Wellness & Fitness

Having a colostomy bag hasn’t limited my life

coloncancer

Frank Mwakugu ruptured his rectum and has had to use stoma bags to pass stool for the last 26 years. PHOTO | FILE

I have worn a colostomy bag for about 26 years now.

When I started working, I used to worry a lot. What if the colostomy bag falls out in public? It is hard to accept this condition but I have learnt survival tactics.

It is one of those things you never think will happen to you. I had developed malaria but later I started getting pains on the lower part of my stomach and constipation. I thought it was a normal stomach disorder. I had just finished Form Four and was waiting for the examination results.

I was then 18-years-old, eager to join college, get a job, perhaps marry and have children; little did I know the abdominal pain will turn a new chapter in my life.

I went to Mombasa to my aunt who was a nurse so she could help me get treatment. But the problem persisted.

I later developed a boil around the anal area. But when the boil ruptured and started oozing stool; I knew there was something terribly wrong. In a span of four days I developed six boils around the same area and each was discharging stool.

For one year, I lay in bed in pain. I could not sit and ate while lying down, taking medicine prescribed by various doctors.

After the boils ruptured, I was taken to Kenyatta National Hospital where I was diagnosed with rectal fistula, a complication from an abscess.

The doctor suggested I undergo an operation to divert the stool and have a colostomy bag so that the wounds would not get infected, allowing them to heal faster.

But during the surgery, the doctor found that I had ruptured my rectum. He said the rectum is never stitched. It is left to heal on its own because if is sewn, it will heal and the condition will recur. It had to heal naturally though this could take a long time.

I was told the wound could take from 10 to 15 years to heal. From that day onwards I started using colostomy bags for as long they do not intefere with my life.

These are medical devices that collect waste from a surgically diverted biological system (colon, ileum, bladder) through an opening in the abdominal wall.

The doctors encouraged me saying that in the West there are people who lived with colostomy bags permanently and still went about their duties.

The boils healed after the system was diverted. I would bathe the area with saline water and have the wounds dressed every day.

At the time the colostomy bags were costly and of low quality. A bag of 10 used to cost about Sh350 and in a day one can use upto to three bags, depending on what you eat. Since I have a problem of indigestion I needed to buy more bags.

Normally, if I eat something that I am not used to, I have diarrhoea so I need many bags. Also, the bags cannot be found in many chemists. Only a select few stock them.

Waking up after surgery to the new world of wearing stoma bags was not easy. Before I joined a group that supplies us with free colostomy bags, I struggled for years buying the expensive ones that were of poor quality.

My parents spent most of their earnings on my treatment and buying the stoma bags delaying my dreams of joining college. But after healing I went to school and got a job.

However, I lost the job soon after missing work due to bad diarrhoea days. My employer one day told me that if my condition was that bad he would rather let me go.

Since that time, I gave up on permanent employment; I decided to be a consultant.

When I go to construction sites to install electricity cables, I avoid eating. Sometimes I just take porridge in the morning and carry a small packet of yoghurt for the day. I cannot take the githeri that most workers eat.

I have won the colostomy bag for 26 years now.