For months I could not go to the toilet, my stomach was swollen like a pregnant woman: a disgusting disease made a woman a TikTok star

Cherine Docherty has mysteriously been unable to defecate for a month. Hundreds of thousands of people began to follow her struggle on TikTok, reports Insider.

Photo: IStock

When Cherine Docherty woke up in the middle of the night to her new colostomy bag leaking, she was understandably confused and upset.

"I'm not kidding when I say I was covered in shit," she said.

Docherty was most recently fitted with a pouch, an external bag that attaches to an opening in the abdomen to take on the role of the colon.

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Doherty said she had to throw out all her bedding and grab some carpet cleaner because her bag overflowed and all the food she had digested spilled over the bed.

“It was an absolute nightmare,” she said. “I’ve had to set an alarm every hour, every night since I was released from the hospital, just because I’m so afraid it will happen again.”

This experience is just one of many that Docherty has openly shared with her 244 followers on TikTok. She began documenting her bowel problems in February when she developed a mysterious condition that left her unable to defecate. She went to the hospital every four weeks, where she was given medication to allow her to use the toilet. But after a few months, this treatment stopped working.

@cherineandcathydollIm so done with being like this ??♬ original sound — Cherine

On July 11, Docherty posted a TikTok entry titled "34th day I don't do [poo emoji]" in which she showed off her significantly protruding belly and noted that she looked like she was eight months pregnant. Since then, she has posted regular updates—sometimes multiple times a day—about her doctor and hospital visits and her frustration with the lack of response.

“A lot of people say they've been through the same thing as me, but they're too embarrassed to go to the doctor to say, 'I can't poop,'” Docherty said. “They watched my experience and it gave them confidence that they could actually talk about what was happening to them.”

Having been in the hospital and discharged from it, the doctors decided to install a colostomy bag

After being in and out of the hospital several times, Doherty said, she begged her doctor to do something. She was given laxatives by tube because her throat began to clog and she was tired of being sent home without a solution.

In videos posted after July 11, Docherty said she was having trouble breathing and was very worried about her health. Doherty also has stage XNUMX chronic kidney disease and asthma, and he didn't want any of those conditions to worsen.

The doctor told Doherty that he would rather remove her colon and then reattach the rest of her digestive system (a procedure called an ileoanal anastomosis). But it was supposed to be a 12-hour operation, and there was a long waiting list, so he decided to do emergency surgery on Docherty the same day and put her in a pouch. “Either that, or continue to live the way I lived,” Docherty said.

While Doherty was relieved by the operation, it was also "traumatic," she said. She said she was awake because she was afraid her bag would explode, so she was exhausted all the time and "cries every day."

“It was one of the worst things I have ever experienced in my life,” she said.

Docherty still has no answers about what caused her bowel problems in the first place and she needs more tests. Doctors have mentioned several potential problems, such as inflammatory bowel disease and lazy bowel, but there is no definitive diagnosis yet.

The experience was difficult

Struggling with his condition, Docherty reaches out to his TikTok community, posting every day about his experiences before and after surgery. The good and bad days are laid out openly, showing the realities of undergoing major surgery - screaming and vomiting because the pain was so bad, or celebrating her first bowel movement since surgery. Docherty also asks his followers for advice on how to live with a pouch, and they are happy to provide it.

In one case, Doherty reached out to her followers when her pouch exploded one evening shortly after she had surgery to reattach it. She was upset because the nurse visited her right after the operation, when she was still under anesthesia and painkillers, so she couldn't remember what the nurse had said.

“If you told me I had blue skin, I would believe it,” she said. “I had no idea that she told me what to do, I didn’t remember anything at all.”

After posting what happened, Docherty's comment section was full of advice. For example, there are marshmallows to thicken the "exit". While most people with that many followers often deal with trolls or venomous comments, Docherty found the platform to be an incredibly supportive space.

“There are a lot of big TikTokers that get negative, but for some reason I don’t get very much,” she said.

Docherty hasn't always been this open on the Internet. She used to work in childcare but had to quit her job due to health issues. She said she used the opportunity to be an "open book" on TikTok and it paid off for her and the strangers who watch her videos and feel inspired.

"A lot of people tag me in their videos and say, 'This is the very first video I made, but here's my pouch, thank you so much for inspiring me to do this,'" she said.

Seeing humor in everything was a salvation

Docherty said she received positive feedback from her parents. Her father is a "pure Scot" who sees the positive in everything. Her mother is the type of person who shows tough love and tells you not to come off.

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“They are real Scots who just say, 'Keep going or give up, it's up to you,'” she said. “You moan and lie in your bed all day long, or you continue to do so, and that’s it.” I took a little bit from both of them, to be honest.”
While life with a pouch is the hardest thing Docherty has ever had to go through, she can also see the positive. She loves to cook and bake and she has found joy in it again, now she can actually eat. Before the operation, her partner ate her entire dinner because Docherty couldn't bite off more than a couple of bites. Now she eats like a normal person.

Docherty is also no stranger to challenges. She said she's been intubated four times in her life and almost died, so it's just another challenge - the tenacity her followers love her for.

“I think I have nine lives,” she said.

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