Meet the Director of Communications

I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease/Ulcerative Colitis twenty years ago, four years into my marriage. My disease waxed and waned for about four years, responding to various medicines then becoming immune to them. My time was spent in and out of the hospital and back and forth to the GI doctor. I got pregnant with my first child and although I had a textbook pregnancy, I bottomed out when she was six months old. When she turned fourteen months, I underwent permanent ileostomy surgery after an extensive hospital stay.

When my daughter was six, my husband and I adopted a little boy to complete our family. The past fifteen years have been spent being a wife and raising children coupled with dealing with every aspect that goes along with being an ostomate. In these past years, I think I have experienced all manner of feelings from insecurity to confidence, doubt to belief, secrecy to openness and all points in between.

Through mutual friends Lisa and I were lucky enough to have a phone conversation just two months after Lisa’s surgery. When we realized we lived about two miles away, we quickly made plans to meet. As we compared our stories we were shocked at how parallel our paths were, only distanced by my years ahead. Building an instant connection, Lisa says of our first face to face contact, “Meeting someone so healthy and happy after years of living with an ostomy made me realize that everything was going to be okay.”

When Lisa initially spoke to me about her idea to start an underwear company, I was all for her doing that, yet personally I was somewhat happy with the regular underwear I had finally found. Although I was constantly emptying my pouch to keep a low profile, I had learned to accept that there was nothing else out there and made due with what I had. Until she sent me away with one of the very first sample pairs to test out!

After a few days of wearing them, my life was changed! I knew I had to be a part of the Ostomy Secrets team, not only to tell people about this amazing underwear, but to help and encourage others through my experience. Lisa explained to me what a big part of her healing I was and she encouraged me to live out loud so that others might be encouraged as well. Lisa says, “I wanted Cricket to be involved with me on this venture because I wanted her to give others the gift she gave me.”

So I have done just that. I have decided to live my life on full volume, speaking without shame about having an ostomy, telling people about these wonderful products and hopefully giving encouragement where encouragement is needed. This company is about so much more than selling underwear; there is an underlying commitment to help and encourage ostomates all over the world.

As the Director of Communications for Ostomy Secrets, I have a variety of responsibilities from writing the monthly newsletter to speaking to nurses to mentoring new ostomates to ordering trim for underwear! I am so excited to be working with Lisa and Christina as part of the OS team. Together we look forward to what the future holds!