Crohn’s Disease- humiliated by receptionist at doctors

[KnittingMania]

I’m at doc surgery rn waiting for my appt. I have Crohn’s Disease and have to access toilet unexpectedly up to 12 times a day or more. So Sod’s Law it happened while waiting here. Immediately after I exited the toilet, having tried my best to mitigate odours by cleaning etc, the receptionist bustled out and went straight into toilet, huffed loudly, went elsewhere with lots of door banging and came back with air freshener. She then sprayed it not just in toilet but throughout the reception kind of passageway that is in clear view of the waiting area.

I cannot help being ill. I avoid so many things bc of this miserable and embarrassing illness. I thought I could feel safe at doc’s. They could provide air freshener in the toilet. But my point is wider- no one should be shamed by their illness in a doc surgery.

I would like to complain. Should I? It’s kind of embarrassing doing this. But I feel she should learn and raise her levels of understanding.

I agree

I think people were talking about people washing their backsides in sinks instead of using wipes.

Definitely complain. I have bowel issues too and I would be really embarrassed.

You poor thing. As I used to say to my toddler when they loudly declared ‘it smells of poo!’, yes, it’s a toilet and a great place to go to poop!

if its any comfort I spent a year in university halls one door down from the loo. The guy opposite the loo would hear me go, wee, poo, whatever and pop out with an air freshener the second he heard my door close. I used to play a little game where I’d shut my door but stay on the outside then give him a cheery hi as his arm flew out with the spray and he was caught in flagrante, how he ever slept I don’t know what with needing to maintain such a vigilant poo patrol. It really wasn’t stinky at all.

If its never occured to you someone might have poo on their hands then why do you wash your hands? If everyones hands are always pristine then there would never be a need for this.

My mum has the same illness and I would get her to complain if she was treated like that. x

of course everyone washes their hands after using the toilet but I have never seen anyone come our with shit smeared on them or proceeding to wash their arse in the sink!

So why do you wash your hands then? If no one ever gets anything on their hands why do you wash them?

I didn’t say nobody gets anything on their hands, I said shit smeared on their hands and WASHING THEIR ARSE IN A PUBLIC SINK. I wash my hands because someone else has used the bathroom before me.
I wash my hands before and after I handle food, I wash my hands before I eat, I wash my hands when I use the bathroom, I wash my hands I change my child’s nappy, I wash my hands a multitude of times a day.

And they wonder why some Doctors Receptionists have a bad name - I’m sure they recruit nasty people on purpose …had a mean encounter myself last week !
anyone with CD UC or Ibs cannot help what they leave in the toilet - just be kind everyone! AND GP SURGERIES TRAIN YOUR STAFF

Several family members suffered with Crohn’s colitis. They were prescribed with small cans of air freshener that they carried with them. Maybe ask your doctor.

On another note, spraying air freshener around in a drs surgery could have made anyone with respiratory problems very uncomfortable.

Definitely bring it up with the surgery.

Why would you have seen it? In loos with toilet cubicles and open sinks, people would, presumably, generally wipe off any visible dirt on their hands before leaving the cubicle. And they're not going to get their bum out over the shared sinks in front of anyone who happens to be there.

The PP who brought this up (and has probably been regretting raising the bloody topic for quite a while now) was specifically referring to needing to use the facilities to wash yourself, privately, inside an accessible/disabled toilet facility. These tend to be self-contained cubicles with a loo and sink, and will sometimes need to be used for different things or in different ways, in comparison with the general-access loos. It would be a bit weird if you had been there to see someone using the facilities in that way, unless maybe you were a carer assisting someone in the accessible loo.

And I am asking why do people not use wipes? Would you be happy going into a toilet where someone had washed faeces off their backside in the sink where you wash your hands.

Yes definitely complain , my mum had Chrohns and it’s such a distressing illness ,she should not be allowed to humiliate any patient !!!!😢

So if people do get things on their hands, but its not poo then what is it?

Why do you wash your hands because someone has used the toilet before you if you are convinced no one gets poo on their hands. Whats the point?

Mate, I've catastrophically shat myself in a public place in the past (I'm talking sudden, unexpected, dramatic diarrhoea that, once it starts, won't stop until everything's out — the kind of accident where you're just glad the person with you happened to be wearing a long coat), and have needed those accessible, self-contained facilities to clean myself up while my companion went to buy me new clothes and shoes. A wad of Wet Ones would not have fucking cut it, even if I had magically predicted I would humiliate myself that day by publicly shitting myself in the worst way. I left it as clean as I could — I mean, it's not like I left shit smears across the front of the sink where people lean, or anything like that. It's theoretically possible there were poo particles left in the bowl of the sink (just as there may be when someone wipes their backside then washes their hands) because I didn't have access to cleaning supplies.

So, yeah — if I'm going into the accessible toilet, I accept that other people have needs that mean they might use the facilities in different ways, and that might mean that the sink intended for washing dirt and pathogens off skin has been used for washing dirt and pathogens off skin. The horror.

They don’t get smeared with shit is what I said. Fecal matter goes everywhere when you flush the chain. People explode on toilets and don't clean them. Even when I had food poisoning and was on and off the toilet all day and night, I never smeared it all over my hands nor did I wash my Arse in a sink. Of course you wash your hands after wiping your bum but how on earth anyone would get it smeared all over their hands is beyond me.

What did you wash with?

Thank you and I appreciate your comment. But actually the toilet is down a short passageway off the waiting room. I slipped out of it very quickly so I could shut the door and not let any odour spread. I sat in the waiting room facing the open double doors to said passageway. The woman bolted out of the reception area and to the toilet so fast, I thought she must’ve been desperate herself. I actually felt worried that she might have a similar condition and wondered why on earth they didn’t have a separate staff facility. But she didn’t use the toilet, she simply opened the door, huffed banged the door shut, and then went off on her rummaging mission. She then sprayed inside the toilet and all along the corridor and into reception in a performative and angry way.

also if you work in a medical setting you can control your expression.

I’m sorry to hear that. Your poor dear nephew. I have panic attacks too- panic disorder. Like for your nephew, the Crohn’s adds to the constant high alert panicky syndrome. I was at doc’s for lump in breast so anxiety about that may have cause the unexpected ‘incident’! As I mentioned I had avoided eating thinking that would avoid other things- usually works.

No, way out of order. I would complain. It’s not as if you left the toilet in a dreadful state or didn’t flush the chain. You had no control over the smell and at the end of the day whose shit smells pretty ? That was a direct move to embarrass you.

I saw your second reply after I wrote my reply to you!

Right, so there may be fecal matter on someones hands. And there might be fecal matter on the sink from flushing the toilet.

So what is the difference between washing poo off your hands, or off your bum? Because your argument was that people shouldnt wash poo off other body parts at the sink because you wash your hands there. But if you are agreed that there may be fecal matter on your hands then it's a bit of a silly argument you've made isn't it.

No one has suggested it was "smeared all over their hands" thats just you.

And if you haven't had any physical disabilities that impact your hand co-ordination or any conditions that impact your digestive system then you appear to just be here to make ableist comments and try to make people with medical conditons and disabilities feel bad about themselves.

I would far rather spend time with someone with a condition that means they have had to wash themselves at a sink designed for washing than with someone who seems determined to make people with health conditions feel dirty and bad about themselves

@Bandyarsia,I did what I could with what I had while my companion achieved the world's fastest shopping trip.

My point is, not everyone's life is exactly like yours, and sometimes other people will need access to facilities that you don't need. Sometimes they will even access them without you knowing exactly what they're doing in there. You should probably assume that shit particles and germs have been rinsed into any loo sink you use anyway, so what's the difference if the sink in the accessible loo might also have shit particles and germs rinsed into it?

Maybe be glad you're in a position where it's incomprehensible to you that someone might get shit in unintended places, or sometimes just have to try to clean themselves up as best that can in a public accessible toilet.