‘Health Care Etiquette’ August 13th, 2019 #healthcareetiquette © Outhouse Cartoons/C.A.P 2019 In the early days living with ulcerative colitis, I experienced a lot of embarrassing situations. I was mortified having to explain to my doctor what my symptoms were… that is bloody diarrhea. Every time I thought I’d reached my lowest moment of embarrassing moments, something else would happen to sink even lower. My first digital rectal exam was equally embarrassing. I remember when I had to hand over my second stool sample to the nurse at my new GI’s office. I told her that I felt like all my dignity was gone. She chuckled like it was nothing. There was the time I had to go to the ER for extreme dehydration and I had to hand over another stool sample. I told the nurse that I had ulcerative colitis and she brushed it all off like she knew exactly what I was talking about. But upon examining the sample, she asked me why it was so red… “Uh, ulcerative colitis???” The worst situation I ever found myself in, however, was my very first stool sample. I was scared to death from all the bloody stools I was passing. I felt miserable. I was sitting in the lab waiting to have some blood drawn. The nurse was preparing me for that while another nurse began opening the brown paper bag that contained my stool sample. I watched in silence hoping that she wouldn’t know it was mine. There was another guy in the room waiting for his labs to be drawn too. All of a sudden and without warning the nurse opening the stool sample said, “OH MY GOD!” The nurse prepping me for my draw looked over and said, “What’s up?” “LOOK AT THIS!” “What is that?” “A stool sample!” “OH MY GOD!” I wanted to die right then and there. Not only did I feel like I was a disgusting person with a disgusting bowel problem, but even nurses found me repulsive AND there was another person in the room. To make things worse, the nurse said, “Who's that?” “Amber P___.” After the pair were finished freaking out, the nurse went back to my blood draw. “What’s your name?” She asked. “Amber P___.” The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Everything was deathly quiet after that. YES, ladies. That was MY stool sample. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Have you dealt with a situation that was mishandled during your years dealing with IBD? Tell us in the comments below.
