Ostomy Friendly Restrooms

A Very Awkward Situation

By Lynn Wolfson

Lynn and Zev at the City of Weston building.

The importance of having a shelf, hook, sink and paper towels in a handicap restroom stall is crucial for digestive and urinary patients. I have personally experienced disaster when I was alone in a handicap stall without these necessities while I was traveling from Illinois to Florida with my daughter. We made a bathroom stop at a supermarket in Arkansas. My daughter did a little shopping while I went into the restroom.

I went into the handicap stall with my medical feeding backpack. There was a large space with an elevated toilet, and a grab bar beside it. I sat down on the toilet with my backpack on the floor next to me since the hook behind the door was further away then my tubing could stretch. I went to empty my ostomy bag, when I noticed my wafer was beginning to leak. Good thing I had my service dog, Zev, with me who carries my extra ostomy supplies in his backpack.

I removed my bag of supplies from his backpack. My supplies included a small trash bag, adhesive remover wipes, ostomy powder, protective barrier wipes, a barrier ring, a wafer, scissors to cut the wafer, barrier strips and an ostomy bag. There was no place for me to put these supplies. So, I balanced them on my thighs while I removed the ostomy wafer and bag from my abdomen and placed them in the trash bag.

Then I went to use the adhesive remover wipes to clean my abdomen. I picked up the scissors and started cutting my wafer to my size and then my ostomy started shooting output everywhere!!! It soiled the supplies that were on my thighs that fell to the floor. My feeding backpack also got covered in output. My clothes became soiled and the floor was covered with my output. I did not have any more supplies with me. All I had was toilet paper which was not sufficient. Luckily, Zev had my phone in his backpack and I called my daughter who was shopping in the store to bring me more supplies and to help me. It was a very humiliating experience.

If there would have been a shelf at a seated level, my ostomy supplies could have been saved. A sink and paper towels would have allowed me to properly clean the mess. In addition, if there was a hook 5 feet above the floor by the toilet, my feeding backpack could have been hung and not been affected by my ostomy shooting output.

Therefore, there MUST be a shelf, hook, sink and paper towels in all handicap restroom stalls to preserve the dignity of digestive and urinary patients and avoid a living nightmare situation like this.