball more than football. Simply put, baseball is more like everyday life. On the gridiron, where American football is played, everything is pre-measured out. The field is 100 yards long, plus the end zones, and divided up into five-yard sections. The game lasts four quarters, or two halves, and each quarter is fifteen minutes long. A team could be inches ...

Hi I’m from Ashford Kent Uk, I’ve had bowel cancer, but have been given the all clear, I’m on the tracc trial which is very reassuring, I’m 64 years old, single, I have a little dog, and I have my nearly 100 year old father living with me. I’m looking for companionship and general online buddies.

TO KILL IS A SIN, yet I find no punishment for killing time on any criminal statute. It still has a degree of culpability associated with it, however, as it is thought to be a waste of the most precious commodity that we have as human beings. But there is an affirmative defense available since time, actually, is killing us. To kill time, therefore, might be a case of self-defense. A person ...

TOLERANCE.

Tolerance, it should be said
is governed largely in one’s head
but, perhaps, it may just start
as seedlings sprouting in one’s heart.

Emotions can control what we
prefer to hear, to touch, and see,
so though we think we‘re in control
sometimes things spring right from the soul.

Tolerance is not a given,
for in life, things may be riven
with divisions that can still
prove ...

THERE ARE GOOD WAYS and bad ways to waste time. You can take a lounge chair into the backyard and muse about the varied song of the mockingbird. You can stay longer in the shower than actual cleanliness requires. You can watch a ball game. These are good ways to waste time, so good, in fact, that a decent argument can be made that it is not a waste at all. Or you can sit in a doctor’s w ...

We all have them ... those dark days when everything seems wrong and it's just too damn hard to put one foot in front of the other.

In times like these, I rely on a few favourite quotes to bolster me up again.

My all-time favourite is Sir Winston Churchill's tongue in cheek line :

If you're going through hell ... keep going."

Sometimes, just stepping back and putting things in a better ...

TODAY, I TOOK AN ‘OOBER’ TRIP.
(‘OOBER’= Out-Of-Body-Experiences Recorded)

I took an OOBER trip today
and met my brothers on the way
and, as I’ve not seen them awhile,
I thought it worth that extra mile.

Because they lived so far away,
not too far from Whangarai,
I didn’t get to see them much
and often we’d be out of touch.

But OOBER transport offers us
a means to trav ...

I mentioned to my husband that many people name their stomas but I hadn't come up with names for mine.

His reply: you could them Darrell and introduce them as my stoma Darrell and my other stoma Darrell.

INSTEAD OF WATCHING THE OSCARS last night (I don’t get ABC), I watched one of my favorite Oscar-winning flicks, the 1987 film about love, “Moonstruck.” It won Best Picture, Cher won for Best Actress (they called the female actors actresses back then), and Olympia Dukakis won for Best Supporting Actress. IT IS A FLAT-OUT WONDERFUL MOVIE. No violence, no shooting, no car chases, and I d ...