It’s been 13 years since I’ve been sharing my body with Crohn’s disease. Our coexistence was most of the time quite harsh, I’ve had over 40 anesthesias and my whole colon gone. Living with stoma began in 2012 with a colostomy, which, after complications in 2017, switched to ileostomy. I had a lot of years when I did not like my body or my life. Having Crohn’s since 18 years of age is not much fun…
Fortunately, in 2014, I had a total collapse and I was eliminated from the work process and I joined the group of handicaped. This serious stop forced me to gradually change my life – psyche, diet regime, work, relationships… Everything had to go through an audit and all that was bad had to go.
My first steps were to the Czech ILCO, where I started volunteering. Thanks to my experience in the organisation I got the courage to openly talk about life with an ostomy. And so some time later I programmed my blog site NEJSEMTABU (www.nejsemtabu.cz). Not long after that I decided to design and sow special underwear for ostomates, as I could not find a fitting lingerie in my country. Et vois la, my brand MyPouch (www.mypouch.cz) was born 😊
Life is constantly changing, moving forward, surprising. We never know what will happen in a month. Today I am very happy to take part on a beautiful new project, Revenium, z.s. An organisation, which connects the world of the disabled with employers. They educate, change the perspective and access to life with disabilities and many other things. I am honoured to have beautiful and powerful people around me, who did not give up on life. And dispite everything they been through and their disability, are working hard and helping other people. And that’s super inspiring!
I look forward to sharing my experiences with you. Hopefully I’ll be able to show you, that life with an ostomy is completely normal and fine. Disability is not the end of the world. For someone like me it has become the beginning of a new and extiting journey.
Yours truly,
Tereza