Mum hits back at a stranger who called her son's stoma bags 'repulsive' in the best possible way
A mum has hit back at the stranger who called her two-year-old son ‘repulsive’ in the best way possible by writing a beautiful post on Facebook about her son’s health battle.
Dallas Lynn was standing in a queue at Walmart with her son, Jameus who was sitting in the trolley.
Little Jameus suffers from a rare condition called Hirschsprung’s disease, that affects the bowel and intestines and means he has to have stoma bags attached to his stomach.
So far the toddler has had 20 bouts of surgery to help aid his digestion.
Though Dallas usually puts on a onesie underneath Jameus’ shirt to hide his stomas, that morning she’d got him dressed quickly so they could run to the store.
When her little boy had wanted to be picked up, Dallas lifted him out of the trolley, but as she did so his shirt rode up and revealed the two stoma bags on his stomach.
No big deal, right? Well, it shouldn’t have been but the reaction of a fellow shopper standing in the queue next to Dallas and Jameus left the mum stunned into silence.
“There was an older woman in line behind me who caught a glimpse and shrieked a little before she said to me, ‘why in the world would you let someone do that to him?’”, Dallas explained in her Facebook post.
Dallas gave the woman a shortened version of her son’s condition, without actually mentioning his rare disease before being shocked into silence by the shopper’s reply.
“Well I am sorry but I just think that is so ‘repulsing’, can you please keep his shirt down?’ At this point, I just wanted to shake this woman and scream “what is wrong with you?!” But instead, I told her to have a good night and went to another line,” the mum continued.
Outraged by the unpleasant exchange, Dallas took to social media to share a photo of her beautiful son in a bid to prove there is “nothing repulsive about him”.
“Stomas and ostomies seem to be a taboo, when in reality, over 500,000 Americans have one,” she wrote.
“My son’s disease may be rare, but his stomas are not.”
For anyone who didn’t understand what stomas and ostomies are, Dallas went on to explain that they are surgically created openings that allow the body to expel waste.
“Both of my son’s are from his colon, but stomas can be from your ileum (small intestine) or bladder).”
The mum went on to explain that her son’s stoma bags are literally a matter of life and death for him.
“Was this the first choice of a life I would have chosen for my son? Absolutely not. But this was his only shot at life,” she explained.
“When he was 2 weeks old, his colon ruptured. It left him with a life threatening infection that nearly killed him. His stoma saved his life.”
Dallas outlined the fact that her son may have to have the bags for the rest of his life and if that is the case she wants to be able to teach him to have a positive body image.
“It will be my job to teach him to love himself and his bags,” she said.
The mum also pointed out that had Jameus been a couple of years older, the woman’s ignorant comments might have had more of an impact on him.
Though the post was originally shared last year, it has recently gone viral and has now been shared over 26K times and received almost 70K likes. As well as offering messages of support, many parents also offered up their own stories of children and babies who have to wear stoma-bags and left comments praising the mum for her positive attitude in raising awareness about the subject.
“You have a beautiful baby boy, don’t let ignorant people tell you otherwise,” one woman wrote.
“Beautiful happy boy and well said I will share this post and hope awareness and attitudes change,” another added.
And hopefully, the sharing of the story will go some way to helping single mum, Dallas raise money for Jameus’ continued treatment. A GoFundMe page set up to help fund his medical expenses has so far raised more than $10,600.
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