The Camping Trip

There has been quite a bit written about traveling with IBS. I wrote an article about preparation for different types of trips; mountains, beach, CAMPING. Well, my first trip of this lovely summer was into the woods…me, my backpack, my tent and my IBS. It was not a complete travesty, but I thought I would share some of the pain, in the hopes that some of you can relate and perhaps, also, to entertain in a strange way. So, without further ado…THE CAMPING TRIP.

The beast that is IBS

From the moment I woke up the morning of the trip, I knew I was in trouble. As usual, I had too much coffee and was starting to feel the beast. I had packed some food that I thought would be helpful and plenty of water, but that was all for naught, as I will explain later. TWO HOUR CAR RIDE. Those of us with IBS dread long car rides when we are not…uh…stable? I realize that many other trips have much longer car rides than two hours, but in this case, it was enough. At least it was only my twin twelve year old boys I was transporting. I did not feel uncomfortable having to explain why we had to stop at four rest stops to them. They don’t care…they got snacks and sodas. Had this been with a date or something, I’m not sure what I would have done. Anyway, get to the campsite, set up…doing better. My IBS symptoms tend to improve as the day goes along. So all is good, with my family, playing my guitar…Dad hands me a beer. Uhh…yup. Mom is cooking PIZZAS on the grill…yeah…don’t ask. So now I have pizza and beer as my IBS food sits screaming at me from inside the cooler. Well, very long story shorter, the pizza and beer was followed by chocolate chip cookies for dessert (homemade) and SMORES. Do you have any concept what SMORES does to IBS? Well, let me take this one for the team. You don’t want to find out.

In my previous article about traveling, I said some wise thing about adjusting your expectations about what a vacation or trip should be. Find a new way to have fun or some such…I have a lot of trouble following my own advice. My night in the tent was seriously not cool. I was about 100 yards from the facilities, which I guess was alright, but when you have to get up five or six times…it seems much further. I survived the night and did much better the next day.

I found that being very physical (I went kayaking (sp?), hiking, played tennis with my son, shuffleboard, horseshoes) and the more I did, the better I felt. So…I ended up having a very nice time, thank you very much. But not without learning some important camping lessons along the way. I will continue to perform badly in various circumstances to help all of you along. Until, I screw up again…I bid you a fond, adieu.