When Someone Else Is In The Bathroom!
I realize that because of my IBS, I have developed quite a few pet peeves. One of them being when someone else is in the bathroom when I urgently need to use it. For this reason, I don’t always like having company spend the night over my house, and I’m also not a huge fan of staying over other people’s homes either. My IBS is usually at its worst in the mornings, and of course, it’s always at the worst times when someone else is using the bathroom and I need to use it. Let me share with you a couple of real examples in my life when someone else was in the bathroom at a moment where I felt like my IBS was about to make me explode.
My father-in-law was in the bathroom when I urgently needed to use it
Mild Example #1: My wife and I were visiting her parents for the weekend. Well, one very early morning, I kept getting nudged out of my sleep from a prickly sensation surfacing my entire body. As I became more awake and aware, the uncomfortable feeling started to translate into gas pain, which quickly turned into an urgency to use the toilet. As I rushed downstairs from the upstairs-bedroom to the only bathroom in the house, my father-in-law was already in there doing the very act I so desperately needed to do. So, unfortunately, I had no choice but to wait until he was done, which was no easy feat for me to do due to my painful circumstances. As many of you may already know, visceral hypersensitivity is a symptom for many of us with IBS, which basically means I feel normal activity in my gut at a very heightened and painful level. So, as I was waiting for my father-in-law to finish up, it felt like my bowel was slowly being sliced open as the waste was seeping through my intestines. Yes, quite an image, I know. Thankfully, he finished up soon enough that I got to use the toilet before any accidents happened.
My cousin was in the bathroom when I urgently needed to use it
More Intense Example #2: My wife and I are visiting my very close cousin and his girlfriend in the Bronx, New York. We end up going out to a Korean restaurant, and needless to say, I ate and drank things that were not only delicious, but I knew would trigger my IBS symptoms. Well, fast-forward to very early the next morning, and yet again, I get shoved out of my sleep by intense gas pain. As always, I try my best to ignore it, but the pain intensifies more and more over time, and I was forced to unwillingly wake up. I rushed to the bathroom, and as you can probably assume, my cousin was already on the toilet doing the very act I wish I was doing at that exact moment. When I knocked on the door and asked how long he was going to be, he said just a few more minutes. In my mind, a few more minutes felt like it was going to be an eternity, but I had no choice but to wait. By the way, I forgot to mention that this particular cousin of mine also has irritable bowel syndrome, and his can get pretty severe at times as well.
Panic and frustration
Well, with that being said, a few minutes start to go by, and the pain starts hitting me in painful waves. A few more minutes go by and I lay back down on the uncomfortable air mattress I brought with me in hopes to lessen the weight of gravity on my pain. Another ten minutes go by, and I’m not only panicking but getting very frustrated. I can’t be mad at my cousin because I obviously understand what it’s like to have IBS, but I also don’t have to be happy about the situation either (lol). I had to go number 1 and 2 so bad that I started contemplating a plan b in case he didn’t get out sooner. For example, wondering if the trash can or a plastic bag in a bucket was going to suffice. Well, one tactic I ended up using was urinating in an empty water bottle, which actually lessened the pressure on my bowels. Therefore, I was able to be patient just a little longer. Finally, after almost 30 minutes, he comes out of the bathroom and tries to stall me with a conversation. I ran past him, careless about what was coming out of his mouth, and handled my business in excruciating pain.
Can any of you reading this relate to my experiences? Have you ever been in a situation when you really needed to use the toilet but someone else was in the bathroom, and for a long time at that? If so, please comment and share with us below. Thanks for reading and stay positive!
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