One of my favorite times of year is coming up. Where I live really only half of the year is dedicated to hunting. For the most part the season for almost all animals is only in the colder months and the summer is pretty much void of all hunting. So when I feel the nights getting colder my heart races at the fact that I am able to do what I love again. Being outdoors and also providing very healthy food for my family at a extremely low cost is a wonderful experience. It matters to me to be able to help my family farm succeed and also to feed my family while doing it. Now the one thing I hear is that people with ostomies are too weak or too smelly to hunt. It honestly hurts me on the inside to think that people instant judge others and think them weak due to having a different way of going to the bathroom. It is small stereotypes like this that end up hurting people but out of kindness I only educate and never retaliate when I hear this. When my sister got married my brother in law had no idea I had an ostomy. I am a pretty active and outdoor loving fellow. Luckily, he is even more of an enthusiast of the outdoors than I am. So in that way we get along really well. This year we went hunting together for the first time and he found out I had an ostomy. It certainly shocked him and he was concerned about the animals with their amazing sense of smell being able to catch my scent. Being in the hunting world this is a very valid concern and I was able to educate him on the awesome gear that is out there and that some of it is actually using the scent blocking material that high end hunting gear has. With this I actually couple my ostomy gear with my high end hunting scent blocking clothing and have never had an issue. He took my explanation as being logical but I could see his skepticism. Totally understanding we had a great hunting season. I ended up with a really nice deer and we all had more squirrels and rabbits when they came into season to make many winter stews. It all came to show that the ostomy gear was successful and that I didn't skip a beat when it came to keeping up with hunting. So I know many people are not hunters, but I tell that story to let them see a different side of what can be done when you have an ostomy. Even if you hate the idea of hunting, you can gain respect for the ability to go out in the woods, drag heavy animals and climb while having an ostomy. When I tell my stories people are listening to the accomplishments and not what I am actually doing. They hear, I hiked 2 miles and hauled a 175 pound deer 500 yards. They are surprised that all this is possible and it gives them hope and ideas on what they can do. So rather you love hunting, or even the outdoors. I simply want to tell you to go out and be adventurous and do what makes you happy.
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Cletus Madrigal
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