\n<\/p>\n
In your interview with Tracey Emin about A Second Life, her forthcoming major exhibition at Tate Modern, and other matters (\u2018Regrets? Number one: smoking. Number two: taking it up the wrong hole\u2019: Tracey Emin on reputation, radical honesty \u2013 and Reform, 14 February), she\u00a0comments on the difficulties in\u00a0her life now that she is living without\u00a0a bladder.<\/p>\n
While data is patchy, about 100 people a week undergo this surgery in the UK, commonly known as a urostomy. For all those people waiting to have this surgery it is a traumatic time, and I think it\u2019s important to point out that this often life-saving surgery usually has\u00a0much a much better outcome than Tracey has had.<\/p>\n
People get back to living full and active lives, doing whatever they did before surgery. While the first few weeks after surgery are a steep learning curve, most of us settle into just a slightly different routine.<\/p>\n
This includes needing to go to the loo just every couple of hours or so, and having the benefit of never needing to go to the loo during the night, which many older men in particular see as a positive boon! I am writing not to contradict Tracey Emin\u2019s account of her stoma problems. We all have our own cancer and stoma journeys. I just want to add another perspective.<\/p>\n I had a very similar operation, at about the same time, and have been living with a urinary stoma bag. Luckily for me, it has had little\u00a0impact on my life. I find I empty it every two-and-a-half to four hours, rarely have trouble with\u00a0leakage, and I don\u2019t need to use my night bag during the day. I\u00a0travel widely.<\/p>\n I am not boasting \u2013 I just want to put another experience down in case accounts are being read by someone contemplating a stoma\u00a0operation. Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/em><\/strong>email<\/em><\/strong> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/em><\/strong>letters<\/em><\/strong> section.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In your interview with Tracey Emin about A Second Life, her forthcoming major exhibition at Tate Modern, and other matters (\u2018Regrets? Number one: smoking. Number two: taking it up the wrong hole\u2019: Tracey Emin on reputation, radical honesty \u2013 and Reform, 14 February), she\u00a0comments on the difficulties in\u00a0her life now that she is living without\u00a0a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1295,615,17134,37,257,23201,14349],"class_list":{"0":"post-44833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-bad","9":"tag-bag","10":"tag-emin","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-isnt","13":"tag-stoma","14":"tag-tracey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Nick Berry<\/strong>
Gloucestershire Urostomy Group<\/em><\/p>\n
Celia Murray <\/strong>
Leicester<\/em><\/p>\n