Tag: stoma

Travelling with a stoma – update

I spoke to our airline last night about taking my ostomy supplies, specifically my adhesive removal spray, in my hand luggage and they guy I spoke to was so helpful; he said that it isn’t a problem so long as it’s within the 100ml liquid limit and I’ve got my travel certificate with me. This made me very happy. My spray bottle is only 50ml and Charter give a multi-language “travel certificate” with their welcome pack. The certificate is about credit card sized and has space to list yours and your GPs details, what you are carrying and why.

I highly recommend that if you are flying, call your airline to check what their policies are on certain medical supplys if you are not sure.

Travelling with a stoma… again

So, I’m going to be flying to Holland in just under two weeks. I haven’t flown since having my ostomy so I made sure to read plenty of articles about it. Pretty much all of them are positive, saying that it shouldn’t be any different from flying without an ostomy. One recommended that, once I get to security, I tell the officers that I have a bag just in case. Has anyone else travelled via plane with an ostomy? Did it cause any issues at security?

Another thing someone said they do is split their supplies/medication between their main and hand luggage so if one gets lost, they still have some of their medical supplies. The issue I have with this is that your main luggage is more at risk of getting misplaced than your hand luggage. When travelling, I tend to be quite careful to not leave anything behind or lose sight of my bag so I prefer to travel with all my supplies in my hand luggage. I do realise, however, that this doesn’t work for everyone, especially if you have a lot to take with you.

One more thing I wanted to share was that some airlines apparently offer extra hand luggage allowance for medical supplies which I think is worth checking out. I’ll let you all know how that goes.

1 year Stomaversary!

So, today marks 1 year since getting my stoma. It’s had it’s ups and downs, but overall it’s been the best year I’ve had for a long time.

The biggest thing I’ve had to get used to is eating like a normal person again; although I am currently keeping to a (mostly) gluten-free and reduced dairy diet, I’m still learning what foods are good and what ones are still bad. Most of the bad ones consist of foods I couldn’t eat before (such as certain fruits and vegetables) but there are some new ones (like nuts and popcorn). Still, it beats living on instant noodles, plain crisps and gluten-free cereal.

Getting back to a normal sleep pattern hasn’t been hard at all; it seems I wasn’t sleeping anywhere near enough before so I’m able to sleep fine now. Other things like doing housework and being able to go out for the day are still a little bit difficult due to a lack of energy, but I have less concern about bathroom location now whenever I leave my flat.

Another thing I’ve had some trouble with is exercise; I was warned not to over stretch or lift anything heavier than a kettle for the first 6 weeks. Because I was practically bound to my room at the hospital for three weeks, my leg muscles had deteriorated quite a bit so I had to work up to walking longer distances slowly. This also meant I couldn’t exercise much at all. After a few months, my legs were almost back to their original size and strength and my stoma nurse said I was ready to start some gentle stomach exercises. She gave me a booklet that outlined ways to strengthen my abdominal muscles in order to avoid hernias. I had a bit of a false start due to some liver problems, but I started going to the gym not too long ago and it feels good to be able to get back into a routine again.

As for what to expect in the future, I’m seeing my surgeon tomorrow morning and, seeing as the issue with my liver isn’t what they thought it was, it looks like reversal is a strong possibility. I hope to get that ball rolling and have a date for the next surgery soon. For now, I’m happy to keep baggie for as long as I need to.

I went to the gym again yesterday evening. I’m trying to go once a week and, although I’ve only gone a few times, I feel like I’m able to do more and more each time. I’ve been doing a bit of cardio in order to get my fitness level back to how it was before I got so ill, followed by crunches to strengthen my stomach muscles. I used to go to the gym two to three times a week so I’m hoping to get back to that eventually. I won’t push myself too much though, I don’t want to cause myself an injury.

I went to the gym again this morning. I didn’t stay as long as last time (only did 45 mins), but I still feel good from the work out. I tried some more stomach exercises this time but couldn’t manage a plank, maybe I will after a while though.

I went back to the gym today! It’s been over a year since I last worked out so I’m quite proud of myself for being able to last a full hour. I focused mostly on gentle stomach exercises and made sure to wear my support belt the whole time. It felt good so I’m looking good forward to going again next week.

New(ish) diet

So, before having my stoma surgery, I was greatly restricted to what I could eat and even more so the weeks leading up to my surgery. I had to almost completely cut out fruit and vegetables, couldn’t handle most meats or carbs, and had to go gluten free in an effort to reduce my UC symptoms. This, unsurprising, didn’t work. Since my surgery, however, I have been able to eat some fruits and vegetables, more meats, carbs, dairy and gluten. That is until recently; I’ve found that I bloat after eating things such as bread, pizza and pasta, and I get mild stomach pains whenever I eat dairy. This has only really become a problem in the last couple of weeks so I’ve decided to try a gluten and dairy free diet for the next few months to see if this improves things.