Am I the only one who thinks that shopping for ostomy supplies is way harder than it needs to be? Not only is everything expensive, but certain brands and products can be hard to find depending on where you live. This country’s healthcare system is so messed up; to be honest, I have no idea what I would do if I didn’t have such a good paying job that I can work from home, because I spend a lot of money on ostomy supplies every month. You’d think that my disposable income would be going to something more exciting, right? Like maybe an addition to my house, maybe a new car, some nice watches or whatever. Nope. It all goes to ostomy supplies. Well, that may have been a slight exaggeration, but you hopefully get what I mean when I’m saying this. I know that not many people can understand my sentiment and experiences with buying ostomy supplies, because not many people I know have stomas. So hopefully I can write this article and find more people like me who also have a stoma and struggle to find the right ostomy supplies at a decent price.
One thing I can tell you right off the bat is that I absolutely despise going to Walmart. In this instance, I’m not even talking about just for ostomy supplies – I hate Walmart in general. I don’t like the way Walmart treats its employees, I don’t like that it buys out all of the competition that it can, I don’t like that it runs small businesses to the ground, and I especially hate the people that you find at Walmart on any given day. Walmart is truly one of the more depressing places to shop at. In addition to all this, Walmart also has a very poor selection of ostomy gear and related accessories. I have even talked to their pharmacists to see if I can order ostomy supplies from them online (because I would rather drive a car into a brick wall than step foot into a Walmart) but they told me that what they have in the store is only what they are allowed to sell. Well, I guess this just gives me another reason to avoid Walmart entirely.
Another place that I’ve looked for specific ostomy supplies and related accessories is at different pharmacies. Now there is a bit of a better selection at certain stores like Walgreens and RiteAid, but still not as much as I would like there to be. I mean, at a store that only sells medical supplies and other types of stuff like that, why the heck don’t they have more ostomy supplies? Well, that left me with only one other place to buy my ostomy supplies. That’s right, I started exclusively ordering my ostomy gear online through different websites that I have researched.
The good thing about shopping online is that the variety of products is just endless and the prices are very competitive. As long as you don’t mind waiting a few days or weeks to get the stuff you ordered, it seems that shopping online for your stoma related products is the way to go about it. Plus, I never have to leave my couch to order ostomy pouches ever again.
My Ostomy Diary 