Firefighter with ostomy

I have been a firefighter for close to three years now. I have seen a lot of things in my years of being a firefighter. From my job, I had a life-changing accident that changes how I live my life now. I am happy that I am still around to this day to tell people about the accident so they can be aware of the dangers this job can have. I am a public speaker when I am not fighting fires. I use this opportunity to share my experience and connect with other ostomy patients like myself. If you have not made it to one of my events, then you are in luck; I am going to share with you what happened and how it changed my life. 

One day on the job, we got a call about a raging fire taking over a nearby factory. We did not know what kind of factory only got the location. We answered the call to action and rushed to get ready, throwing on our overalls and oxygen tanks and jumping into the truck. As we rushed through the streets to get to the factory, my fire chief told me I would be on the big truck ladder. I have only done it a few times, but I felt confident and was glad he trusted me to take on such an important job. When we pulled up, I could feel the heat from inside the truck. We rushed to get everything set up; I ran to get the ladder in place. 

After I got the ladder in place and began climbing up, I had a hose draped over my shoulder and climbed as fast as I could. Little did I know this fire would change my life. As I almost reached the top, a massive explosion erupted from the side of the building closest to us. It knocked me off my feet, and I benga plummeting towards the truck fifteen feet below me. I landed on my back. As soon as I landed, I knew something was wrong inside of me. An additional ambulance was immediately dispatched after hearing about this. The ambulance that was already there helped me up off the truck and to their vehicle. I was happy to be alive and walking, but I knew something was wrong. 

I was rushed to the hospital, where an x-ray was rushed to get done, and a doctor came to see me almost as soon as I got out of the x-ray room and into my own. He told me my x-rays did not look good, and I would need an ostomy procedure because my large intestine ruptured. I said, let’s do it and did not look back. Once the procedure was done, I stayed in the hospital for a few days, where I spent learning about ostomy and how to take care of my stoma and pouch. Just about all my coworkers came to see me, and they were glad I was still alive and could walk as a fall like that should have broken my spine. 

I am very reluctant not to have ended up with a worse result, all things considered. I use my experience to teach others about safety in the firefighter world. I am also trying to get improvements on the tools we use to aid in the reduction of injuries and falls as I had. I’m still able to do my job, but the boss refuses to put me on the ladder again, and I don’t blame him. I don’t want to go up a ladder again if I can avoid that. I’m so happy to be alive and walking. Even though I had an ostomy procedure, I am still the same guy I was before. 

Extreme Sports with a Stoma?

Being part of the new 2021 world I have a firm understanding of extremes.  The United States is now borderline totalitarianism and I am indeed starting off an article about stomas with that wild statement.   Because wild is what I am about and because I simply have a stoma does not mean that I am not able to do wild or crazy things.  What it means is that I need to prepare a little more and have backups in place something goes wrong, but really everyone takes a little bandage kit with them when they are extreme biking anyway.  Yes, you can indeed be an adventure mountain biker if you have a stoma.  Just because you had an Ostomy doesn't mean that life is over. As a matter of fact, life just goes on and doesn't really change that much for me. Instead of slowing down after I recovered I went the opposite route and sped up into doing extreme sports. Now, let's be real, I do mountain biking in a state with no mountains.  I am not super crazy or a professional athlete, but there are many with stomas that are.   I do consider mountain biking to be a bit extreme. Now granted I live in the midwest and that means that my mountains are not like Colorado. Although I have been out there and boy that is insanely fun. So how did having an ostomy work with biking in rough conditions?  It was a bit hard to start, but with conditioning, just like in any other sport I began to get the hang of it. 

So once your mindset is in the right place one thing that helped me was having the right gear.  Mountain biking brings out a lot of sweat and lots of jumps and jolts. It causes a lot of legs and abdominal strain too.  It is also possible to fall so protecting your stoma is a big part of the gear and having it be comfortable is super important. 

So I had trouble with seals and bags working well to start with. I was eventually led to called some online companies that sold in bulk after watching an online tutorial and started asking questions.  I finally got the courage up to call and I am glad I did.  These companies were really helpful and didn't sell me like I thought they would. Instead, I had a great conversation with someone that gave me test products instead. It was a no worries sort of exchange and I more than appreciated it.  

Now, not everything worked for me but I found a better bag and belt system. It gave me the confidence to do a trail and start having some fun again.  I got all strapped up and hit the local trail which is actually in the middle of town.  I skipped the jumps the first few times but really got comfortable with my body and the bike going up and down. So I was able to get back to finally doing what I loved and take it up a notch as time moved on. This was a big boost to my life and the quality of it. It doesn't seem like much but when you are sitting in surgery thinking all that is good is about to end it sure is nice to get that rush of joy from the trail.