Competing after colon cancer surgery
- After being eliminated from RuPaul’s Drag Race, Tamisha Iman revealed that she’d been competing with an ostomy bag.
- Iman had undergone surgery for stage III colon cancer.
- The drag icon says she feels “really good” now.
"When I made season 12, I could kick and split, but the radiation was so harsh on my muscles that a split was no longer possible," Iman told Entertainment Weekly. “I had an open portion of my body that I had no control over on my stomach. If you bend down the wrong way, you can push stuff out. So, I was always cautious about that."
Surgery and Its Aftermath
Read MoreThe surgeon removes the section of the colon with the cancer, along with nearby lymph nodes — a procedure that’s known as a partial colectomy. Surgeons can perform it through an open incision, but increasingly it’s being done laparoscopically through several small incisions using specialized tools. Surgery is followed by chemotherapy to get rid of any cancer cells that might have been left behind.
Related: The Type of Colon Surgery Depends on the Location of the Tumor
After a partial colectomy, surgeons typically reconnect the two ends of the colon. But in some cases, like Iman’s, the surgery creates enough of a disruption in the colon that it becomes difficult to have a normal bowel movement afterward. In that case, the surgeon will perform a procedure called a colostomy, creating a temporary or permanent opening through the belly through which stool can exit the body. Wastes collect in a pouch worn on the outside of the abdomen, called an ostomy bag.
“A colostomy or an ostomy, is taking the bowel and attaching it to the skin so the bowel movement would go into a bag, rather than out the anus and rectum,” Dr. Daniel Labow, chief of surgical oncology at Mount Sinai Health System, told SurvivorNet in a previous interview.
Colostomy sounds much worse than it is. “Once you get over the psychosocial effects, you can lead a totally normal life,” Dr. Labow says. “It’s not painful. It’s just getting used to a different way.”
Related: 6 Months After Colon Cancer Surgery, Super Model Pat Cleveland, 69, Walks the Runway Again
“It’s Not About Validation”
Iman says she feels “really good” now, and she’s at peace with the judges’ decision to eliminate her from the show. Although she realizes she was probably too sick to have competed, she chose to continue because she wanted her work to have an impact.
"When you’re presented with a life-and-death situation because the cancer situation got to a point where it was so bad that I almost lost my life and you get a moment in your life where your whole existence will be recognized, it’s not about validation, but you don’t want it to be in vain. You want the world to see what you put into this craft."
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