Supportive voices to allay the fear, reduce the shame

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/11/2024 (376 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lorrie Pismenny was two years into her retirement and aboard a Caribbean cruise when an illness threatened to derail her plans for future travel.

The ship’s doctor told her she had ulcerative colitis, a diagnosis that doctors confirmed when she returned to Winnipeg. Pismenny spent three years trying to manage the inflammatory bowel disease, which kept her tied to her house so that she could be near a bathroom.

Finally, Pismenny’s doctor recommended she receive an ostomy — a surgically created opening made into the bowel (or urinary tract) for the purpose of eliminating waste materials from the body. Most people with an ostomy wear a discreet odour-proof pouch to collect body waste.

Pismenny had spent three years researching ostomies, so she was ready. Nonetheless, health-care professionals suggested she check out the Ostomy Manitoba Association, a volunteer-based organization founded in 1972 that assists people facing life with gastrointestinal or urinary diversions.

So, Pismenny started attending the association’s monthly support group. Her main question for the group was, “What do I need to do to get on another boat or another plane?”

That was September 2000. Since then, the North Kildonan resident has resumed her travels — and become an instrumental part of the association.

Now 82 years old, Pismenny has trained new volunteers, served as secretary and was appointed president for more than a decade.

She edits the association’s newsletter and is currently hard at work digitizing minutes from the association’s first 18 years.

She does it all because she enjoys helping other ostomates.

“When we are able to get a person to walk through the door or join us on Zoom, it’s just so amazing the effect or the help we can offer them,” she says.

One of the association’s key endeavours is a peer support program that pairs trained visitors with new patients. These visits allow new patients to ask questions and receive support and encouragement. New patients are usually relieved to find that they are not alone.

“They are afraid of smelling or of the pouch showing under their clothing or not being able to do normal activities like running or swimming,” Pismenny says. “Meeting another person who is in their shoes is like night and day for them, and I love watching that transformation.”

According to Ostomy Society Canada, about 13,000 ostomy surgeries are performed in the country each year. It is estimated that there are more than 150,000 Canadians with an ostomy.

“It gives me really a good feeling that what we’re doing in our organization is needed, it’s special and it works.”–Lorrie Pismenny

There’s still a stigma attached to having an ostomy, Pismenny says, though there shouldn’t be. Having an ostomy doesn’t shorten a person’s lifespan and people can enjoy the same activities they participated in before their surgery.

“I can do anything I used to do. And I know for a fact other people have run marathons, they horseback ride, they scuba dive, they are members of volunteer fire departments, they’ve gone back to work, they’ve had babies.… It’s just a way of life now for most of us — like brushing your teeth in the morning.”

Pismenny continues to volunteer because she’s seen the difference the association makes.

“I had a spouse come up to me and say that because of their involvement with the chapter, it saved their marriage,” Pismenny says. “Patients and visitors often become friends through their connection. I hear this on a continuing basis and it gives me really a good feeling that what we’re doing in our organization is needed, it’s special and it works.”

For more information, visit ostomymanitoba.ca.

If you know a special volunteer, email aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca.