Year In Review

Everyone else seems to be doing it, so why not I?

2007 marks the second consecutive year of ostomyathlete.com on the web. 2006 was a banner year for the site. I had originally planned on using the site as a medium to get my message of active, healthy living out to other ostomates. The site took on life of its own as people contacted me to share their stories and their resources.

The Active Ostomates section was created to give pages dedicated to inspiring stories from other survivors of intestinal disease, cancer, and just about any other issue that leads to urinary and bowel diversionary surgeries.

In February of 2006, I had emergency surgery for a bowel obstruction; I had had numerous hospitalizations over the past 5 years or so for problems like this caused by adhesions--scar tissue. My surgery was more complicated than originally thought, and my stay in hospital turned from 7 days into 21. I came home feeling deflated and really sick.

Rob Hill and I had registered for the 2006 running of the TransRockies Challenge and I needed to get back to training in a hurry. I wasn't able to salvage my term at university either, so I headed into summer school. I recovered quickly and focussed on cycling for the rest of the year. Rob and I were very succesful with our challengingIDEAS mission: we continue to get very good media coverage for our awareness campaigns.

Some highlights of the year:

The challengingIDEAS website received over 50,000 'hits' since July 2006.

CanadaHomeHealth.com arrived as title sponsor just in time to save the challengingIDEAS team from what could have proved a disasterous experience at TransRockies. Their considerable financial and logistical support meant we were better positioned to take care of our health matters, including showers and a dry place to sleep every night, while pushing our bodies and minds to the limits of endurance.

Ostomy|Athlete.com is growing: when the site started it was immediately at the top of Google search for words 'ostomy' and 'athlete' - it continued this trend including words like 'inspiration' and 'transforming'. In its first few months, ostomyathlete.com would average about 1,000 'hits' per month. December 2006 saw a new high of 18,426 'hits'! This site has been viewed over 100,000 times in 2006. This has really helped me with my goal of sharing inspiring stories from ostomates and informative resources for healthy, active living with the world.

In 2006, we welcomed Joel Ellis and Susan F to the Active Ostomates section. Their pages continue to be some of the most viewed by readers of the site.

A feature article appeared about my triathlon endeavours in the November/December issue of Triathlon Magazine Canada. This was the first mainstream triathlon media to pick up my story. Hopefully this just marks the beginning. Thanks to Brian Boake for his excellent writing.

Ostomy Canada Magazine published, in print, the challengingIDEAS blog from TransRockies. Hopefully we will see this happen in The Pheonix in 2007.

I always love hearing back from people who have contacted me in the past: see Tricia's success story.

In 2007, I hope to:

Continue the upwards trend in viewer numbers on the sites.

Provide new and relevant articles for ostomates on a variety of topics related to healthy, active living that speak to the mind, body and soul of our 'recovery'.

I will continue my awareness campaign while I pursue an Ironman finish and an appearance at the Ironman World Championships.

And perhaps the most ambititous project I will embark on is this: I believe that more people with ostomies will pursue healthy, active lifestyles if their costs associated with their ostomy products received better benefits from provincial government Pharmacare plans.

Since 2003, when the BC government introduced Fair Pharmacare, my overall costs have consistently decreased, while my overall health has consistently increased. Despite my hospitalization in 2006, my visits to the doctor and the number of tests ordered have significantly decreased. This represents an overall cost-savings to the government.

My education allows me an opportunity to study this issue further. I am going to seize this opportunity and take a leadership role in advancing harmonized Pharmacare plans for Canadians with ostomies so that everyone, no matter which province or territory they live in, has the same opportunity and support to make pro-active choices about their lifestyles in the interests of disease prevention.

Provincial governments are responsible for health care programs in Canada. They all have different support programs for people with ostomies. In this area, it makes sense that the programs provide similar benefits for a wide variety of reasons. Ostomy product wear-time should not be the deciding factor in lifestyle choices.