Hi, my name is Charlotte I’m 37 from Llanelli, Wales in the UK. I’m a wife to my hubby of 17 years and a mum to four little darlings, 17, 14, 13 and 8 and if that was not enough we also have two cats and two dogs and run a merchandise company. Then just to make my life even busier I also have my own blog ‘’Wonder Mami.” Life is really busy, but it got a whole lot busier when hubby got diagnosed with bowel cancer at age 38.
So, on top of everything else I had to add many appointments, operations, chemotherapy, several procedures and scans and caring for hubby through all this to my not so already busy life.
I had no idea what the following months had in store for me apart from many mixed emotions and lots of talking about pooh, and of course caring for hubby after his many examinations while he modeled sexy gowns and paper pants. On top of everything else at times I became his taxi driver, which was OK to start of with but like all men he would not stop moaning so I quit and passed the taxi driving over to his dad. As the months went by I became to realise that supporting hubby through bowel cancer was not all doom and gloom, it did bring the old smile and giggle.
Hubby had stage 3 bowel cancer, he had a 4 cm tumour in his bowel, which luckily had not spread. Due to where the tumour was he had to endure one hell of a big operation, which would result in him having his rectum removed and having an ileostomy, which basically means he will have a bag attached to his stomach that his pooh would go into and he had no control over whatsoever. He also had no control over his stoma farting which me and the kids found rather amusing.
After the tumour was removed and hubby had come round from the operation he was hilarious to watch and listen to and this continued in to the following day. He was so high on morphine and pain relief and it was so obvious he had lost all care and dignity. He was showing bits, doing things and saying things he would never say or show if it was not for being so high on morphine. It was great fun telling him what he had done when he came home from hospital, as he could not recall any of it. Due to the extent of the operation, hubby had a lovely stay in hospital and did not get dressed for near on a week, which meant a lot of bum and leg flashing!!
Due to loosing all dignity and modeling a sexy gown when going for a walk it was quite comical seeing hubby flashing his back side. He was far from bothered that his ass was on show. He just wanted to go for a walk to move his legs, resulting in me getting a lovely view of his bum and having a giggle as I made the nurses aware of his bum being on show and them then trying to cover him up with his gown.
Due to the position of the tumour hubby had to have his rectum removed, as a result of this he was given a temporary ileostomy bag. Or in the kids’ words a pooh bag on his tummy. The majority of the time the kids where oblivious to it and so was I. Sexy time was still sexy time that is until the bag decides to leak and when you are being called the chamber made as your changing bedding at 3am due to a leak.
When it came to the reversal of the ileostomy, it was time for hubby to model the sexy gown and pants again. Shame though when I went to visit him the day after he was up and dressed so there was no bum flashing. However he did give me something else to giggle about and that was when he farted, never in a million years did I think I would be overwhelmed and jumping around like some crazy person when I got a message to say that he had farted and then again at stupid hour to say that he had been for a pooh.
Having to go through the cancer journey sucks but it does have its moments when it makes you smile. I’ve been told so many times how strong I am, how well I’m doing and what a true inspiration I am to others for sharing my journey. I don’t feel any of these things. All I have done is get on with dealing with all things pooh and support hubby with beating cancer. From the start we have said we will not let cancer dictate to us, we will get on with life the best we can and that’s what we did.