Cape Town - Told to refrain from most forms of physical activity by health-care workers, a programme, “Ostomates On The Move”, aims to empower people living with an ostomy pouching system to be “functionally fit”, in order to continue to engage in not only everyday tasks but fulfilling activities.
Ostomates On The Move was started by Faizel Jacobs in August last year, with the programme facilitated by the Run Lab SA in Diep River.
Jacobs said the programme was to encourage people to become more active and that living full and productive lives were possible.
“We are told don’t lift, you can’t lift because you’re going to get a hernia, but how do I do that as a father of a four-year-old. Do I not pick up my child now and that is why we have this functional fitness programme. So how do we become strong, how do we learn to brace our core,” Jacobs said.
What was debilitating for ostomates was when they did not have the appropriately prescribed poaching system.
Shaheda Dramat, 62, from Belhar, Iman Zanele Omar, 28, from Salt River, and Ayoub Ebrahiem, 50, from Athlone are part of the programme.
Omar, 28, experienced stomach pain and because this had occurred after having contracted Covid-19, it was thought to be a side effect of the infection. She was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.
“It was quite a journey from there in terms of trying to manage the disease for me specifically because I was a very rare case. And then in December 2022, there was not much more that they could do and so my colon needed to be removed and I was fitted for an ileostomy,” Omar said.
“I realised my fears were just in my head. There’s so much more that we can do. Now we’re lifting things and we’re doing all sorts of activities but it’s also helped my confidence and to have people that know what you’re going through, doing it with you. And then after my second surgery in November, I felt the recovery was much faster because I was doing the programme.”
Omar referred to the condition as largely an invisible disability, which is also treated as such overall within the health system, lacking prioritisation.
“I'm in public health and so I have to get ostomy bags from the community hospital in District Six and sometimes they don't have my size or the specific bag that I need and then I have to come again.”
There was also not enough funding and research into how to properly manage life with an ostomy.
What makes the programme significant is that it collates data by documenting the progress of the participants for research, she added.
Biokineticist at the Rub Lab SA Duncan Mosie said the programme has a physical and mental component, but the focus is on improving core strength and stability.“The programme aims to provide ostomates with the confidence to not only experience life but to live life to the fullest; without having to second-guess any action throughout daily life…”
Cape Argus