Playing Sports With a Stoma

I have always been greatly interested in everything sports related. Whether it’s watching sports, playing sports, talking about sports, or collecting sports memorabilia, I am all for it. Sports have always offered excitement and competitiveness that you can’t really find anywhere else in my opinion. And since my life was pretty boring growing up in the suburbs of a super small farming community, it made sense that sports was just about the most exciting thing that could happen to me. My favorite sport to play has always been soccer, which to some people is more of a sissy sport than anything. I am aware of many people’s opinions that soccer is a lame sport in comparison to basketball or football, but I just don’t share that sentiment. Soccer is extremely tough on the body and requires a lot of speed, endurance, and skill if you are playing at an actual competitive level. Anyways, my favorite sport to watch is hockey. I’ve never played actual hockey on a real team or anything, but I firmly believe that of all the sports that exist in the world today, ice hockey requires the most skill by far.

The thing that not a lot of people think about very often is that sometimes people with ostomies are interested in playing sports as well. If you are not sure what a stoma is, it is basically a surgically created colon that can act as a means of outputting the body’s waste into a bag called an ostomy pouch. If this sounds very gross to you, then I suggest you get off your high horse and acknowledge how hard it is for people with ostomies to overcome the stigma around having an ostomy pouch on them at all times. Many people are surprised to know that people who have a stoma can actually play sports too. I personally engage in a lot of physical activity, and I have had a stoma for the past 5 years of my life. When it comes down to it, a person with a stoma can do just about anything that a person without a stoma can do, it just might look a little different. For example, I would say that a person with a stoma can play most sports, except for the sports like hockey and football that involve mostly physical contact. 

You might even be able to get by in hockey with an ostomy, because I feel like most hits in hockey are targeted more towards the chest and back area, not really where an ostomy pouch is located. Football, however, I always steer clear of. All it takes is for one wrong tackle to rip off the skin barrier of your ostomy pouch, and you might see all sorts of horrible stuff come out onto the field right from your stoma. Honestly, I’m cringing just from thinking about it.

Beyond that, most sports are just fine for an ostomate to participate in. Most doctors will actually recommend that people who have had an ostomy stay active physically. Not only is it good for your digestive system and overall physical well being, but being active can also increase your mood and be very good for your mental health. So if you have a stoma, make sure you get out there and play some sports!