As the summer draws to a close, a lot of people are doing what I’m doing and that is taking stock of how many times we’ve all almost pooped our pants during these sunny months.
I’ve had IBS for about half my life and I’m lucky in that I have a fairly mild version of it. There are a whole host of bad things that you feel or experience when you suffer from IBS but for me, it surfaces as a sudden urge to poop out of nowhere. The issue is that when the urge strikes, I may not be in an ideal situation to poop.
While sometimes there seems to be no reason why the urge is triggered, over the years I have discovered some of them. One is simply drinking some water. Sometimes it feels like the water just travels through my system way too quickly and then winds up in a place that makes my body want to poop and poop badly. This trigger doesn’t happen if I’m eating or had something substantial to eat before the water. If enough times passes though, the trigger can happen… or it might not.
One sunny Sunday, I decided to take a nice walk out to a local park but I was probably at least fifteen minutes away from my apartment when I was feeling parched. It was super hot that day and I was sweating a lot. I took a sip from my water bottle. A few minutes later, I felt some rumblings and gurglings down below. Things were shifting and moving inside me. Even before the urge was felt, I knew I was in trouble. Sure enough, a few seconds later, I needed to poop bad.
I was at least fifteen minutes away from my apartment and there were no facilities closer that I felt like I wanted to use. I always have this debate in my head about where I want to poop (at home) versus where you logically should just poop (anywhere acceptable). For better or for worse, I decided that I could hold it long enough to get home. I recognize sometimes that just doesn’t make sense. I was probably a ten minute walk to a park washroom but I decided I could make it home instead. So, I began the brisk walk home.
I gotta admit, there were parts of the walk home that I needed to clench some muscles pretty badly to keep things in place. It was an awful feeling and I honestly thought this was gonna be the day where I just explosively poop my shorts out in public. Somehow, I mustered up the intestinal fortitude to keep it all together and made it all the way home. The worst part when you get nearly home is the wait for the elevator and then the elevator ride up. My body knows I’m so close to my own bathroom but it needs to wait like just another sixty seconds or so. I’m surprised I even knew how to use my key in the lock, as I’m fumbling around to get my front door open. Once I get through the door, it was a straight-shot to the bathroom, shoes still on, and right onto the toilet. Words can’t describe the relief once I painted the bowl with all that ugliness.
Believe it or not, this scenario happened to me again this summer. I was walking to a nearby shopping district to get a gift for a friend. Halfway there, the urge surprised me like a tiger coming out of the grass. I knew I could either soldier on and try to find a washroom at the mall or I could turn around and go poop at home. I decided to turn around and go home. Again, I almost didn’t make it and very nearly pooped on the sidewalk for the first time. Somehow I stumbled my way home with clean shorts.
Alright, summer memories are fun!