Just in case you needed another issue on your radar screen, unless you weren’t worried enough about the current state of affairs if you took a break from looking at the COVID-19 count, the Electoral College count or the temperature drop count, here is something else to consider. Please, please chew your food during the holidays! To quote (think “Row, row your boat”) one of my friend’s mother-in-law, who isn’t even Jewish:
Chew, chew, chew your food
Gently through the meal
The more you chew, the less you’ll eat.
The better you will feel.
Why you may ask? The answer is extremely important for Ostomates but affects all of us. The simplest answer is when food isn’t chewed sufficiently, it becomes more difficult to break down and leave the body. That will make any of us uncomfortable. But an Ostomate may wind up with a blockage that needs, at the very least, hours to rectify itself, with agonizing pain, or hospitalization to prevent a perforation. Anyone who has had a blockage will tell you it is more than memorable, it is terrifying. One doesn’t know what will be the outcome and is at the mercy of the “food” that has a terrible time passing through the system.
Our teeth are our best tool for prevention of a blockage caused by food. (This is not to be confused with mechanical blockages that most likely have a medical etiology.) These food blockages may happen immediately after a meal within a few hours, as food makes its way through to the small intestines. But rather than worry about that, think of chewing as Prevention 101.
Emergency Rooms, crowded to the gills with Covid patients right now, are usually on guard at this time of year for those who eat nuts, as an example, and don’t chew them well. In truth, anything can become what is referred to as a bolus, or a rounded mass of chewed food, which isn’t able to be passed once swallowed. Ostomates have a narrowed system due to the creation of the stoma, so we have to be ever more mindful.
Additionally, those with diverticulosis need to chew well to prevent diverticulitis, an infection of the pouches in the colon. This can have serious repercussions, so please, join me in being vigilant. We can eat almost everything, as long as we commit ourselves to the importance of chewing it well…which leads to greater enjoyment, anyway!
I wish everyone a safe and healthy Thanksgiving. The days are passing and we are moving closer to the time when we will be able to resume contact with those we love and miss…vaccines are on the way. We will look back on 2020 and wonder how we got through it, but we will get through it. We are strong, we are determined, we are resilient, we are smart, and we are compassionate. We wear our masks to protect others and they do the same for us. We take pride in our ability to persevere and acknowledge our connection and responsibility for others. We may be eating our turkey in smaller groups than in years past, but we will look forward to days when we can chew our food well with others!
The last paragraphs were uplifting and brought me a bit of comfort. Have a colostomy since April 2020 for perforated bowel secondary to acute diverticulitis. The road to recovery was a bit bumpy dealing with skin erosion issues, supply issues, dr and nurse issues. I am having my first colonoscopy in a few weeks, and seriously thinking about NOT having reversal surgery because of the complications associated with the procedure. The fear of the unknown. I wish I had been better educated by the drs and nurses so that I could feel more in control of this life changing event, but all of the drs appear to be in a hurry and the nurses flat out don’t know much about colostomy’s. Yes, I was a nurse for 23 years so I know a little bit. Just went to a new doc yesterday and thought I could ask about diet and normal ostomy bowel patterns but he had his agenda which was schedule a colonoscopy and so maybe after we know what the colon looks like I can get more info. Thank you for your blog posts I’m going to try and read them all.