Many people have had to undergo this crazy surgery called an ostomy. I know for me personally, my ostomy changed my life for a few months before I got accustomed to living with a stoma and could adjust back to my normal life with the addition of an ostomy pouch. One of the hardest things about getting an ostomy is trying to figure things out for yourself once you go home from the hospital to start your recovery process. The doctors are usually very helpful in this process, and I had good experiences with all the nurses, doctors, surgeons, and other medical personnel that I worked with during my time at the hospital. However, even with ostomy supplies prescribed and sent home with me after surgery, I still had a really hard time figuring out how to take care of my stoma and to find proper supplies for my ostomy. Ostomy supplies and gear seems like something that would be pretty easy to locate and purchase, but you would be surprised to know that there is not a whole lot of resources or information available for people like me.

One of the hardest parts of buying ostomy supplies and gear is knowing where to find it. I had a really hard time shopping through different stores to find the right supplies that my doctor recommended. To my surprise, a lot of pharmacies in my area carried almost none of the ostomy gear that I needed and this was incredibly frustrating for me. I mean, you sell medical supplies after all – why on earth would they not have proper ostomy gear? Anyways, my in person search for ostomy supplies left me very dissatisfied. Of the gear that I did find, most of it was very poor quality and I would have been left to deal with leaky ostomy pouches and an irritated skin barrier; this is something that I could just not accept. I turned to some online forums to look for resources about where to find some proper high quality ostomy supplies, and I got a lot of messages returned from some fellow ostomates. 

A lot of people who had ostomies were telling me that the best place to look for supplies was online. I was surprised that this is not something that I had thought about before, but it makes sense that there would be a plethora of ostomy gear and supplies online. Afterall, you can buy almost anything online these days, and I was willing to drop some serious money on ostomy supplies if I found the right ones. My Uncle had just recently passed away from a bad lung at the time, and due to the inheritance that followed I was flush with cash. 

One thing I can say for sure is that I will never be buying my ostomy gear and supplies anywhere but online these days. There is truly no point in going to a real pharmacy or department store, because there is no doubt that whatever you find there can be found online for much cheaper. Plus, I don’t even have to leave my house to get ostomy gear. I simply just get on my phone while I watch the price is right and order myself some sick new pouches. My stoma is happy and so am I.