My name is Meg Price and I have just successfully completed a three year degree course at Manchester Metropolitan University in Sociology and Philosophy.
The one thing I have always told myself is that this disease was never going to get the better of me, and neither would having a stoma.
Over the years I have learned that having a stoma isn’t the dreaded predictability everyone seems to presume, and I myself was once of them. No nineteen year old wants to have a stoma and the idea of it is beyond terrifying when you know so little about the subject and its lifestyle.
I chose to overcome that and having no communication with other ostomates was a lonely and difficult period. In the last two years I have adapted to living with an end-ileostomy and mucus fistula and then a loop-ileostomy with a dysfunctional ileo anal pouch (J-pouch).
I have become determined as ever to succeed in what I value the most important in my life such as university, relationships and enjoying life to the full. With spending the first 6 years of my IBD and early ostomy life alone and with no communication to others who share similar problems I have also become determined in giving people the support and help to others that I was not fortunate enough to have when I needed it the most.
In November 2011 I set up an online support group over Facebook with a fellow Ostomate and after 18 months it has reached over 550 members and gains a good reputation overall.
On the 19th May 2013 I was asked by a dear friend and fellow IBDer to give a presentation on living with a stoma at an IBD symposium at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. I was pleased to gain feedback off those who attended and to be told that their fears about a stoma had now been reassured after my story, achievement and attitude towards it all.
I have successfully completed a three year degree course at Manchester Metropolitan University in Sociology and Philosophy whilst having two major surgeries over two of those years. I have been able to travel around the world and brave going into the world of dating and finding a brilliant partner regardless of my stoma.
I look forward to going back to university in another year and doing a PGCE course in Religious Studies with the aspiration of becoming a teacher. I have met some fantastic and inspirational people over the years and achieved many things that without my stoma would not have been possible. A stoma will never change who you are as a person and it will never stop you from what you want to do. We all poo, just some of us do out their bottoms and others into bags, so at the end of the day what’s the big deal?.
It’s just poo.
