Some people don’t understand that most people with ostomies can do pretty much anything they want to, or anything that they used to do. It’s not like getting a stoma prevents you from being the person you used to be, not at all! In fact, one of my favorite things to do is go camping with my friends and family. I absolutely love camping, especially in and around the areas where I grew up in Michigan. Some people believe that you are supposed to travel really far to some place you’ve never been before if you want to properly go camping, but I have always firmly disagreed with this state of mind. I personally really love to go camping somewhere along Lake Michigan because that lake is so pretty and is often overlooked. I consider Lake Michigan to be one of the top freshwater lakes in the whole entire world. Ever since I was young, my parents would always take me and my siblings to go camping during the summer. There is this one campground called Pioneer Park in Muskegon Michigan that is my favorite all-time camping spot.

In addition to this, we used to take longer trips down into Tennessee or even up to the Michigan Upper Peninsula and those were always very enjoyable. I love Lake Superior because it is so big and fresh, but I don’t like it as much as I do Lake Michigan because it’s so cold and a little bit creepy sometimes. Anyways, I used to be worried that having an ostomy would affect my hobby of camping with my friends and family because I had obviously never experienced life with a stoma before. However, I found that there aren’t too many differences in camping with an ostomy as long as you are smart and continue to take care of yourself and your body. For me, the first camping experience I had with the addition of a stoma and an ostomy pouch took place at my favorite campground in the world – Pioneer Park. I think a big reason why it’s my favorite is because I have a lot of memories and nostalgia that has been built up there over the years. 

Camping with a stoma is not too much different than camping without one. I think that the biggest thing for me is simply being prepared. When you’re packing to go camping, make sure you bring plenty of ostomy supplies. It is probably a good idea to bring way more than you think you’ll need, because emergencies happen and you never know what might happen during the trip. Also, it makes more sense to have more ostomy supplies on hand instead of not having enough. I feel like that is simple logic and common sense that most people will understand, but I thought I would put it in here anyways because I don’t know what numb-skull is going to be reading this.

I think the best piece of advice I can give you is to bring a lot of disposable ostomy bags, but also a few reusable ones. The disposable ones are nice because they are quick to change and you don’t have to worry about trying to wash them all out. You may even run into less smell and terrible odor when you’re changing your ostomy pouch.