TinaFish wrote:Dude, how much does it suck that the vast majority of us will need to pack a travel bag like that, JUST for our assholes?
I think that the research indicates that about 11 to 15 percent experience LARS. If LARS is too difficult to deal with, then there is the option of a permanent colostomy though I think that you’d carry a small kit around with you there too. I carried around a small kit when I had my ileostomy.
The LARs situation may improve with time or we may just get better at managing it. My large bag is overkill. Most times you only need one or two bottles and a brick if Kirkland wipes will last me a couple of months. That’s why I also have the small bag.
I’ll write up a web page with this stuff one of these days.
One other aspect of this stuff is the stages of cancer and cancer treatment.
When you are diagnosed, you worry about survival and ensuring that your loved ones are taken care of. At some stage, you realize that you're likely to survive and then you want to maximize your odds and quality of life on the other side. The doctors tend not to tell you about the potential difficulties on the other side - at least that's my experience. I learned a lot more about it on these forums. I think that they're primarily concerned with your survival (for which I'm very grateful), and they don't live with this stuff so they don't know it on an intimate basis.
I try to be pragmatic about the difficulties after treatment. I do Yoga balance poses for the neuropathy in my toes. I have my LARS kits to minimize the inconvenience the effects of LARS. And I try to look at aspects of diet, supplements and exercise to make things better.
I feel much more comfortable traveling with my large kit in that I can manage disasters with it. Or that I can manage things well enough until I can get to a drugstore to get additional supplies. That actually did happen on a trip to Orlando last month. I took an Immodium as a test and it turned into a disaster. The kit saved me for long enough so that I could stop at a CVS for additional supplies. Don't take Immodium if you have blockages!