Go Ask Alex Online is updating fans on her health two years after having her entire colon removed from a 2019 ileostomy due to ulcerative colitis in a brand-new YouTube post.

The auburn-haired performer, artist, model and influencer gathered questions from her social media pages and addresses them here in an emotional 29-minute video. “We’re all learning together!” she exclaims as she answers a list of queries:

“I don’t miss constantly being in pain, bleeding, having emergencies and urgency when I’m out in public,” she explains in the video. “The dietary changes are quite intense… I think I’m going to be okay with eating a well-balanced diet … it’s really hydration what I need to worry about.”

Alex adds that with the ileostomy, she is totally cured of her autoimmune disease “but I still experience some and cramping if I eat too much too fast, I don’t really have a lot of control over my gas output, which is awkward and I’m more dehydrated… but aside from that… I’m pretty much totally symptom-free, and it’s really fucking cool to say that.

“I was diagnosed when I was ten, but I was sick a long time before then… my entire life and childhood was spent in pain and humiliation, and now I have so much freedom… I’m ready to actually start living my life.”

Alex noted that “when people describe their ideal sexual partner, they don’t usually describe a pouch attached to their abdomen… for me to accept the fact that one day when I have a partner, they will have to look past that – that there is a part of me that someone will have to look past, it’s really challenging… when there are so many beautiful people that don’t have this. It’s difficult to look at it and see it in the mirror and know that that’s my life.”

She concludes that while the four-hour life-changing operation was worth it, “I don’t feel like I really had a choice… this is just the next step in my life and this is what my life looks like now and I’m just going to live the best life I can.”

For more info about GoAskAlex, go to Go Ask Alex Online and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.