Update: Nine months of Ryze Coffee

 

Image via AS Phillips

Before you jump to a conclusion

Nope, I haven’t given up the daily consumption of one of my two fav beverages, cofffffeeeee! Mmmmm! The other is ginger ale/ginger beer. It's a rare thing for me to go a day without both. Once upon a time I incorporated chaga-java into my coffee habit, and enjoyed it a lot, for reasons I can't remember, I gravitated back to regular coffee and eventually stopped ordering the chaga.

However, after trying Ryze for six weeks, I've decided it's a keeper!

What interested me in Ryze?

After surviving a colorectal cancer challenge, I was determined to be as proactive as possible in increasing my overall health (especially my gut-health) and doing it as organically as possible. Due to a colon resection with a permanent colostomy, my digestion ability slowed in some areas, causing obstructions. 

Before getting a colostomy, I was able to eat a wider variety of high-fiber, low carb foods. About a year into recovery, that changed. Now, three years later, I’ve had to eliminate the trouble-makers from my diet due to negative gut reaction. 

This isn’t the case for all ostomates. Some can eat whatever they want without any ill effects. 

In researching what natural foods that tended to help prevent the type of gut-challenges I'd been dealing with, Ryze mushroom coffee kept popping up in my searches. It was pricey but claimed only a cup a day would be sufficient to energize and increase focus. It was said to play well with low-carb and keto diets and tasted great.

I figured it couldn't hurt to try it. 

What’s in it?

Ryze is a coffee made of a variety of mushrooms, blended into a smooth powder. 

It has 1 gram of total carbohydrates per teaspoon, 1 gram of total fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 0 milligrams of sodium, 0 grams of dietary fiber, and 0 grams of protein. 

Ingredients

☙ Arabica coffee

☙ Organic mushrooms: cordyceps, lion's mane, Reishi, shiitake, turkey tail, and king trumpet. The mushrooms are sustainably grown in California.

☙ Organic MCT (medium chain triglycerides) oil

☙ Organic coconut milk

Benefits

☙ Ryze is BIG on antioxidants: Medicinal mushrooms boast an ungodly amount of antioxidants. Decades of scientific research show how antioxidants help protect you from all kinds of harmful problems including premature aging.

☙ Immunity boosts:  Wards off infections and harmful bacteria. Medicinal mushrooms can help stimulate the immune system in such a way that they strengthen immune response and have been found to exert anti-tumor and anti-cancer activity against harmful cells in the body.

☙ Increased brain health: Improves focus and is beneficial for brain health. Most mushroom coffee has less caffeine than coffee but focuses your brain in a different, better way. Some medicinal mushrooms have been found to repair and regenerate neurons and improve cognitive function.  

☙ Increased energy levels without the jitters: Caffeine can improve focus, but in excess can cause jitters and elevated anxiety. Thus, adding in stress-regulating adaptogenic mushrooms mitigates the energy spikes and leaves a jitter-free no crash feeling of awesome steady focus and energy.

☙ Keeps digestion calm as a low-acidity coffee alternative: Special compounds in medicinal mushrooms act as prebiotics in the digestive system and directly help improve digestive health. They patrol the gut and help keep the gut microbiome free of bad bacteria.  

☙ Improves organ health because it's rich in antioxidants and essential vitamins

Additional info...

Medicinal mushrooms, especially Reishi, contain vital nutrients that can prevent liver toxicity and lower glucose levels, directly affecting heart health. Medicinal mushrooms are also antivirals, antimicrobials, and contain antioxidants that pump up the body’s natural defenses to fight disease.

Ryze is a winner!

One of my friends asked me what Ryze tastes like. Although many reviewers said it tasted exactly like coffee to them, that wasn’t the case for me. It tastes like enhanced coffee, enhanced in a good way!

It has a definite coffee flavor, with a hint of hazelnut. It's rich, smooth and minimally acidic.  

The reports of user experiencing a decrease in fatigue and an increase in energy are true. That’s been a huge help due to the challenge of chronic fatigue worsening after getting an ostomy. In order to decrease symptoms of GI disorder, exercise has been essential. Before Ryze, I was losing ground in the fatigue battle. Within the time I’ve been using Ryze, I’ve been more able to maintain therapeutic workouts, at least most days. 

Where to get it

Most often I purchase mine from Amazon. There have been reports of pseudo-Ryze products floating around on Amazon and eBay, however, I still order mine from Amazon and have found no difference in the taste or effects. I did order Ryzo once, a less expensive alternative. It looked different, lacked in flavor and required twice the amount per cup.

I'll stick with Ryze.  

"Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine"." Ezekiel 47:12

 The wrap!

Thanks for visiting! If you’ve had your own experience with Ryze, I encourage you to share it with us in the comments! Your interest and input is always appreciated and other readers may find it very helpful.

Shalom

OstomyLife: Calamine lotion--an ostomate essential!

 Image via AS Phillips

OstomyLife and skin irritation

It’s one of those distressing aspects of ostomy life. Some ostomates never have an issue with it, but lots of us have to deal with it at least occasionally, or far more often than any of us would like.

I’ve been an ostomate for about a year and a half. A long time ago I developed a sensitivity to medical adhesives. Since our stoma pouching systems are kept in place with adhesive, I began experiencing acute skin reaction with breakdown and bleeding in multiple areas attached to my pouching system.

It was distressing and painful and I dreaded every pouch change.

Thankfully, there are some wonderful folks in a global ostomate group I belong to on Facebook, and they helped navigate me in seeking out alternatives that I wasn’t as reactive to, and alternative medicines that helped heal up the occasional flare-ups.

My best medicine for skin breakdown

Even tho I use a skin-barrier spray, I still have an occasional tear when removing my phlange or protective barrier sheet, from around my stoma. I also get inflamed, weepy skin around my stoma if there’s been any output coming into contact with the adjacent skin.

I wear a two-piece drainable pouching system, specifically the Mio Sensura Convex by Coloplast. Since I don’t have to remove the pouch to drain and rinse it nearly as often as a one-piece system, sometimes I’m not aware that my skin’s developing breakdown until I remove the whole thing or begin to have pain near my stoma site.

I’ve used paste and wax rings in an attempt to prevent output from getting under the phlange and touching my skin, but so far, it still happens often enough for me to keep a remedy on hand to help me heal up quickly and provide additional protection between pouch changes.

Calamine lotion has been that solution for over a year! Below are some points I love about it.

• Doesn’t sting when applied to irritated/broken skin
• Easily applied
• Easily portable
• Highly recommended by other veteran ostomates, with similar skin challenges
• Inexpensive
• No Rx needed
• Works great!

Proceed with caution!

If you’ve never used Calamine lotion, I urge you to use it in a small, test area before applying it to any irritated skin because some folks have an allergy to one or more of it’s ingredients.

Basic calamine lotion contains...

• Iron oxide
• Powdered calamine mineral
• Purified water
• Zinc oxide

If you’re not allergic to it and want to try it for yourself, it can be applied with only your fingertips. However, my own preference is to apply it with cotton swabs. 

It’s pink and chalky as it dries. The cotton swabs help keep potential mess to a minimum.

Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.”

They took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

2Kings 20:7

World Messianic Bible Translation

 The wrap!

My hope is that even tho you’ve read this, you don’t have an ostomy to deal with. But, if you do, I hope you’ve found it helpful for yourself, or maybe someone you know who is either challenged with skin breakdown, or even caring for someone who has an ostomy and suffering with ostomy-induced skin issues.

‘Til next time,

Shalom!

OstomyLife: Keeping the wig-outs at bay

Image via johnhain of Pixabay

Smarter, not harder

The ideology of working smarter, not harder, is diamond. In every field I’ve worked, when I discovered a more efficient way of doing things, without sacrificing accuracy, I did my best to present it and convince the higher-ups to implement it. Amazingly, I often countered resistance, not from upper management, but from those on the same level, or lower, than I.

Their reasoning?

“We’ve always done it this/that way...”

On the bright side, for the times my idea was accepted, once it was implemented, and folks got used to it, they appreciated the time and effort it saved them, especially in environments that required lots of tasking and hectic schedules.

Presently

In June of 2022, I had surgery to remove cancer and have a stoma built into my abdomen.

Stoma (per Google):  An artificial opening made into a hollow organ, especially one on the surface of the body leading to the gut or trachea.

My colostomy is non-reversible.

Colostomy (per Google): A surgical operation in which a piece of the colon is diverted to an artificial opening in the abdominal wall, to bypass a damaged part of the colon.

Image via United Ostomy Associations of America

Now that I’ve got one seems I’m perpetually learning to navigate life in ways I’ve never had to before.

No pressing my abdomen against the sink when washing something.

Sleeping on my side or back. No more tummy-snoozing.

I gotta keep a stoma-supply pack with me whenever I leave the house, even on short trips.

Gotta ensure it's filled with more than I think I’ll need and if I have to be away for a good while, I often take a change of clothing with me, in event things get messy.

I’ve started calling pouching system (stoma device) failures, bag-tastropies. 

Intervention

Confidence in the pouching systems ostomates (folks with ostomies) use, is needed, but sadly, even the best of the best pouching systems can (and usually do) fail. All sorts of things can cause it. Damp skin when placing it, thick output, very thin output, or even a defect somewhere in the system.

Not all incidents are terrible and difficult to sort, but at the time, they at least feel like an epic event, until the immediate response of panic subsides. 

I’ve read some horror stories by other ostomates that were sincerely terrible, and seen some incidents shared on YouTube that made me cringe!

In general, if it’s a big failure and we’re a good distance from home, without a change of clothes or a nearby bathroom, equipped to handle the situation, it’s a big challenge to clean up and get a new pouching system in place. The ordeal is as emotionally taxing as it can be (for many) physically, at least that’s my experience. Mortified is a good description.

I can’t imagine how difficult stoma life must be for ostomates with poor eyesight or restricted mobility. My heart breaks for them.

I can usually see well enough (and even carry a magnetized mirror with me), to remove and replace a pouching system. They have to be placed very carefully to prevent injury to our stomas and reduce the risk of leakage.

Disaster response

Past that, there’s the cleanup. It can be a huge challenge because we have to hold one hand (with a cloth, paper towel, whatever we can grab that's clean) over our stomas. We use our free hand to wash, apply whatever products we might have to use (anti-sting skin-barrier spray or wipes, paste and sometimes a few other things. Then allow for our skin to dry before putting the new system in place.

The struggle is real for me, even at home. I can't help but wonder how folks who have limited hand usage, or maybe even prosthetic hands, manage ostomy life.

Image via StepIntoFuture of Pixabay

Oh, the excitement!

The latest bag-tastrophe taught me to ensure my portable stoma kit is carrying more supplies than I think I might need, and a change of clothing. Even if there’s a bathroom, where we can rinse things out, wearing them wet and having to step outside in frigid weather was just... 

Yeesh!!!

Image via Rollstein of Pixabay

Remembering the good, when things don’t seem so good

I’m thankful it wasn’t worse. It was more than bad enough, but still could have been worse. I’m also thankful my friend (who was driving me), stayed as calm as a windless sea during the whole episode. That was an absolute blessing because the more anxious I feel, the more my gastrointestinal system reacts to the stress (not in good ways).

Seeing she wasn’t wigging out helped my stress to a minimum, allowing me to focus on getting myself cleaned up and sorted with a new pouch as fast as possible. 

I’m happy to report that I lived through another something I used to think I’d just die over.

In the know

As is, I feel obligated to tell most folks I spend time with (that aren’t already aware) about my stoma. Things like...

• It can make rude noises that I can’t always hear, nor do I have any control over it.
• My pouch’s filter occasionally works, and it’s not always at a good time. 
• We have to pull over at the nearest place with a restroom because I’m suddenly, and without warning, at maximum capacity.
• Thank you but I have to decline. My tummy’s feeling wonky and I have to stick with safe food today.
• Nope, I can’t spend the night, but when I get a van, I can camp in the driveway! (Vans are wonderful vehicles when folks with stomas need to be away from home for lengthy periods.)

That’s at least a few points of the heads-up speech some of us give when we feel the need to warn those we’re with about what hanging out with us might entail.

Shook

This post came about because I’m not quite past the shook feeling from the last incident. The memories and associated anxiety tend to linger. It happens every time.

Yup. I do realize the correct term is shaken but, shook is still the better description so I’m engaging artistic license.

The culprit

Before I had the colostomy, I didn’t have trouble with intestinal blockages, but that changed after surgery. Since then, I’ve had several episodes. Sometimes the blockages are due to food reactions. Others are prompted by intestinal inflammation, an aspect of the gastrointestinal disorder I was born with. 

They cause abdominal discomfort and output challenges due to gas pressure or sudden overfill in the pouching system. These cause the adhesive on the flange to pull away from the skin around the stoma, which allows for leakage.

Remedies

After many months of being bombarded with medications that caused intense gut reactions, I’ve been researching how other ostomates manage these blockages. I incorporate those that work well. Sometimes they work fast, but usually take a few days. One that tends to be my go-to, is seasoned vegetable broth. I add vegan bacon bits, sesame or olive oil to it, and sometimes blend in a tablespoon of nut butter, per soup mug.

It tastes great. It’s filling. It helps decrease intestinal inflammation and break down the blockage.

Years ago, one of my doctors prescribed low-impact jogging. While my health has permitted it, I’ve done it and it does help keep down the inflammation in my GI system. It’s a slow pace, but when I’ve not been interrupted by bouts of illness, I can maintain a steady pace for a good distance--my record being five miles.

Since surgery, I made it up to just under a mile a few weeks ago. I’ll increase the distance soon as the mile is comfortable, even on the uphills. 

Resources

Ostomates, and their loved ones, have access to a large compilation of online resources, where they can learn how to live with a stoma as well as discover products and services available to help them with the challenges they face.

I’ve listed a few below...

United Ostomy Associations of America

American Cancer Society

Stoma and Ostomy Support Group (Facebook)

Ostomy Inspire

The wrap!

Thanks for making it this far! I didn’t mean for any of this to come across as complaining.

I felt the need to write it so I could do my part in helping raise awareness of the challenges ostomates sometimes face in public. Too, I want to be supportive of other ostomates (and their loved ones), who're maybe new to stoma life and are maybe feeling alone or isolated in it.

This is my way of raising my hand, to let them know they’re not. As for me, I have the Lord Jesus Christ, who has comforted, encouraged and strengthened me through every bit of this journey and maintains with me moving forward.

For I, Jehovah thy God, Am strengthening thy right hand, He who is saying to thee, 'Fear not, I have helped thee.' 

Isaiah 41:13

(Young’s Literal Translation)

My thanks for your visit today, and as always, for your support of the independent blogging community.

Shalom

Ostomates: An emerging, supportive community

 

Do you know an ostomate?

Image via Gerd Altmann of Pixabay

June–2022

I woke up from surgery with five missing organs, a new opening in my abdomen, accessing my coon, and some new medical hardware encasing it.

I had anticipated the abdominal change and hardware, but my excellent surgeon, Dr. Deane Smith, soon informed me that the changes weren’t reversible, as we’d hoped. 

Crud... 

I felt a heavy disappointment and sometimes still do. On the bright side, disappointment doesn’t rule. Gratitude does.

I’ve had GID (Gastro-Intestinal Disorder) since birth, which made life challenging for as far back as I remember. Before my own memories, my elders remembered and filled me in when I got older. 

Persistent abdominal discomfort, bouts of nausea and an ever-increasing need to know where the bathrooms were located in every building I entered, so I could get to them quickly. The illness made work and social activities difficult and as I grew older, often impossible. 

By the time I was 55, my time was often restricted to short trips and staying near home and was on a constant dose of meds to help me tolerate the GID challenges. An additional complication brought on by the illness was consistent bouts of fatigue and mind-fog. 

In late autumn of 2021, I ended up needing emergency surgery, which led to the discovery of rectal cancer. 

My new normal

I opted to delay the surgery to remove it in order to have a chance of shrinking the tumor, hopefully making it small enough to allow me to have a reversible colostomy. 

I had four weeks of chemotherapy, Monday through Friday, and six weeks of radiation, Monday through Friday. The medical protocol did manage to shrink the tumor, but not enough to allow for a reversible colostomy. 

Unless I get a miraculous healing, I’ll be wearing a stoma-device (bag) attached to my abdomen for the rest of my life.

I’m not thrilled about it, but again, I’m thankful for it. It’s a small price to pay to be cancer-free and to have at least a good bit more freedom in being active and not as location-restricted. 

I had three more months of chemotherapy post-op and didn’t tolerate it well, so most of my days were spent between the hospital (thank you Deaconess Gateway Oncology and Infusion Center and Chemo Buddies!) and home.

I had excellent care, not just technically, but personally and even spiritually. Most of my care team are Christians and more than once joined me in prayer for both myself and others. 

Getting acquainted

During treatment, and after surgery, I became a part of a couple communities new to me. The one I’m featuring in this post is Ostomates, meaning anyone with an ostomy, and even their loved ones. I’d done a fair bit of research on ostomies before surgery, but kept it limited so I’d not be stressing over it. 

When I learned mine was permanent, I began engaging in more depthy research, via YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Once I connected and began interacting with these groups, life began to get easier, even with all the challenges of life with a new stoma. 

Within a few months, I began interacting with other ostomates within the social networks. I learned sooooo much from them that I didn’t learn while hospitalized. Every hurdle I’d had to overcome, many ostomates had already surpassed them and shared the information on how they did it to help newbies, like me, be able to overcome them, too.

The groups weren’t comprised of only folks with stomas (ostomies), but also their caregivers, many of which are parents of infants who’d had to undergo ostomy surgery, sometimes in less than 24 hours after their birth. Many others were parents of toddlers or older children with stomas.

The myriad of complications new ostomates encounter makes up a pretty large list, and it seemed everything on that list was represented in the social network group members. The information isn’t always easy to share with others, and yet thousands have done it anyway, even to sharing images of their stomas and the medical devices they use to accommodate them.

Moving forward

I’ll be sharing some of the businesses, organizations and other types of stoma-support information in upcoming posts. Today, tho, I’d like to introduce a new friend, I made during my quest for knowledge on all things stoma-related.

His name is Jai and I found him via his YouTube channel, Indian Ostomy Boy. Like me, he’s a rectal cancer survivor with a permanent colostomy. Jai is a veteran of stoma life, having had his diagnosis, treatment and surgery several years ago.

His attitude is consistently positive and I’ve loved getting acquainted with his life as an ostomate in both rural India as well as the city. He’s an accomplished yet humble man who makes himself available to those needing information on what to expect, available options and how to live their best life, even with a stoma.

I hope you’ll please check out his YouTube channel just for the sake of learning, as well as supporting him as an independent business owner, and in addition, in event you know someone who’s part of the ostomate community. 

You can find Jai’s content in these locations...

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Working together in community support and educating others 

The ostomate community is dedicated to not only helping ostomates thrive in stoma-life, but also to raise awareness about stoma-life to everyone, helping folks understand the challenges ostomates live with—especially those that can be especially distressing when they occur in public places.

Examples include stoma-device failures that can make for an embarrassing mess, or (one of which I experienced recently) stoma-produced sound effects that ostomates have no control over.

I’ve read several recent accounts of what I deemed to be social horror stories that ostomates experienced. They were bad enough that I felt great sympathy for them and hope I never experience similar situations. 

Dismissing the rude

My bag-tastrophie prevention kit, compliments of my family, for Christmas

Image via AS Phillips

Not one person has yet been rude to me about any of the aspects of stoma-life. That comes down to my life being truly saturated with God-given, compassionate and accommodating people.

Yup—it’s good to be blessed!

“...doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; 4  each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.” 

Philippians 2: 3-4

World Messianic Bible Translation

The wrap!

Thank you for visiting today!

I pray this edition has been valuable and informative for you! If you have information you’d like to share on the topic, please leave us a comment! Your interaction is always appreciated.

‘Til next time,

Shalom

OstomyLife: Those inspirational littles!

 

Image via AS Phillips

Sooooo many ostomates!

When I first discovered other ostomates (people with ostomies (aka stomas), I learned the global ostomate community was a huge blessing. They freely share their knowledge and experience with folks who are brand new to stoma life and are just beginning their adventures in how to live with a stoma. Some adapt quickly. Others are hampered by a plethora of health challenges making it very difficult. Others are caregivers to folks (like children) who can’t manage their stomas on their own.

Now that I’ve passed my one-year anniversary, stoma life is much easier for me, but those first eight months were often frustrating and sometimes seemed saturated with both physical and emotional difficulties and disasters.

Thankfully, the ostomate community on Facebook helped me through that phase, teaching me what I needed to know, and helping me to problem-solve and be proactive in learning more about self-care and attitude adjustment, as needed. 

It’s always good to remember we’re often not alone in our challenges. Other folks are sometimes dealing with the same thing, and often, much worse than what we’re dealing with. A great example I can plug in here is my friend Dora, an ostomate since her late 60s (she’s now in her early 70s), stays physically active, regularly spends time with friends and family, mows her own lawn, attends church and picks up others to take along with her. She does all that with not just one, but TWO ostomies! She’s survived both bowel and bladder cancer and has an ostomy to function for both!

Teaching me the ropes...

Veteran ostomates engaging in social media, consistently interact with not just new ostomates, but caregivers who are also new to helping care for someone with a stoma. I learned so much from the Facebook group’s comments and quickly realized that I had it really good, in spite of the beginning issues in managing my pouching system and keeping my abdominal skin intact.

I learned about other products specifically made for active folks who have stomas like mine, which is nearly flat, small in circumference, with a half-moon-shaped rise to the left. They also taught me more about adhesives for folks who have skin sensitivity to it.

They taught me all about medical adhesive remover, skin barrier spray and how to top it off with a light layer of calamine lotion if I developed a breakdown. 

While learning all this and putting it into practice, I was learning something equally important. The colostomy wasn’t a curse. It didn’t have to be something I regarded as disgusting but something that saved my life. Something to be very thankful for.

(In the beginning, I really was disgusted with everything about it and had to pray constantly for help with an attitude adjustment. The future seemed pretty dismal--stuck at home, other than for medical visits and spending a ton of time in the loo, on pouch duty. 

My outlook became grim.

But, the Lord has a way of helping us see beyond our own struggles, especially when He introduces us to others who are enduring similar things, often much worse than what we’re going through.

Discovering the littles...

Beyond the grownup sphere, there are the children. Some are infants who’d had to have ostomy surgery the day after they were born!

The grownups inspired me, but the littles, their predicament broke my heart and at the same time, caused the smiles to erupt!  

Sometimes, a parent would post a pic of their child, displaying their little tummies wearing their pouching system. Some were all good with it. Others were hoping other ostomates would post a pic of their own bellies, with their pouching system in place. These were usually kids from about seven years old, into their early teens, who were new ostomates and thought they were ugly and gross since getting their stomas.

The response to these kids, or their parents' requests, brought ostomates out by the hundreds, to proudly display their own abdomens and pouching systems, ensuring the littles that they had nothing to be ashamed of–that because of their stomas, they’d be able to live a full life instead of being as sick as they were before getting it.

It worked. It encouraged and emboldened the littles and had the same effect on me!

Not saying I don’t get frustrated over my stoma these days. I do. But, I maintain a steady dose of reality-check every time I see new folks, young and mature, in the ostomates group. They remind me of how blessed I am for both the stoma and the products I use that help keep me safe and among the living.

Lemme show you what I mean...

Below is a video of a little man named Elijah. He was very sick with UC (ulcerative colitis) before he had a stoma placed and part of his intestines removed. 

In the vid, he gets interviewed and does a great job explaining what his stoma is and how excited he is over his new type of pouching system because it has velcro. I grinned when I saw that he and I both use the same type of system.

This vid was made about a decade ago, but, it maintains as an inspiration to ostomates and their families. 

Last, props to Coloplast, the company that produces these life-changing products!

Now, here’s Elijah!

He’s one of thousands providing a bright reminder, that much of the time, things could be worse. 

 ⁶David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the souls of all the people were grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters; but David strengthened himself in the LORD his God. 

1st Samuel 30:5 

(World Messianic Bible Translation)

The wrap!

Thank you for visiting today!

It’s my hope that even if stoma life isn’t something you’re living with, or even familiar with, you’ve found the information interesting.

Shalom