Backwoods Camping?

If you think you will be ok with the physical part then it shouldn't be a problem. I haven't done it, but I sugest taking lots of supplies and water, and alochol wipes to clean your hands with.
Have fun!

Summerstorm,
I found a great website that makes me feel much safer about the trip. Check it out at ostomyoutdoors.wordpress.com. The author had a total colectomy last fall. Her videos include a great piece about trying to change her bag and stoma wafer in a wind storm, ziplining and mountain climbing.
The best suggestion I found at her site was to take a pair of hiking poles with me. I have never needed them before but I think they will really help.
My youngest son came up with a few good suggestions: wear a headlamp (a flashlight and emptying the bag just won't work), sleep on two layered sleeping pads (easier on the stoma when you rollover), take bath wipes and lots of sealable gallon sized plastic bags. Bath wipes sterilize without alcohol and can handle large messes such as a burst bag.
We use a water filtration system when hiking because water is so incredibly heavy to carry. Everyone (even the dog) carries enough water for one full day.
Alcohol wipes are a good idea. I am starting to be excited about this. I want to face my fears!
Szm

I have no intention of camping, roughing it is a hotel without room service but thanks for the link.
I like alochol wipes better, I keep them in my car, they kill anything! And I don't like the antibacctrial sttuf, since itsnew and helps create the super bacteria. It also tends to make me itchy after a while. You may want to take some lotion cause antibacterial and alochol wipes can dry your handsout pretty quickly

Summerstorm,
I had a relative once who felt that if you felt the urge to physically exert yourself than you should lie down and let it pass. Oddly enough, she "climbed" Mt. Everest while sitting in a chair on a sherpa's back. She wrote an article about it for the New Yorker, needless to say the cartoon of her was hysterical.
I understand your point of view. I love the arts and culture found in cities but I find regeneration in the forests.
Some of my favorite memories: waking up to a deer licking my cheek, listening to my dog team howling with a wolf pack across the river, having a herd of deer laughing at me as I learned to skate ski, watching a herd of elk carefully sniffing and examining 10 puppies out on their first excursion, and, of course, beautiful old growth forests that make me feel very, very tiny. Running into bears, coyotes and cougars are not my favorite memories. Although the bears were beautiful and very peaceful. The just lumbered away. Coyotes are very sneaky, predatory creatures. The cougar was on its way upcountry so it just ignored us.
My greatest fear was that the ileostomy would prevent me from having any more adventures. My next adventure that was planned before the uc disaster, riding across the Gobi desert with a Mongolian tribe. Maybe after the jpouch surgery is completed?
Szm

Oh I'm far from a city girl, a town with more than 3k is too big for me! I can walk outside to a creek, and probably pet some deer if I chose. We even have apet raccon. And I'm not against exercise or physical exertion, I love to hike do it all the time in the winter, I just don't camp! I like electricity and running water too much

Subzeromambo, that is my blog. I am so glad it has been helpful.

One great thing I have discovered for hiking are closed-end pouches. In my first couple of backpacking videos (including the one with the windstorm), I had not yet tried them. However, on subsequent excursions, I discovered how convenient it is to just pop off a full pouch, double-bag it in a ziplock to pack it out and then put a clean one on. I now use closed-end pouches whenever I am on a crowded trail where it would be hard to find a discreet place to dig a hole to empty, or when I am climbing bigger mountains where time is of essence to avoid afternoon lightning storms. I will probably use them a lot on backcountry snowshoe and ski trips too when my hands would otherwise get cold emptying my pouch. It takes less than 2 minutes to swap out a pouch and secure it to pack out, versus 10 minutes to dig a hole, drain the pouch and clean the tail. If you use a two-piece pouching system, I highly recommend trying closed-end pouches. It does take a little practice to swap them out without making a mess, but you get the hang of it quickly. I don't use them non-stop when backpacking because packing out the waste does get heavy. Oftentimes when I return to camp in the evening after using closed-end pouches on a specific hike, I will go back to using drainables and digging holes for the remainder of the time.

I second what others have said-- bring plenty of TP. I tend to go through a lot cleaning off the tail of my pouch. I also bring handi-wipes to clean off my hands and also liquid hand sanitizer. Sometimes I use both because I am a bit of a clean freak:) You are also right that a water filter is a super important piece of equipment. It is really easy to get dehydrated hiking and a filter is a safe and lightweight way to replenish your water bottle. If there are no water sources around, then you have to carry lots of water. I am going to talk a bit about water needs in a blog post I am working on today.

Have fun! Soon you will have your camping systems down and all of this will feel like second nature. Be patient with yourself too, and if things don't go well the first time, try again. I could only walk 1/4 mile four months after surgery because my incision still hurt so badly due to some healing complications. I made a huge turnaround at 5 months and things just got better and better. At 8 months I was back to being able to hike 15 miles.

Sounds so fun. Haven't done backpacking this year but plenty of day hikes.

Last year I did a 3 day pack trip with 15 girls from my church. I had a great pack and carried all my own stuff. I found the waist/hip strap sat right on my stoma and when I put it realllly tight and up on the waist it still tended to push the flange down. I have a stoma cover I made thanks to advice from Nascar which I will be sure to bring next time. The weather was hot and we walked 11 km a day, so I was very glad to have taken a set of flange and bag for everyday just in case. I really did need them all. I am looking for a new back pack before I do another long trip. Was carrying 45 lbs. so that was part of the problem.

Toilet paper very important. Wet wipes very important. pacing yourself very important. Drinking twice as much water as you used too when hiking was about my ratio. If I needed two bottles on a 6 hour hike before now I need 4. I take boost and use it with water to keep me hydrated and output easier to cope with. When I eat sandwhiches and my body needs the water for working the sandwhich gets think and hard to move through pouch properly and the leak has more chance to occur.

Have a great time!!