Traveling with an Ostomy to Sub-Saharan Africa

Have any of you traveled with ostomies to sub-Saharan Africa or other "developing" areas of the world with your ostomies? I'm hoping to return to Tanzania, where I once lived for two years, at some point in the future. I don't yet have an ostomy but may need one. Will I be able to go back safely and comfortably to these places that I love?

Hi Katie:

Yay ! Ostomates who travel. Don't let a bag interfere with life. I'm not quite sure what you are asking. If you have your own supplies, what is your concern? I travel extensively to both what we call "developed" and "developing" countries and areas. I've never been questioned by customs officials anywhere. If you expand a bit on what you are asking, perhaps I can assits more.

Cheers!  Bruce

Bruce,

Thank you so much for your quick and reassuring reply! I guess I'm not so much asking about customs, but about safety in terms of sanitation. I don't yet have an ostomy, so I don't really know how easy it is to keep them clean and free of infection—maybe it's super easy. But when I lived in Tanzania, I lived in a village with no electricity or running water, and all toilets were pit toilets. This meant fewer options for cleanliness... Purell or cold, soapy water were the options. Traveling to and from the village involved days-long bus trips, with restroom stops at horribly unclean bathrooms. At these stops, there were usually porcelain floor toilets, with the floor surrounding the toilet often wet with urine and water that got on my shoes and skirt. The porcelain toilets were "flushed" with a plastic tub of water sitting next to the toilet, so after using the toilet you'd pick up the plastic tub (which had also been touched by everyone else) and dump it and your excrement down the toilet. Some rest stops, additionally, were just stops in "the bush"—men got out of the bus on one side, women on the other, and everyone just relieved themselves behind bushes, discreetly.

None of this bothered me much as a healthy person... But have you ever traveled in the kind of setting I've described, with your ostomy? Would it be feasible to stay healthy and clean in these conditions, maybe with the help of Purell, etc.?

If you haven't traveled in that kind of setting, what I'm describing might sound unappealing. But when I was healthy, it was wonderful to live in Tanzania, and I miss my village and friends terribly. A major life goal is to go back, ideally for extended periods of time—e.g., two months. I can't do that safely currently, because I have an extremely restricted diet and am on strong immunosuppressants, all due to my ulcerative colitis. Right now, if I visited my village, I'd likely have a UC flare-up because of the diet, or get sick because of the immunosuppressants, and then I'd find myself days from the nearest hospital. But if an ostomy would allow me to go back to my village, and visit other similar places around the world, then it really might be worthwhile to lose my colon and free myself to travel again.

What do you think—could I return to my village with an ostomy?

Thanks,
Katie

Hi Katie, Your post made me smile...and even feel a surge of "envy", even though I'm not a jealous person. What you did and are going to do is something I dreamed of...but I took a different path. I had my surgery when I was 15, and when I wanted to go off to Israel (kibbutz) for 6 months, my parents said no. (I had just gotten out of a back brace for osteoporosis and degenerative disc disease.) So they weren't going to let me go far. It seemed I was going to stay US bound, as long as I was underage.

But I made the most of it...I went to beaches, swam, used all those awful public smelly bathrooms. I went on camping weekends, changed in dirty, bee-ridden stalls, sometimes in the dark. (Bottles of water, plastic containers, hand wipes, and a flashlight—good planning made all of it easy) I was 16 and 17, and none of the other "campers" knew about my surgery. I just "disappeared" during social hours, or early in the AM, before anyone was up. It would have been easier if I'd shared the info, but except for one friend (who covered for me) I wanted to be anonymous.

Fast forward...20+ years...married, had two children & got divorced. I began to travel (a lot) with a friend in a single-engine plane. (no bathroom) We flew all over the country, Mexico, Canada, along deserted mountain roads, the Caribbean & even Haiti. Bathrooms in rural Mexico aren't so clean, but I managed. There were times I had to empty my pouch in the woods, so I dug a hole, and used tissues.

When that travel period ended, I headed for Europe (tours), and traveled all over. While Greece & China had flushing toilets, they were holes in the floor, and one had to assume the squat position. I stood up, to pee & empty, and splashed a lot...but I always carried toilet tissue with me especially in China. (where there is none—even in the cities) I've also been to Israel, Eastern European countries, to Japan, and to South Africa/Botswana/Victoria Falls. Ironically, I found some of the cleanest bathrooms in African tourist areas. But I always traveled prepared. At the time, my parents and even my doctors were concerned about traveling in Africa, because I had Hep C. It didn't phase me at all...as I wasn't going to sleep with anyone on the trip.

When I see documentaries, or news shows, about people volunteering in Africa... I get an ache in my heart. I felt that way in China too, when I met Americans teaching there. I suppose, I could have gone that route, after my divorce, since my sons were in college, and they were going to live with their dad when they were home. But both of them had IBD, and I didn't want to be far from them. And now...at 68, I have too many medical issues, to make it feasible to do it. But I'd love to hear more about your experience. Best of luck to you.

Marsha

Marsha and Bruce,

Thank you so, so much for these reassuring responses. It sounds like I really could travel in Africa with an ostomy! I have been uplifted by your words all weekend, telling my family, "I posted this question on the Ostomates forum, and people seemed to wonder what I was even worried about." :)

Since diagnosis with ulcerative colitis 3.5 years ago, I've largely been trapped at home by diet restrictions, flare-ups, and/or low energy, and I was hospitalized for a month last summer. I'm 38 and was going to try for kids right at the time of diagnosis, but have not yet been well enough to carry a child (I'm very skinny, always teetering on or over the brink of weakness). I used to be so active--Peace Corps Tanzania, backpacking and wilderness camping, ultimate frisbee, field crews doing stream ecology surveys... I want to believe in the body's ability to heal itself, but as the prime of my life keeps slipping away, more and more I'm thinking, "The hell with this; I want to move on!" So if I don't make major progress in the next year or so through diet and lifestyle (and meds), I think it'll be time to just do surgery and get my life back--it sounds like surgery really might do that for me.

I'm so glad I found this forum, and thanks so much again! If you or anyone else has any more comments or experiences with travel in developing countries, I'd love to hear them. (Even negative experiences--I want all the info before I get the surgery.)

Thanks again,
Katie

Stories of Living Life to the Fullest from Ostomy Advocates I Hollister