Since becoming an ostomate, I have met some really cool people. There are a number of other young bloggers out there who are so wonderful and responsive when you reach out with millions of questions. One of those wonderful people is Heidi. Heidi runs the blog www.ostomyoutdoors.com and lives an incredibly active lifestyle exploring nature, rock-climbing, skiing, snowboarding – you name it, she probably does it. Except cartwheels, but she didn’t do them before she had surgery either.

I had the pleasure of having dinner with Heidi and then seeing her at her local support group while I was on vacation. Dinner was really fun. I’m pretty sure most of my friends are tired of hearing about me talk about my ostomy, and let’s face it, I’m not tired of talking about it yet. It was nice to be able to sit down with someone who was totally fine sharing ostomy stories over dinner.  Also, for anyone who’s worried about dietary restrictions, Heidi ordered (and ate) pizza that had so many vegetables on it (olives, onions, spinach…etc).

The support group was fun too. The turn out was good and there were a number of people who have had their ostomies for 30+ years. The energy of the group was so positive. Heidi isn’t the only rock-climber either. She and another guy were sharing strategies for emptying/disposing of bags while rock climbing after the meeting and had both brought their harnesses. The guy is training to climb Mount Rainier.

How inspirational!

This post was originally written in April 2014.