You know that moment in the bathroom, just before cheeks hit the seat, when all your weight is resting on your knees?
For me, that is a moment of agonizing pain – some days, a pain strong enough that honestly, I’d really rather just hold it.
That's because I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. What this means for me is poor connective tissue around my joints, which can cause joint pain, hypermobility, and subluxation of my joints. Mainly, I have very intense knee pain, and am prone to my joints subluxing or dislocating. To summarize: I pop and lock.
Because of EDS, I have two main reasons for dodging the bathroom whenever possible. The first is knee pain.
The second deserves to be told as an anecdote:
So one day, I’m going to take a seat on that porcelain throne, and I get a pang of pain through my hip with the faintest little *pop*! And I just think, “…I knew I should’ve held it in.” So I walk out to my two sisters, who also have EDS, and ask, “So what’s the most ridiculous way you’ve ever subluxed a joint? Because my hip popped out of place when I was sitting on the toilet.” They rolled their eyes at me. Evidently, I am not the only sister this has happened to. One of them informed me they popped out a hip just by standing. Oops.
I’ve dealt with a lot of odd side effects and lifestyle changes due to my plethora of disabilities. I was banned from carrying a gallon of milk for 2 months, I once had my sister scrub my head with rubbing alcohol to get medical glue off, and I wore chunky braces on my knees almost every day for multiple years. But I gotta say, avoiding the bathroom?
Probably the weirdest of them all.
I love this post. It's so quirky and yet has a dash of seriousness that I think you juggled beautifully. I will say, though I can't relate entirely, after having my daughter my hips pop much more than I think they should lol.