Locker Rooms

Do you use clear or opaque bags?

Either way you might get some questions if people were nosy, but I don't think people would freak out with the opaque bags. With the clear... I dunno, even if it were empty, you can still see the stoma and that could alarm people at first. Whether or not people freak out, I think it's your body and you should be able to change in a locker room no matter what people think!

You could always put your underwear on in the shower stall (I tuck my pouch into my underwear) and come out like that...that way the fact that you have an ostomy isn't obvious and a wrapped towel could work well, too. I remember watching surfers change at their cars...they kept a towel around their lower portion until they had shorts on.

You'll find what works best for you! Just try a few different ways.

Getting back to the things we enjoy is the most important

I would just change in the open area but do a sort of dance of the seven veils with my towel so that bag is covered so not to freak people out. I don't necessarily mean have the towel wrapped around you, but you could just hold it in front of bag whilst putting underwear on and just pretend to be drying your stomach area very well. It is one thing to talk openly about it but another for people to see it with their own eyes.

Thanks .... I'll have to see how it goes, but good to know that you manage. Underwear on in the shower seems a good compromise.....

It's interesting how differently people feel about these issues..... I don't have trouble being naked in front of strangers (well, in a locker room; I wouldn't walk down the street that way ), so that's not part of the mix for me. I don't run around flaunting or anything, but a towel around the waist and one around the shoulders when I'm walking from the shower to my locker, and then I take them off to get dressed, and it's just no big deal at all to me.... don't stare at others, but don't avert my eyes either if we're saying hi etc.

I don't think I would have freaked out seeing an ostomy bag, but then a part of me thinks, so what if people freak out the first time .... this is how they get educated, and new things are sometimes uncomfortable.... I mean, think about things like people who have big scars on their faces or facial tics or other things that make people freak out that aren't so easily hidden...... if everyone hides having a bag etc, then no one ever sees it, so they can't get used to it, and don't know about it, and that makes life harder for all of us. Ostomy bags are part of the world, and I'm not sure that the general public has the right to absolute ignorance about them and that we have the obligation to protect this right....

Now I think a clear bag would be a different story, as showing people your actual poop is just gross..... but I really don't think the opaque ostomy bag looks like much of a big deal..... it's just this bag taped to my belly.... for me the issue would more be that I don't necessarily want to be in a public teacher sort of role every time I go to the gym.... but then I'm not sure how much people would actually ask or notice.

I tend to be open and err on the side of talking, showing, etc..... understand that others are different and appreciate your input.

Frosty, you have been through a lot, and I'm glad you're not worrying so much about what others think. You deserve the best life you can create.

I do have a lot of wonderful support, and just about everyone in my life knows about the surgery etc (I do a blog, and I get pretty specific). I will make my way. Thanks.

Frosty what a fantastic attitude after everything you have been through. I admire your spirit. I agree with you, be open and honest about this disease and it's effects, only then will people understand what it is like. So what if someone sees I have a bag strapped to my stomach and it may shock them.

Does that mean that all those armed forces coming back from Iraq/Afganistan who have lost limbs and carry scars should be hidden away or not let people see their artifical limbs in case they get shocked. Maybe that would have been the case 30 years ago but now no one bats an eyelid and the same should be with stomas. The more we hide it away the more people will expect it to be hidden away. Afterall all anyone can see is what looks like a beige hoover bag stuck to your stomach, hardly horror movie stuff. I've seen worse things at a waterpark, like women who stuff themselves into bikinis 10 sizes too small, now that is shocking. :)

My docs "retired" me 7... years ago...and put me on social security...I wasn't good at just hanging around the house, so enrolled in college and was planning on teaching elementary school....while student teaching I met too many kids with various 'disabilities' who were being ignored, or worse...so I switched to Human Services and graduated with my bachelors in psych and HS last year...now I work with teens with various issues..I help them transition from the structure of high school to the real world...seems I have a knack for gaining their trust and confidence (maybe because I don't treat them as anything but people) and so far this year I've helped 4 get accepted to college...two are going to technical school, and my autistic guy and I just secured work for him that will let him work almost full time in a small pottery shop (he loves working the clay)...first time in almost a year of working with him that I've ever seen him interact with others unprompted...so yeah....love the work...and I've got a 19 year old in college and a 17 year old headed there next fall and SSI doesn't even come close to payin my bills....let alone being able to help my kids out.
TPN: From all the research I've done hasn't come very far, and still greatly limits living life...besides...could you imagine never eating? I went six months once way back when the docs wanted to give my guts a rest...sucked beyond words...cant imagine going that route.
Anyway...my docs have been giving me the 'you don't have long' speech since way back...I just figure I have too much to do to leave anytime soon, and I've hurt for as long as I can remember, so why not a little longer??

yeah...transplants are a ways off, stem cell looked promising, but two terms with Bush set that way into the future...

can't worry about the 'what ifs' or the 'what may be's' too much of the 'now' needs attention.

Dinner did it's magic trick and has transformed into barbed wire with a crushed glass chaser...headed to bed here...tomorrows another day, and today, well hell, any day you don't die it's a good one.

nite all...been nice chatting with you :)

I most always sleep well...40 years in I guess I've just gotten used to ignoring most of the pain, although my ex wife and several subsequent friends have told me I still hurt while asleep as I moan, hold my stomach, and toss and turn alot. The only one I bother now is my daughters chihuahua which growls at me if I disturb her too much.
9:15 here and guts are finally awake and working...so guess it's going to be a good day.
Which grade to you teach blueglass? I had the pleasure of the 2nd grade during my jr apprenticeship and 4th graders during my student teaching...loved the little guys, but they wore me out...if we could tap that energy we could rule the world :)
off to work...short day today...just have one school to visit this afternoon.
take care all and keep smiling

I posted above my honest thoughts on the question posed.

I did ask hubby what he thought. He is a very uninhibited individual, accepts life challenges readily and is a "It Is What It Is" kind of guy but even at that he said he would definitely be discreet and cover up with a towel in this given situation.

After so many times in the hospital, shy just doesn't work...I've never been overly concerned where nudity or my ostomy is concerned...have belonged to many gyms and showers in some were wide open...I roll my pouch up and secure with a rubber band just to get it out of the way while I wash...no one ever mentioned it, and if they had I would have just told them what it was. like blueglass, I guess I don't see it as a personal concern....others of course have their own opinions.