How Medilink® supported me through 6 months of travelling
Hiya, my names Jess – I’m 30 years old and I have an ileostomy following emergency surgery in 2022 for uncontrollable ulcerative colitis. In 2024, I had proctectomy surgery to make my ileostomy permanent and give me a barbie butt.
This year, I have been lucky enough to be able to take a six-month career break from my job as a Palliative Care Occupational Therapist and go travelling with my partner, Jacob, around Central and South America.
When contacting my GP to request additional supplies, I was met with the standard response that they could only provide three months’ worth due to prescription regulations. Understandable, but incredibly frustrating (it’s not like my stoma was suddenly going to disappear!) Jacob and I discussed all the different options, but the prospect of shipping supplies out to unknown destinations was way too anxiety inducing for me.
How can I rely on international postage for supplies that are essential for me to live my life?
Before my travels, I reached out to Medilink® and the wider Salts team and they went above and beyond to help. They provided me with a few extra boxes of ileostomy bags (along with the prescription supplies I’ll admit I stock-piled over the months prior) to give me the security to go ahead with my trip. Jacob and I then vacuum-packed six months’ worth of stoma supplies and split them between us to carry across Central and South America. Without my very good egg of a boyfriend and the support I received from the Salts team, I genuinely don’t think the trip would have been possible. As I’m sure many of you reading this would agree, travelling with a stoma is not something that can be taken for granted.
Whether it’s an overnight trip, or an extended period away from home. Travelling has always been something that I have loved doing – I am very much a “work to pay for travel” type of person and I refuse to let having a stoma stop me from exploring the world. Travelling with a stoma gave me so many opportunities for reflection. It made me realise just how reliant I am on my stoma supplies; I was very conscious through-out that if my bags went missing, or if there was an emergency with a natural disaster and I lost my supplies, I would be really stuck. This is an incredibly vulnerable way to feel. Equally, it also reflects our privilege in the UK; we are so lucky to have access to supplies in the way we do. Stoma Care in the UK may not be perfect, but I know that I can rely on Salts and Medilink® to receive support and supplies in a timely manner, with a quality that I know I can trust.
I wear Confidence BE® Drainable black bags and my usual routine involves changing my bag daily after I shower; this isn’t always essential, but it gives me reassurance for risks of leaking and helps me to reduce any breakdown of my peristomal skin.
Dealing with different bathrooms on holiday with a stoma
Whilst travelling, my usual routine went completely out of the window; I only took the bare minimum supplies with me, and I had to adapt to very different standards of cleanliness very quickly! We stayed in a mix of hostels and Airbnb’s, with cheapness often trumping quality to help keep us to budget. Many of the toilets left A LOT to be desired. Across many of the countries we visited, there were no flushing toilets, no toilet paper and no soap/running water. We also spent many a night travelling via night bus between different cities/ countries and the toilets were often worse than you can imagine.
We were also lucky enough to take a few trips into the Amazon as part of our travels. We slept in hammocks, travelled by boat to spot wildlife and got to experience the lifestyle and culture of the Ticuna community; a truly once in a lifetime experience. However, this meant stripping down to basics even more so – emptying my bag in the middle of the jungle, using a wooden box drop toilet with leaves for shelter and even having to change my bag on the side of the road after our minibus broke down in the middle of a cloud forest.
Although the bathroom facilities made managing my stoma really difficult at times, I tried to keep the perspective that it is all a part of travelling (and just keep antibac hand gel and a roll of toilet paper on me at all times!).
The benefits of the Confidence BE® bags also made managing my stoma that much easier. On days when we were in and out of the sea or doing long hikes (and sweating loads in the heat), the skin barrier stood up to the test and the water-repellent fabric dried quickly, meaning I didn’t need to constantly stress about leakages or multiple changes. I also found that my stomach was very sensitive at times, particularly to new foods and different altitudes, but the filter really helped to reduce ballooning, again, without me needing to think too much about it. I cannot express how highly I rate the Confidence BE® bags!
We had so many incredible highlights to our trip (it wasn’t just awful toilets!). Some of my favourites were: hiking up Acetanango Volcano in Guatemala and watching the sister volcano Fuego erupting; exploring the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu; dune buggying through the Huacachina desert and white-water rafting in Arequipa, Peru.
To anyone considering a holiday or a longer trip, I would absolutely encourage you to go for it!
As an Occupational Therapist, the core value in my job is to support people to overcome challenges and be able to do the things that are important to them. I like to think I try and apply that to myself and my own life as much as possible (although it is always easier said than done!). There are so many beautiful places both inside and outside of the UK and I firmly believe that there is no reason a stoma should stop you from doing the things you want to do.