I went to spend a couple days with my parents last weekend since it was Mother’s Day and I couldn’t imagine not spending the day with her.

Thanksgiving 2013

We ended up going shopping which is something my mom and I rarely do. Not to get too personal but we both needed underwear and I wanted to make sure I had enough clothes for the warmer weather since I was heading back to New Jersey the following day. Shopping, clothes, packing and all that entails is completely different for me now that I have an ostomy.

I have to ask myself some questions before picking out an outfit:

1) Will I be eating or do I want the option to eat/drink? If so, I definitely need a longer and flowy-ish type of top.

2) Am I with a close group of people where a potential bulge in my clothing may be a bit more obvious?

3) Are there restrooms that are easy for me to use? Can I be discrete when I go or will it be very noticeable if I leave?

4) Will I be mostly sitting or standing? If sitting, I need something loser around my stomach. If standing, I can wear jeans or something along those lines.

5) Will I be keeping my coat on? Or if I find an outfit that I am not a thousand percent sure about/ends up making me uncomfortable, would walking around with a coat be appropriate?

And with undergarments, I have to think:

1) Am I planning on tucking my pouch into this? (Then I am looking more at boy shorts or high waisted)

2) Does it lie low enough as to not interfere with how the bag is laying?

3) Does the high waisted cover the bag enough as to make my stomach look flatter? (aka the only reason I would wear this type of underwear)

Going through my things while I was packing was so strange to me, although less so than last year which is good. I now know pretty much what types of clothing I should look in my drawers/closets for since I have had a good amount of time to see what works for me when it is hot out. The heat in and of itself affects my ostomy negatively so I try to do whatever I can clothing wise to allow my stomach to breathe. That being said, I also want to look and feel like me. One of the hardest parts of inflammatory bowel disease was how I look different all of the time. So, I have so many types of clothes in all different sizes as I wrote in this post here

I felt good after shopping with my mom and packing up some of my things to take back with me. It makes me feel better about myself and not dread the warmer weather more if I know I have clothes that I feel not only look good but also are “ostomy friendly.”