As I heal further, I find myself experimenting more and more with food, exercise, movement, everything.  Laying on my stomach is included. It took me about 5 or 6 months beyond surgery to feel comfortable “laying” on my stomach.  I put the word laying in quotes, because I still don’t lay flat.  I usually put a pillow of sort under me, above Coltrane so there’s not so much direct pressure and kind of put my hand near my bag, under my hip for support.  I think the support is more a mental need than a physical thing, stomas are strong!  I tend not to stay on my stomach for too long, but this new found comfort meant something I’d been craving since surgery. MASSAGE!!  After surgery my back was killing me. I had knots in between every single vertebra, and rightly so, my body had been through a lot and had some major compensating to do.  Initially, I stood, bent over onto/against a massage table and my dad rubbed my back for me, which helped but was nothing like a nice spa massage.   I looked online in those first few months to find out if getting a massage with an ostomy was possible and the results were encouraging, but I was definitely not ready physically.  I got past the awful vertebral muscle pains (thank goodness!) but have still been struggling with low back pain and hip pain.  I had been gifted a massage shortly after my surgery but just didn’t really feel comfortable or healed enough to use it until recently.  I told the masseuse about my ostomy and, get this, her dad had one for like 30-40 years. Small world!  She was great.  We talked about possible modifications and decided we would put a pillow under me like I do at home and that if that didn’t work, we would lay me on my side.  We started me on my back and she started at my feet and did some reflexology up my legs (boy were those tight too).  When we flipped me on my stomach to get my shoulders loose, she had the ingenious idea to use their neck support thing as an ostomy support.  Why I didn’t think of that is beyond me, because I use one of those occasionally at home when I’m on my stomach.  So, we put the neck support around Coltrane (open part down so that output could flow into the bag if need be), and also put the pillow on my left side so that I wasn’t lopsided. It worked great! I still don’t like to spend a ton of time on my stomach but am so excited that my first massage was successful and am looking forward to many more.