Ostomy

How To Avoid Gas With An Ostomy

/ Jeremy / 2 Comments

Do you have to wear an ostomy bag everywhere you go? Do you struggle with having your ostomy bag filled with gas? Well, the good news is that you’re not alone. Millions of people everyday have to also struggle with the annoying affliction of having gas filled their ostomy bags. If you don’t have a stoma and just happened to come across this article, then I suggest you go ahead and log off of the internet for the day because it’s going to get pretty graphic. I have personally had an ostomy bag for several years and know a thing or two about having gas fill my pouch. It’s super annoying because, most of the time, you can usually identify how long it will take for an ostomy pouch to fill with output and can plan your daily activities and events around said output. However, there are times when you just seem more gassy than normal, and this makes your ostomy bag fill up much quicker. This leads to having to change your ostomy bag even more, because an overfilled bag can cause leakages and other complications or problems.

I wanted to write this article to give you a few tips on how you can avoid dealing with lots of irritating and unwanted gas that fills your ostomy bags. If you’re like me, you’ve had plenty of embarrassing moments in your life that have been caused by stoma related gas. So hopefully you can learn a few tips and tricks on how to lessen the amount of gas you are producing, which will lead to you not having to change your ostomy bag as often. For those of you who don’t know, colostomy related gas is different from normal flatulence because a person with a colostomy cannot control the gas that they are producing. So don’t get any funny ideas about making gas-related jokes, because this is a serious problem and not something to be taken lightly or made fun of.

Anyways, one thing you need to make sure to do is to check the fit of your actual ostomy pouch. If the ostomy pouch is not fitted to your skin barrier correctly, you may find yourself leaking certain odors or gas that are most unpleasant to the people around you. An improper fit also has more problems than just leaking odor; it can also create complications for your stoma itself. Your stoma should only be smelling while you are changing out your ostomy pouch.

The main thing to remember is that the foods that caused you gas before you had your ostomy will continue to cause you gas – the only difference is that you can no longer control when your gas is exiting your body, because it will simply all flow into your ostomy bag. Obviously, no one wants to be filled with gas and release it into the air which will cause everyone around you to immediately evacuate the area and probably not want to ever be around you again. Some foods that you should avoid eating include cabbage, spicy food like peppers or ramen, fizzy drinks like Coke or Pepsi, and even dairy products. The reason you should avoid eating these foods if you can is because they can all produce more gas in you than other foods.

Camping With An Ostomy

/ Jeremy / 2 Comments

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.