I know I’m a little late, but here is what happened when I flew to Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago.

At our local airport, they have a metal detector and, more recently, a body scanner. This scanner is designed to detect anything that might be hidden under clothing, such as a weapon or other items. This included my ostomy. I can’t say I was surprised by this as it has been picked up before when we last flew. The security guard was polite and, after scanning under my hood with a handheld scanner, she asked if I had anything on my stomach. I explained I had an ostomy and, to my surprise, she smiled and took me to a side room, along with another female colleague. She said she didn’t need to see my bag but didn’t want to scan it in front of people and chose to do so in the side room as this gave me more privacy. It took less than five minutes and they were both very polite and kind about the whole thing. They wished me a safe journey and that was that.

I have read some of the horror stories other ostomates have shared about their experiences when going through airport security (one had been asked to open their bag, another had their bag ripped off their stomach without their permission, ect). Needless to say, I was a little nervous, despite our previous time flying having been without incident.

Thankfully, I was able to put my mine at ease before even arriving at the airport by visiting their website. My local airport has a “special assistance” section which included a helpful “tips” pdf. Reading through, I found that not only were they part of the green lanyard scheme (which helps staff identify passengers who have a hidden (or not so hidden) disability or illness), but they have also done a load of training with a list of charities, including Stomaware and Crohn’s & Colitis UK. This means that their security are aware of sensitive subjects like IBD or a stoma, and know how to proceed without invading someone privacy or dignity. All in all, I was quite impressed with how they handled things.

Now, I don’t know if any of you have had to squeeze into the on-board toilet, but from previous experience, I didn’t want to have to go anywhere near our planes facilities, especially with my bag; the cubicle is tiny and I know output can be smelly and I didn’t want to be the one to stink out the entire plane. Thus, I decided I wasn’t going to use it. But how was I going to ensure my bag didn’t fill up whilst in the air? Simple; I took extra loperamide throughout the day and before boarding. I also made sure to eat a small, carb-filled meal (we were flying around dinner time) and a bag of jelly sweets. Thankfully, this worked. I would like to point out that this only worked for me because my output is usually quite watery. If it were ostomy-normal consistency, then I probably wouldn’t have needed to do any of this as the flight was only about an hour.

Conclusion: flying with an ostomy is way easier than I thought.
I would recommend anyone who is planning on flying with a medical appliance seek advice from your airline provided/airport. It can’t hurt to let them know before boarding.
Although not always necessary, a travel certificate might help if you are taking a lot of supplies with you. And if you are taking medication, always keep it in the original packaging. One last thing, put your medical supplies in your hand luggage. You don’t want them getting damaged or lost whilst in the hold.

For a while now I have been having palpitations on and off for no particular reason. I started checking my heart rate, using a built-in app on my phone, on a somewhat daily basis shortly after my IBD diagnosis back in 2016 and noticed my resting heart rate was always above what the app said was normal for someone of my age/height/weight/gender. I didn’t think much of it because I was on a lot of meds that, for all I knew, could be causing the increase in heart rate. It was always high whenever I was admitted to the hospital too but I assumed that was due to being in hospital as well as being unwell at the time.

Skip forward to just after my first surgery, and my resting heart rate was always above 120bpm. For reference, for an average adult of my height/weight/age/gender, the resting heart rate is typically between 60 & 80bpm. I figured the 120bpm was a direct result of my surgery and after a few weeks of slowly building my weight back up, my resting heart rate dropped to around 90bpm or so.

From there, I didn’t really notice it much; it became sort of like background noise. I’d notice my heart beating really fast during and after exercise but didn’t really think much of it then either because that’s meant to happen, right?

Anyway, after having surgery for the fourth time back in July last year, I started getting sudden onset palpitations with fast breathing and a somewhat panicked feeling (a panic attack?). Again, for no apparent reason. This would last for about 2 minutes before fading, leaving me feeling drained and anxious, so I finally went to my GP. She referred me to have a 24 hour monitor, which involves wearing a heart monitor (similar to an ECG) for 24 hours that records the wearers heart rate which is then analysed by a cardiologist.

After having the 24 hour test at the beginning of the year, I finally saw a cardiologist in clinic earlier this week. They did an ECG and an ultrasound on my heart and, thankfully, everything looks normal. My heart infrastructure is fine and looks healthy, and aside from the palpitations and high resting heart rate, there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong. They don’t want to try any intense treatment unless it starts interfering with my daily life but they did recommend trying beta-blockers to help regulate my heart rate. Because beta blockers can make you tired, the cardiologist said I wouldn’t have to take them all the time but could try taking them whenever I start getting palpitations.

My GP has already filled a prescription for me so I guess I’ll give them a go once they’re ready. Whether this is related to my IBD or not, I don’t know, but it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think so as IBD can effect many parts of the body, not just the bowel. I’ll update again on this after I’ve been taking the beta blockers for a bit.

In other news, I’m going to flying to the Netherlands later this week so expect a post about that later next week. I’ll be sure to take note of how going through security goes this time compared to last time (hopefully, it’ll go just as smoothly).

Why am I using my stick today when I didn’t need it yesterday?

I am travelling by train for the first time since my surgery. The journey involves several changes and I am carrying quite a full backpack. As I am still recovering, I need to be careful that I do not fall or get knocked into as these could both potentially cause muscle strain that can lead to other complications. Although I haven’t needed my walking stick for the last couple of weeks, having returned to work this week has shown me that I am far from fully recovered.

As my work requires me to be on my feet a lot, by mid-afternoon yesterday my stomach muscles were beginning to protest. I thought this ache would go away if I sat down and hugged my hot water bottle when I got home but, unfortunately, the pain persisted throughout the night and I am still quite sore even now.

What does all this have to do with my using my walking stick today? Well, as I am travelling through the busy London underground for part of my journey, it will not only help support me as I walk around, but it will also act as a “red flag” to other commuters that I won’t be able to move out of their way and to be mindful to not jostle me as they rush for the tube.

I have said this before but I think it’s worth repeating because not everyone understands that you can be fine one day and not the next. Recovery is not linear.