"Do You Poop??!?"

Saint H's work takes him into daily contact with 120 kids up to age 5. During a fire drill this summer, a gaggle of 4-year old boys confronted him with that question. Imagine the words piping clearly across a playground at a child's high pitch, accompanied by manic giggles from onlookers. You get the picture.

It's not exactly "polite conversation" under most circumstances, is it? But it seems to be one of the dominant topics at our support group meetings. Almost all of us live with diarrhea and lower g.i. problems due to our medications. I carry Immodium and Pepto with me everywhere I go, and friends are used to me disappearing during, or after, meals to hit the restroom. I watch what I eat, keeping away from rich foods, but sometimes that doesn't matter; I still have to make a run for it regardless. I have stomach cramps on a regular basis. It's a hell of a way to lose weight, I'm afraid. (But I haven't given up ice cream yet) There's no way to predict what will trigger an explosion.

We talk about it so much at our support group that a pharma company representative, who often comes to our meetings, recently handed out little cards giving hints on how to take Immodium to control the diarrhea. I haven't seen a writeup on this yet but suspect that it won't be long before some scholarly treatise appears.

Oh, yes - that question. Saint H, with considerable aplomb, responded, "Well, what do you think?" and walked away quickly. No fool he!