Being in a confined space with your stoma

It is the time of year again where people start to plan their vacations.  With the pandemic going on more people have decided to drive on vacation than ever before.  Camper sales and tents have skyrocketed.  And for me, the one thing that I always grew up doing was long road trips with my family. For us, we had family that lived near the beach and many hours away from our location and we loved visiting them at least two times a year. These were amazing times filled with good memories.  But because of this it also meant lots of time spent in the car and lots of time spent with family.  This was a way my family was able to bond and also have fun together.  It taught us many lessons and that is something that I want to bring to my family. Now I have my own family and also an ostomy and many people wonder if going on car rides for a long distance with the family is a good idea.  Going through hard times with family makes you stronger.

But now that I just had an ostomy things are not going to change.  In fact, they are going to get better for the road trip to me.  Now for the gear that I like to use on long term trips, There are some amazing companies that provide gear that works super well for my stoma.  Each one is a bit different and I use multiple brands.  They have been great and can give good advice on gear and bag size and styles for different parts of life.  Also, they gave me great advice about having fun in the water after we arrived from our long car ride! The free samples are also nice.  But I am really excited about this year because we are visiting the old family home for the last time. There is nothing like a bit of nostalgia when it comes to vacations.

Getting to where you are going safely is a key and I will admit that our trip is a bit sad as we are going to see the land that I grew up on for the last time as it is still in our family's ownership. But the trip will be good because some of the stories I tell my family I can tell them and show them in person now.  This can give them some real perspective about my family and how I was raised. That is part of road trips that I love is the time shared with family and the stories built and confirmed by travel. Seeing things for the first time through other eyes is really cool. Even if it was not their dream location they got to learn a lot about the country.

When you road trip to amazing places the experience is even cooler. Going to a major National Park with your kids for the first time and see their expression when they see some world-renowned views for the first time, it's wondrous.  That is worth the drive and there is nothing better than seeing the awe in the eyes of your family and being a part of showing them cool and amazing wonders of the world. Be free to travel and go explore the amazing things our country has to offer and be safe.