The Most Helpful IBD Blog I've Found: Shaz's Ostomy Pages

I have been diagnosed with both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's, which are each an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Since my diagnoses, I have been searching for a support system of people that also suffer from IBDs. Having IBDs can be overwhelming and very uncomfortable. I was put on large amounts of medication and was always in the hospital for one treatment or another. If I wasn't having an IBD treatment of some kind, I was having surgery. I was scared. I didn't know anything about IBD and my doctors had given me all the information they had at their disposal. I learned what ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are, but I didn't learn how to deal with them. Pamphlets, books and even sitting down and talking to your doctor can only teach you so much. If I wanted to learn anymore about my disease or how my family and I were going to handle it on a day-to-day basis, I had to do research for myself.

I started surfing the Internet and found lots of information on medications, advice on nutrition and exercise and ideas for how to live with the disease. All of these things were important but none of them taught me what I needed most, and that was how to live as normal a life as possible. I came across several IBD blogs where people would talk about their diseases and how they live every day with IBD. Some of these IBD blogs were interesting and some even helpful, but they were also very repetitive and most strayed away from the subject of IBD. I was reading through lots of blogs and not really learning anything.

Then I came across a website called "Shaz's Ostomy Pages." "Ostomy" refers to a bag that is worn outside of the body when the disease can't be controlled any other way. Although this is the main subject of this IBD blog, it is not limited to ostomies only. This is a place where people can come to talk about their diseases, how they live everyday with IBD and sometimes just to vent. I joined this IBD blog more than four years ago and have become so involved that it's unusual for me not to sign on at least once a day and post something. The people on this IBD blog have become somewhat of a family to me. We've all learned so much about each other that when one of us vents or is having a bad day because we can't cope with our disease from time to time, the others know how to comfort us. I have not come across any other IBD blog where I feel comfortable enough to share some of the most embarrassing and humiliating aspects of inflammatory bowel disease that I've had to endure. Everyone on this blog has been diagnosed with either Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis or has worn an ostomy. The support and empathy family and friends have to offer is comforting, but at some point you want to talk to someone who truly does understand what you're going through. This IBD blog also has threads for family members that want to learn how to live with someone suffering from an IBD. It is a useful resource to educate yourself about IBDs and it is also a place where you can find comfort in knowing that you are not alone. This is one of the best IBD blogs I have come across online and would recommend it to anyone suffering from any IBD, be it Crohn's or ulcerative colitis, or both, like me.