Skip to main content

Shame on you Ru Paul’s Drag Race

I don’t watch Ru Paul’s Drag Race but after reading about the comments that were made about stoma bags I had to search out the clip. 


I’m sure to Ru Paul and Michelle Visage it was just a throwaway comment and they’ve thought no more about it. But to those in the Crohns and Colitis community it’s a big deal. Could you imagine the outrage if somebody made an inappropriate comments about being trans or gay? There would be uproar. But these kind of ableist ‘jokes’ are what disabled people have to put up with all the time. 

I had a stoma bag for 5 years so let me dispel some common myths:

 Stoma bags smell.
They don’t. They have special charcoal filters in them to stop smells emerging. The only time you would smell anything was if it leaked (which shouldn’t happen often) or when it was emptied in the loo. But everyones shit stinks when you go to the toilet. 

Stoma bags are awful.
They’re not. In my case I ended up with a bag after my large bowel perforated and I needed emergency surgery. Without my stoma I would have died. So stomas save lives. The reason I ended up having my stoma reversed was because I had problems with it and the reversal surgery was what my medical team recommended at the time. However, looking back now the years I had my bag were the years I was most well. 

Everyone knows you’ve got a stoma. 
Unless you choose to tell people that you’ve got a stoma then nobody knows. You can’t see them through your clothes and the last I knew nobody has X-ray vision! Sometimes they can be a bit noisy but they sound just like a tummy rumbling. 

I think it’s important to address these comments 
because someone could be watching the programme who is grappling with the choice of having a stoma to relieve their bowel disease or may be the friend or family of someone who has just undergone the surgery. Ignorance spreads ignorance and I would hate for someone to decide against surgery as a result of this show. The number of people suffering from Inflammatory Bowel Disease increases year on year and it’s estimated that there are 300,000 sufferers although there’s probably a lot more because they are too frightened or embarrassed to go to the doctor. Talking about bowels and poo and bums has become second nature to me and if I can reduce the stigma associated with these illnesses then I’ve achieved something. 

If you are an IBD warrior or are experiencing symptoms please know you can get support from the charity Crohns and Colitis UK.




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The germs have got me 🦠

Being on azathioprine, influximab and prednisone is helping to control this recent Crohns flare up. But unfortunately they work by wiping out my immune system making me more susceptible to all the bugs doing the rounds. I refuse to stay at home and be held hostage by these meds though- for me they are there to give me my life back, not to make me a prisoner in my own house, so the inevitable has happened and I’ve got a cold.  ‘It’s only a cold’ you might think, but with no immune system to fight it off this cold has made me pretty poorly. Yesterday I couldn’t get out of bed and felt so, so ill. I was coughing and struggling to breathe so I’m pretty sure I’ve got a chest infection too. But I can’t confirm that because apparently even being immunocompromised with a suspected chest infection is not enough to see a GP these days!  I spoke to the receptionist at the GP surgery this morning who told me that all the urgent appointments for today were gone (and this was at 8.25am, aft...
1 comment
Read more

It’s a full time job having a chronic health condition

Yesterday was a super busy day and today I’m knackered. I had 4 hospital appointments at 3 different hospitals and spent all day either sat in a waiting room or driving between hospitals!!  First off I had an appointment at 9am at the Treatment centre. This was to get my 3 monthly injection that puts me into menopause to control my endometriosis symptoms. Because it was so early I had to be organised the night before and make sure I was connected to my feed early. It runs for 12 hours and I have to factor in the time it takes to disconnect in the morning so I had to be hooked up by 7.30pm at the latest on Wednesday night.  After I had been jabbed in my bottom I went over to QMC hospital to see the specialist nurse on F22, the gastro ward. In January I had a new Hickman line inserted on the right side of my chest and where they removed the old line from the left side I had a wound that took ages to heal. For 6-8 weeks there was green gunk coming out what was basically a hole in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Disability benefits cuts

So in Rachel Reeves spring statement earlier this week it was confirmed that there will be massive changes to the benefits system including the way that PIP is assessed and changes to the health element of Universal credit.  As someone who is receipt of both PIP and ESA disability benefits I find this whole situation…  🔲 terrifying  🔲 baffling  🔲 rage inducing  🔲 disgusting  🔲 [all of the above] I honestly cannot believe that a LABOUR government is looking to balance the books of the country by taking money from some of the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. This is the sort of thing I would have expected the Tories to do but when I voted Labour I honestly thought that not only would they look after and protect the neediest but they would actually make things in our society better and fairer. How wrong I was. Looks like I’m going to have to get some ‘Fuck Labour’ merch to go along with my ‘Fuck the Tories’ stuff I already own!  Now I do b...
Post a Comment
Read more