Living with Stoma and still active at 93 years

Today, as people celebrate World Ostomy Awareness day, a nonagenarian, V. Arockiasamy has been living with stoma for the past 28 years. This, in itself, is no mean achievement and leading a life that is still productive and filled with positivity is a miracle that 93-year-old Mr. Arockiasamy demonstrates till date.

A retired principal of Thambithottam Higher Secondary School, in Chinnalapatti, Gandhigram, he was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 1998. After bouts of chemotherapy, he was put on a stoma and his wife S. Aloysius Arockiasamy, a retired teacher, became his primary caretaker.

In lay words, an ostomy is a surgical procedure done to receive a stoma through which body waste passes through automatically and is collected in an external pouch.

“To me, it was a learning experience and I learnt a lot seeing my husband. After every cycle of chemotherapy, he would be up, writing or correcting projects submitted by his students. I never saw him, sit and rue ‘Why me?’. He stuck to his routine. This gave me confidence, and I was able to do tasks like emptying, cleaning, and changing the stoma bag,” she says, and her only regret is now, due to age catching up with her, she has to seek the help of a nurse.

The couple have four sons and with three of them settled abroad, Ms Aloysius was able to learn the process by interacting with doctors in Ireland.

For Arockiasamy, stoma is part and parcel of his life. “I don’t think about this extra fixture in my body. My day starts at 6 a.m. I walk for about half an hour inside the house. For fifteen minutes I do free hand exercises. Read the paper, listen to music, etc. Till two years ago, I would walk outside, but now I am a bit unsteady on my feet, so I refrain from going out,” he adds. In the early years of the diagnosis, the couple frequently travelled. “It has been only two years since I have been house-bound. But even now, once a month, we take an auto and go to church in Dindigul town,” he adds.

A religious family, strong faith and a good support system have kept them going. Their extended family and friends pitch in to help them with their daily chores like buying groceries or fulfilling their mundane daily needs. This has helped reduce anxiety for the couple and provides them the much-needed emotional security.

When it comes to food, he is a moderate eater, but he loves his meat, says his smiling wife. He pitches in, “Yes, I love to have mutton and, as advised by doctors, we have given up eating chicken and also some vegetables like cabbage.”

For Mr. Arockiasamy, stoma has become a normal and manageable part of his daily routine. He embodies the fact that one can lead a good quality of life even after an ostomy procedure.