Traveling With An Ostomy

Is there anything better than going on vacation? Honestly, there is something magical about getting away to a far away place around the world and exploring something new for the first time. Not to mention, it is nice to have a break in the normal routines of everyday life. I for one have not been able to travel very much since I don’t have a lot of money, but I hope that I am able to travel more when I get older (if I live to be that long anyways). I am slightly worried that my life will be cut short due to some climate change related disaster, but we will see about what the next 30 years holds I suppose.

Anyways, I am sure that many of you out there love to travel as well. In fact, I am not sure if you knew this, but traveling is even possible for people with ostomies. If you do not know what an ostomy is, it is basically where a person’s internal organs are rerouted to the outside of their body and their feces and urine is redirected into a bag attached to the side of their abdomen called an ostomy pouch. There are many people all over the world who have this procedure done and it has become quite popular nowadays. It is even becoming the new hip thing with teens! Anyways, I wanted to talk a little bit about what it is like to travel with an ostomy and provide you with some traveling tips and tricks. 

The first thing that you need to know about traveling with an ostomy is that you always need to have your supplies on hand. Whether you are flying, driving, hiking, sightseeing, or chilling in a hotel room somewhere, you need to make sure that you always have enough ostomy supplies on hand. When you start packing for your trip, make sure that you order everything you need for your trip in advance. Having enough ostomy supplies on hand is crucial to not running into any stoa-related problems during your trip.

A visit to the hospital is sure to put a damper on your vacation, especially when it comes to ostomy related hospital visits. It is totally okay for people with ostomies to fly somewhere, but I would strongly advise you to bring more than enough ostomy supplies with you in your carry-on so that you have it ready to go when you need it. It definitely makes a lot of sense to pack more ostomy supplies than what you think you will need. After all, the old saying “it is better to be safe than to be sorry” definitely applies to this particular situation. 

Another thing to keep in mind when traveling with an ostomy is that you should not neglect taking care of your stoma just because you are too busy having fun on your vacation. I know that it can get easy to get carried away with the fun times that just keep on rolling your way when you’re on vacation, but it is really important to continue to clean your stoma and to change your ostomy pouch when necessary. I hope that these traveling tips have been helpful to all of you out there with ostomies, and I hope that you have a great trip to wherever life takes you next.