Doing what you love with your stoma no matter what

I have started to read much more now that COVID-19 has come into the world.  Most entertainment has been stopped and that is cause for a good book.  So I have been reading lots of old books on survival, bushcraft, and mainly hunting.  That is because I have seen the United States Economy shift into a downward spiral and seen the supply chain breakdown.  It made me wonder about many things and safety came to mind.  I have a stoma, so having the right gear came to mind, and being able to have it available was really important.  Then the idea of having the right gear and having food came to mind and if stores stopped having food what would I do. That is why I started to look back at what people who had ostomy back in the day did and how they survived because it is incredible to see what can be done. 

I shopped a lot on amazon and they sent a lot of packages my way.  Being stuck at home with me and my stoma I had lots of time to read and especially since I started working from home.  But hunting seemed to be the topic that I always came back to.  If people could go out and procure enough meat for a whole month with a single deer, I knew that it was something that could be an answer to the food issue.  See when it came to the ostomy gear issue, I had already started stocking up months ago.  Learning about how to survive a small economic collapse or just a natural disaster is useful. 

Now with a stoma,  I cannot survive with simply ostomy bags, sanitizing gear, and skincare.  This is an important healthcare need of mine.  Food is a big deal and my biggest worry was that my ostomy bag would keep me out of being successful in the hunting world.  So I searched for a long time on how sensitive animals smell was.  This kinda made me a bit sad, because their sense of smell is so far beyond ours as humans I thought they would smell me a mile away.  The truth is that they can and most likely will.  The scent blocking products are very prevalent. 

I have a lot of options and there are pills that I can take to minimize my own waste smells and even sprays that I can put in my bags that are order eliminating.  That is pretty cool.  So I made sure to pick some up and then also work on scent-blocking clothing.  That is very available in the hunting world and with that combined, I have seen many posts on online forums where men and women in my situation have been very successful.  This was a huge boom to my personal fears because I knew that with the right skills and location that I could hunt, and provide for my family.  

 It doesn't hurt to spend a lot of time watching youtube videos of hunting and then tried to find specific accounts of people who have a stoma on social media and follow them.  I want to know how to do things that I normally don't and I have to say I have learned so much over the past few months that I feel safe, less worried, and prepared.