Young Mother Documents Inspiring Journey Through Pregnancy With A Flesh-Eating Infection

flesh-eating

Being pregnant is no easy task. It comes with its fair share of hurdles and discomforts. Your body goes through insane changes and there’s always the fear of running into complications. And having to deal with the swollen feet, backaches, constant fatigue and what not while fighting a flesh-eating infection can be the stuff of nightmares.

Young mom Sophie Green lived through this nightmare and boy did she kick ass.

The 29-year-old mother of two suffered through constant rectal bleeding during her first pregnancy as a result of her ulcerative colitis.

Though doctors tried to keep it under control with medication, she eventually had to have her colon removed.

After the surgery, Sophie had had to live with a bag attached to her in order to collect body waste.

However, two weeks after her surgery she discovered that the skin around her stoma bag was turning purple. After some tests, it was revealed that she was now suffering from pyoderma gangrenosum, a condition that eats away at the surrounding skin.

Unable to completely cure her of it, doctors did the next best thing and brought it under control with the help of regular steroid injections.

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Bag change day!! Recently I have been getting annoyed with having to change my bag so often. I change it every other day in order to keep the pyoderma around my stoma in check. It's summer, I'm a busy Mama, and it's slightly time consuming! This morning I had to check my attitude… Eight months ago, a year ago… Even ten years ago I would have been over the moon if I could do half the things I have been doing lately!!! This morning my toddler woke me up at 6am. I got him breakfast, got my pink drink, made some granola, washed dishes, ate my breakfast, fed my toddler second breakfast, spent some quite time with my God, did yoga in the yard, watered my garden, did some laundry, then showered and did a bag change! It's not even eleven o'clock yet and I'm making plans to go out and how to spend the rest of the day!! I have energy to do more than survive the day, I have energy to enjoy it! God has blessed me so much more abundantly​ than I could ask or think! Sometimes I like to rush ahead and fit as many things as I can into one day. But when God CREATED THE UNIVERSE He stopped to take the last day to rest. Why do I think that I am above that??? So today I am working to be grateful that every two days I am forced to stop, and rest and spend some time on some self care. P.S. you can notice a little bit of my peristomal hernia in the picture… It's starting to become more noticeable. I generally wear a hernia belt and then a pair of regular Spanx and it gives me enough support that I am able to keep running, doing yoga and keep up with my active two year old 🙌 #nocolonstillrollin #bagchange #selfcare #rest #theseventhdayherested #blessed #ostomate #pyoderma #peristomalhernia #ulcerativecolitis

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Given her already precarious health, doctors were surprised when she and her husband decided to conceive again.

It was an extremely difficult time for Sophie as she juggled growing a baby inside her and keeping her ostomy.

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Sometimes pregnancy isn't quite as glamorous as I thought it would be. We see all these beautiful pictures of these beautiful women with their big bellies, the art work you can get done on your big pregnant belly… There's so many things to magnify pregnancy and make it look perfect and wonderful. And to a certain extent it is! You're creating a life inside your body and that in and of itself is beautiful!!! But all the little things that come with that: the morning sickness (that doesn't just happen in the morning or just the first three months either!), The stretch marks, the aches and pains literally everywhere, the tiredness but not being able to sleep… And then with this baby I have an ostomy thrown in the mix! My big belly is making my pyoderma mad, the hernia support belt which is supposed to help gave me the nastiest blisters, and I can't see my stoma very well to take care of all these little things that keep popping up. I feel so unbelievably privileged to get to be the vessel that gives life to this little one, but someone remind me how much it sucks before I do this again! But I've learned that motherhood isn't always comfortable or even about being comfortable. It's about putting the needs of these little people you created over yourself. Pregnancy is the gateway that gives you just a glimpse into the future and it's sometimes a good hard run. For me, I'm pretty sure as long as we can get through the first nine months together, we can get through anything! #nocolonstillrollin #pregnantbelly #ninemonths #comeonoutbaby #anydaynow #impatientmama #pyodermagangrenosum #bellyblisters #peristomalhernia #allthethings #worthit #stomalife #motherhood #ulcerativecolitis #stretchmarks #notalwaysbeautiful #alwaysstrong

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However, she never lost hope and got through the whole thing with grace and strength, and as a result, gave birth to a healthy baby boy in January of this year.

Speaking to the Dailymail UK, she says:

My pyoderma gangrenosum was extremely painful towards the end of my second pregnancy. At 39 weeks we went in for an induction to relieve the pressure off my skin as the ulcers were steadily getting worse. The outbreak is underneath my stoma so with my growing belly I couldn’t even see my wound when I would do my bag changes.

I wish that I could say that after giving birth my skin cleared up like we all hoped, but it hasn’t. It’s gotten steadily worse. My body keeps tearing into itself with no thought of stopping.

The most difficult part was seeing the wound spread on my belly and trying not to let those days it would spread affect the way I treated the people around me. Trying not to give into the general discomfort of pregnancy with the added pain of a wound on my belly was very difficult.”

 

Sophie, who started sharing the story of her life with an ostomy, right before she got it done, says that she did so that she could encourage people in whatever they were battling.

She continues:

“Stomas and pyoderma gangrenosum aren’t understood by society very well. Pyoderma gangrenosum isn’t a common condition and isn’t very well understood even by the medical community.”

This young mother posts about both, her good and bad days on Instagram, never wavering from her positive outlook to it all.

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Six months postpartum!! Between bloating from the steroids I'm on, the peristomal hernia, the ulcerated skin from PG, the bit of small bowel poking through my belly, and the fact that this belly has delivered two small humans into the world… I'm pretty sure I've never been farther from six pack abs! I'm also pretty sure that I could care less! I'm so proud of what my body has accomplished. I am especially proud of the two small people that it has made, they're freaking amazing! Also these boobs are single handedly keeping one of those small people alive. I think that's pretty cool. So even though my skin is throbbing tonight, I'm so unbelievably happy with this crazy life God has blessed me with. He gives me blessings upon blessings and even though my body doesn't look like everyone else's… I think I'm okay with that! #nocolonstillrollin #sixmonths #postpartum #postpartumbody #breastfeedingmama #feedthebabies #whatsixpack #mybodyisawesome #prednisonesucks #onemonthtillsurgery #Godisgood #showerthoughts #ostomate #pyodermagangrenosum #stomalife #momlife

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Like a true ray of sunshine, Sophie says:

“My condition has made me appreciate life so much more. When you have bad days, you realize how good the good days really are.”

What an inspiration she is! Keep rocking Sophie. Your kids are lucky to have you as their uber cool mom.

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