The Day I Didn't Make It

We talk so much about the bathroom. Where are the bathrooms? Will they be there when I need them? I don’t know that town…WHERE ARE THEIR BATHROOMS? Sometimes there are lots of places to go, sometimes just the woods. :-) But, the reason we want to know is that we want to know that if we start experiencing our very special brand of IBS problems, will we make it to the bathroom on time. Sometimes we don’t. I thought I would share this anecdote about the one and only time I didn’t make it and all of the drama, stress, and embarrassment it caused. Before I begin I would like to say, this was just a day in the life. It didn’t happen the next day and it didn’t happen today. But it could happen again and I’m ok with that. I have to be. Some things are simply out of our control.

My morning routine went wrong

Morning…of course. I had already been in the bathroom for an hour before work and thought I was done for the moment at least. At least until I got to work. Then I would just have to suffer the day, like I normally do, making excuses and doing the dance to the bathroom 20 times. I’m not sure what happened exactly. It just all happened so fast. I didn’t make it to work and I had to find somewhere to finish what I started and clean up.

At least I had my bathroom bag

Luckily, I had my GO BAG. Fresh clothes, soap, wipes, baby powder, etc... I didn’t want to do this at McDonald’s. I didn’t want to do this at any restaurant that was open at that hour. I should have, but I was in a panic. Because I am quite aware of what bathrooms are available on my way to work, I backtracked five miles and went to a park (the bathroom there, not the park itself ...LOL!) where I knew I would be alone. By this point, I was already half an hour late for work. I spent another half hour, 45 minutes finishing ‘the business’ and then another fifteen minutes cleaning up and changing. I am now an hour and a half late for work and I still had to drive a half an hour.

Coming clean about my IBS

I have made so many excuses since being diagnosed with IBS as to why I’m late. Usually, it’s only 15 minutes or half an hour. What the hell was I going to say about two hours? I think at this point, I wished that I had been honest about the illness from the start, so the multitude of excuses wouldn’t have been necessary. At this point, I had become the proverbial "Boy Who Cried, Wolf." My boss is cool. His boss is not. What I could get away with my boss will not fly with his boss. I think you get the picture. Where is Todd? Any number of places. ;-)

I think I just wanted to share this little horror story because I’m sure some of you can relate. It’s also good to get this kind of stuff off your chest and this is really the only place in the world I really feel like I can do that. Thanks for listening.