Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Break in the Storm
In the midst of a large storm, beyond obvious concerns of physical and possessional safety, I found myself repeatedly concerned with bowel safety. Making silent appeals to the universe for the power to stop flickering and remain on without further difficulty and for the weather to remain mild enough that we may remain at home without danger to ourselves in fear of not having access to a restroom.
Do you ever find yourself with such concerns?
When growing up, our home had a well rather than using the town's water and everytime the power went out, so did our ability to use the restroom. If we had enough weather notice to suspect power interference then we would fill several gallon buckets of water in order to restock the toilet tank. Depending on the length of the power outage I would then be forced to flee to city to stay with relatives.
Even to this day, in spite of having access to city water, I still find myself worrying about power outages in relation to restroom access.
Or the fear of the house becoming so damaged from a severe storm resulting in leaving the property or becoming trapped in the house and injured like so many that are viewed on the news channels. Think of the additional injury of being found in a compromising situation due to SBS or other health issues brought on by crisis situations or fleeing for safety without adequate accomodations or when necessary.
Perhaps these are silly or irrelevant concerns to others, but to us with our lives constantly being assaulted by health concerns and bathroom habits, is it a surprise that even during times of potential crisis that we concern ourselves with the most basic needs?
This is my life with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis and Short Bowel Syndrome.
I was diagnosed with FAP as a child, underwent total colectomy at age 9. I experienced life threatening complications resulting in 4 more surgeries that year and developing medical PTSD. I had an ileostomy for 6 years before having it reversed into a straight pull-thru that also resulted in life threatening complications requiring an additional surgery the following year. In 2021, I required my 8th surgery to remove my gall bladder due to gall stones and FAP. This surgery exacerbated my, at the time undiagnosed, Abdominal Migraine which is now being treated.
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