Can You Be in the Woods with a Stoma?

Activity levels and being athletic is something that is not generally tied to having a stoma.  Most people believe that you should be ultra-careful and stop living an active and fun life.  Well, I am not in that boat of thought at all.  When I found out I was going to go into surgery and a stoma would join me on the other side I started to research the extremes. I wanted to know what the worst-case scenario would be and the best case.  Now on the best regular side, most people don't have to change their lifestyles really at all.  That is because you can be as active as you want for the most part with a stoma.  There are so many incredible stories of people doing insane nearly non-human feet with a stoma, and for me, I only wanted to see if I could head to the woods in November.  The truth is that my favorite sport is still in my grasp and I have enjoyed hunting with my stoma for many years.

 

This is the one thing that I love doing and that is being in the woods during the Fall.  When I first heard that I was going to end up with a stoma due to some complications I was a bit worried about me being able to enjoy the great outdoors like I used to do.  But I was happy to find out that I was wrong in that assessment and that the wonderful world of the outdoors was and is still available to me.  I will say that it did not come instantly though.  Going through surgery and knowing that I now have a stoma left me knowing that I was more prone to hernias, ulcers, and abdominal injury.  So I decided to start training and working on my body to be able to rock this new body I found myself in.

 

Now I know that my work in the woods can sometimes be really physical.  When I am lucky if I end up getting a dear in the Fall I may have to be able to drag up to 200 pounds for hundreds of yards.  Or I may have to end up carrying that weight for a long-distance depending on the location.  That means that my body needs to be in shape and my stoma and abs need to be protected.  That meant for me that I had to get into the gym and start working on my body so I wouldn't get any hernias or simply make my stoma worse.  This meant I needed to start slow and build up strength and endurance. I found that using the right ostomy gear during this time was key.  I ended up calling a bunch of companies and talking with my local pharmacist on what might work best for me and what I could do to make my working out comfortable and to forget I had a stoma.  With a lot of trial and error I ended up finding a great setup of gear. It didn't happen overnight and I also consulted countless online websites and social media people to see what they used for active times. 

 

But with lots of help and research, I am happy to be outside and enjoying the great outdoors again.

Can you be on the water and fish with a stoma?

Fishing stories exist for a reason.  The exaggerations are widely known.  But we all know if you have been fishing that there really is nothing worse than coming home empty-handed from a fishing trip.  Well, I would say the one thing worse would be not going on that fishing trip to start with!  That is really a personal preference, so I want to just make sure that people who are new to having a stoma know that they can go out and be just about as active or enjoy the outdoors as much as they used to do before they had the surgery.  If you are going to be on a wild speed boat ride I would probably get a stoma cover or guard that sportspeople use.  It can help protect you from huge jolts when you hit the breaks or make a wild turn. Now, I hear a lot of people that talk down to people with stomas and treat them like they have a debilitating injury, and that truly confuses me.  Yes, you have an injury and have an open wound-ish section on your body now, but hey we all have a mouth too! It is not worth giving up fun parts of your life to simply listen to people who are afraid or without knowledge.  So just know that you can go out and enjoy the great outdoors, just plan a little ahead and keep your ostomy supplies on you and handy. 

Now, we all have preferences on how we like to go fishing.  For me when I go fishing I do prefer to use a small boat.  Sometimes I am kayaking, which is a bit more difficult to paddle with a bag and life jacket on.  But it is very doable. I love catching fish in a kayak.  It is super fun and really cool to be dragged across a pond or lake by a smaller fish.   I suggest it is more comfortable with a boat that has seats, so you can be more upright and have more space to move around. 

That is the same rather you have a stoma or not!  But I want to say you should make sure you have all the gear you need in case you get wet or go under.  This means just to have a backup of your daily ostomy supplies with you.  First I would make sure it's in a double waterproof situation.  So get a good box that is waterproof and get a good ziplock to put inside of it with your gear. So if the boat tips or you just get splashed by a fish your stuff is dry.  

Be healthy and bring some sanitizer too because fishing can be a bit dirty and grimy and there are bacteria everywhere.  So be smart and make sure you are cleaning everything especially if you are going to be touching around your stoma.  It should be common sense, but we have all forgotten to bring things and it's just worth planning a bit ahead and being safer than sorry on this one.  

 Don't hold back and not do something because you think it will be too hard or too much work.  Lots of things in life are a lot of work and lots of them are a lot of fun too.  Be wise and get good gear to help you have a fun fishy time.