Business Owner with an Ostomy bag

I was about to graduate college with a career already lined up and then it all changed. I

have decided that change is quite normal in one's life, but I am not as crazy about change as

some may think. As an entrepreneur, I am very familiar with how change is often necessary for

progress to happen. When it comes to the change in our physical body we often fear the

outcome of that scenario so much more.

Almost 20 years after I started my own theming and designing company I didn’t think that life could get any better. 2016 was a pivotal year for my wife and me. Colon cancer was not what we wanted to hear when I woke from the colonoscopy I had insisted on having. You see your body has a way of letting you know when something isn’t right. We are the ones who have to decide to listen. We were in Tennessee observing the build of our vacation home. How difficult it was to call my family and notify them of this news. We were overwhelmed from the beginning with the support that was piled on in heaps. Surgery was scheduled and cancer removal was the plan.

When I woke from the surgery I found that I was not the same as I went in. I had been

fitted with a colostomy bag that I believed was an absolute last ditch effort in this cancer

prognosis. To say that I was freaked out would have been an understatement. I was nowhere

even prepared for that to be the end result. However, I am a very educated and resourceful

individual so I knew that this prognosis was not terminal, but would be one needing an

adjustment period that my wife and I would learn to navigate together with the help of my family

and company leadership team.

Life changed slowly actually because I was financially stable and could take whatever

time was needed to heal and learn what I needed to do to make life as simple and successful as

possible. My company was able to still maintain itself without me being directly involved. This

was a needed departure to heal and learn about my new appendage. The colostomy bag was a

part of me and therefore became like any other thing that needed to be taken care of. Vision

issues meant contacts or glasses. Crooked teeth meant braces or a retainer. Everything

seemed quite doable at this point in my life.

I can’t begin to put into word the thoroughness that the medical staff exhibited in every

detail of my healing. The colostomy bag was not as daunting as I thought it would be. The

recovery was overwhelming at first for my wife and me but we knew we had such a strong support system and knowledge of what has happened that we would be able to tackle this head-on. Medical procedures in this day in age are nothing like they were when I was a child. I am

thankful for the expertise that I was given to make my life almost identical to what it was. We

don’t have to make things more difficult, we just need to be open to learning every aspect of the

opportunities, hurdles, problems that are placed in front of us.