What you don't see

[girliejones]

Last night after recording Galactic Suburbia, I broke the toilet. The only remaining toilet at home - there are two. And the experience and how I felt about it ties into partly what we were talking about in counselling a week or more ago. I wanted to know if my OCD was related to the onset of my disease, as discussed here previously. It wasn't

Comments

[jo1967]

I don't know if this will help, and if may not really be something you want too many comments on, but Charlotte is having bowel issues as well. They are more related to being six years old and concentrating too hard on what she's doing to go to the toilet than a chronic disease, but the issue of too much toilet paper does come up. Have you tried bum wipes? The absolute best ones are actually Huggies Nappy Wipes but you're not really supposed to flush them. In the toilet paper section you will find a couple of different brands which are designed to be flushed. They might help you feel cleaner with less paper involved.

Trying to come up with practical solutions *grin*.

[girliejones]

Funnily enough the bum wipes have come up in conversation in my house for other reasons! Nothing wrong really with feeling extra fresh or refreshed as I think the packet says. Its good advice and I should suck this up and just go get myself a practical solution. Thank you xx

[jo1967]

Glad to be of assistance. You realise I now have a mental picture of Benji getting his bum wiped, don't you?

[girliejones]

I'd be lying if I said I'd never done it.

[callistra]

*hugs*
You're so hard on yourself babe. My solution would be to buy more toilet paper, and maybe stash some in a ziplock bag in your bag (if I was worried about other people's toilet paper), and a book. Then you can always say 'oops, I forgot I was on the toilet, and was reading a really good chapter!' if you're at a stranger's house. Or if you're at any friend's house, I am sure there's more than enough books to use that excuse in there anyway!

Bodies do stuff. Unfortunately, that often is not viewed well in our society. Regardless, I am glad you posted about it. I hope you can find a way to come to peace with it.

[girliejones]

Thank you for this! And I may well use your book ruse should I need to!

So much of this is taboo to talk about that it comes to feel like it's taboo to do.

[transcendancing]

I couldn't have said it better than this.

and because it can't be said enough... thank you for posting this and sharing it.

[girliejones]

That's really quite conforting to hear this is not quite so outlandish as it felt to type out! I think I would feel quite weird about having two toilet bowl objects sitting next to each other in my bathroom!
It would be a long term plan and obviously in a house that was mine to install such a thing.

He is very much an awesome guy and makes me feel important and cared about and for.

[exp_err]

My parents have one of those toilet-seat bidet attachments in their toilet.

[girliejones]

ooh!

[krazykitkat]

There is so much in this I relate to.

For me, if my fear was leaving the house and someone made me do it once and nothing bad happened to me, that would in no way make me think, "Oh well then, my fears are completely unfounded." I'm nodding so hard. I've been struggling with serious anxiety/panic for 12 years now (and actually the anxiety goes back to my mid-teens). I have been going to work 3 times a week for the last 5 years, yet I still regularly have anxiety attacks on the way

[girliejones]

I think you probably know a lot what this is like, at least some parts of it. We used to have septic tanks at home at it was HORRIBLE when thet would block up. Perth went basically sewer which is awesome from that respect - I was seriously way too interested in this upgrade than most people - but you still have the issue of the pipes which are made of clay here and so are porous and need to be cleared out. It gets frustrating.

[krazykitkat]

We had septic when I was a kid, the sewer going on was quite an event :) (mum led a campaign because they were going to pull out of doing our suburb, they had the minister come to a meeting at our neighbour's. As he arrived, dad turned the pump on that pumped part of the septic up the back yard, so he got to smell it as he came down the driveway ;))

We've had more problems since we renovated about 15 years ago and had new toilets put in. Between the smaller hole and "water saving", you actually have to press more. Plus the tree roots get in the pipes, which dad has to regularly go in and clean out.

[lyndarama]

A bidet has that air of European-ess about it; you'd look cultured rather than 'fussy'. And it would save all those trees, the pipes of your toilet and your bum would thank you for it.

Having been affected by this stuff for a relatively short period of time, I know the feeling of needing to 'go' at a party etc for a long time and hoping like hell the loo isn't occupied and no-one comments on how long you've been in there. In fact, I left a few bbqs etc and had t drive home VERY FAST to ensure I could go for as long as I liked and without feeling self-conscious.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I am trying to bring back 'poo' as a word and decriminalise the word. As an example, if I'm on the phone and want to go to, you know, GO, I am going to say 'so hey, I gotta go poo, I'll talk to you later'.

If we could just be a little more honest, maybe we wouldn't have so much trouble accepting peoples different poo needs.

[girliejones]

Yes I could feel and look *very* French, which I don't hate! I do need to get my head around it first though! I like the idea of saving trees, that's a definite benefit!

See, I don't think I could use the word "poo" but I do know what you mean about being more honest, even if just so people can know what's going on with me, I guess.