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More than three lakh people in India live with an ostomy and the number keeps increasing everyday but few know of this life saving surgery. This lack of awareness leads to the feelings of shame and stigma among them.Now a documentary has been made to help such people, called Ostomates, understand that they don't need to live in fear of judgement and how to find confidence in themselves. An ostomy is basically a surgery to create an opening (stoma) from an area inside the body to the outside. It is done in certain diseases of the digestive or urinary systems. It can be permanent, when an organ must be removed. It can be temporary, when the organ needs time to heal. The organ could be the small intestine, Anisha Vijayan, a documentary film maker has made the film, "My film, No More Secrets", not only to help Ostomates but also friends and relatives on how to deal with an ostomate. "Five years ago, my grandmother got diagnosed with rectal cancer. As the treatments were taking a very bad toll on her health, the doctors, as a last resort, advised her to go in for an Ostomy surgery. It was a question of life and death, so obviously the surgery was agreed to but that was the least of her troubles. Life with an Ostomy is incredibly difficult. Plus what makes it worse is that the person with the ostomy (Ostomate) imprisons themselves with their constant feelings of shame and they stigmatize themselves. "This is the reason I made this film; to help ostomates understand that they don't need to live in fear of judgement and how to find confidence in themselves," said Vijayan. The film will be shown at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, on January 15, she said. UNI SRJ AE 1450
-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0432-1199183.Xml
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