Is anyone willing to share any embarrasing moments they've had associated with UC, their ostomy, their pouch etc. And how you dealt with it. I started to post it in just for laughs, but decided some of the moments may not be so funny.

I could fill a book with them.

How about the old days with those terrible two-piece bags? I was about a year post op with an ileostomy.
I was at a girls house being all coy and flirtatious.....and while standing my bag fell off and dropped down the leg of my trousers kind of killed the moment PERMANENTLY.

Okay, another. Being a careless and footloose teen. I changed my bag one night after a leakage which also involved a bleary eyed bed-linen change. In the morning I woke in another pool of mess really p***ed off with myself because I forgot to tie the clip on my bag!!? From that day on I didn't put a bag on without closing it first.

Oh, we've had some good times....

Imagine being at your brother-inlaw`s house one summer just after jpouch surgery and still trying to get the hang,no pun intended,of the bag and having it fill to capacity after a huge barbeque dinner and you not knowing it because you are having such a good time and your 3 year old wants to be picked up and then starts to fuss kicking all over the place and undoes the clip that holds all the lava(poo) in.You guessed it I get up for what ever reason and I look over to my brother-inlaw who`s eye`s are the size of saucers and he is looking down at the area of my bag.I mean it looked like a volcano erupted the poo just slipped and slided all out,down my leg,on her brand new kitchen chair all over her beautiful ceramic floor.It was horrible I just stood there and sobbed my wife grabbed me by the elbow and directed me to the toilet which was quite a way down the hall so now I had a trail of poo from the kitchen to the hall toilet.To top everything off my sister-inlaw`s sister was also there and we hadn`t seen each other in a long time.Thank God that my sister-inlaw had told her sister about me.When after I got back from cleaning myself,actually my wife cleaned I just stood there unable to stop sobbing.Everyone was so compassionate and told not to worry about anything and that ,"**** happens".

The 100 yard dashes to the nearest public toilet when I could only hold it for 90 yards...most of the time I would throw my underwear in the trash afterwards and just head home...
My co-workers getting info and holding a conference with me to help me with my major bulemia problem I had. They figured since I would throw up after lunch( I use to throw up most of the time when I had a painful bloody D)
and was losing weight like crazy, that I must be anorexic or bulemic or something.
Going to the bathroom in a very public place that had no doors on the mensroom entrance. Sometimes the looks as I came out were priceless...no courtesy flush would drown out some of the UC explosions...

Thanks for trip down memory lane...
David

Here was a moment where Mark's UC humbled me, and he never knew b/c I never told him this story.

He had just been diagnosed, only a few weeks before we took a road trip at age 24. We were going to North Dakota to visit my sister who was working there for a summer, and we were camping (this became the road trip of toilets). We were sleeping in the back of the truck at a camp ground and Mark had to go to the bathroom but he s**t himself (excuse my language but I'm sick of beating around the bush and calling it an "accident"), and we had no shower or anything and after he'd visited the rustic bathroom with no running water he brought back his underwear, and I could tell he was just vacant inside (reality of what was happening), so I took his underwear and said, I'll wash them. The only place I had to go was a small spicket that everyone used, and like an idiot I thought, "oh I'll shake out the underwear before I wash them" - And there I shook, and there I stood wearing S**t (excuse me again) all over my legs. A Mom/Dad and kids walked by and just looked at me as I'm holding the underwear, and I'm wearing what was in the underwear, and I smiled and said "Hello, beautiful evening for a walk".

I'm not sure if I've posted this one before or not. It's more along the lines of cruel/embarrising.

I played soccer on my high school team and managed ok dispite being in the middle of a UC flareup. My teammates had noticed my slump and that I was running to the bathroom a lot. One day out on the field for practice I had to run to the porta-toilet on the field and the guys thought it would be funny to trap me inside and rock the porta-toilet back and forth with me inside (coaches weren't around, how nice). They got carried away with it and actually tipped the whole thing over spewing its' contents all over me. It was absolutely disqusting, humiliating, and infuriating.

Rick

Kaboom, that's disgusting! I never had embarassing moments with my UC because I would pretty much stay home or be in the hospital during a flare. The only thing I would say that's happened since getting my temp ileostomy was pretty minor compared to some of you. We were on vacation and I got a really sore throat and went to a walk-in clinic. While I was there I had to empty my pouch, but not actually use the bathroom so I didn't pull my pants down-just sat on the toilet and emptied it. Unfortunately I was wearing white shorts and it splashed up and put 2 spots in the middle of my shorts. I was wearing a tank top that wasn't long enough to cover it up. I slinked back to the waiting room and showed my husband. He said it just looked like I spilled coffee on my butt. Right. How often do you spill coffee on your butt! But we were in another state and I didn't know anyone soooo....

There were so many "accidents" in the last year before my surgery. It would happen just as I finally got the door unlocked to get in the house (I used to wish my house door would just open like a car, with a push of button) I would drive sitting on a plastic bag because I knew there was always a chance I wasn't going to make it... I learned that trick from the many times I didn't make it. Friends would say why are you sitting on that bag, I'd just say my seat got wet, I spilled something, etc. (My car wrecked of Lysol... they know me as a germophobe so they thought nothing of that)

The thing is no one knows these things happened-those years were pure hell. I always hear people joke about almost ****ting themselves and instead of laughing I feel sensitive and embarrassed just thinking about it.

But just the same, I am grateful for how far my quailty of life has improved.

getting my infant in the middle of the night for a midnight feeding and he kicked off my bag thru my nightie! trying to get my husband up so i could get cleaned up. it was funny really!

Looking back, I know it wasn't funny. Now, I use what I learned. Having diarrhea and the urge to vomit AT THE SAME TIME seemed like a challenge. Usually, when one occurred, it occured in isolation from the other! Not so with UC. So....I kept a small bucket in my bathroom. That way I could sit on the toilet and vomit at the same time! Fortunately, those days are long gone. Six years since takedown and I haven't had one episode of either conditions! Lucky me!

To begin, I should mention that I have a bit of a limp from breaking my leg in high school; it didn't heal properly. During my second ileostomy, two of my good friends got married. I was helping set up the reception (friends are a good way to cut costs?), and I jumped onto the stage rather than walk an extra 20 feet to go up the stairs. Mid-jump, I felt the clip break. As soon as my feet were under me, I grabbed my shin and pinched my jeans tight around my leg. Then I tucked that pant leg into my sock, hobbled off to the mens' room, did a cursory cleaning up, and drove home to really clean up and then change. My brother and his wife were there helping too, and they were the only ones who really knew what happened. Talking with my friends later, they thought I'd broken my leg again. Even so, I was mortified.

While waiting to be served in a very crowded newsagent with my (then) 3 year old daughter I felt that old familiar painful cramping signalling that I had about 30 seconds to get to a toilet. I asked the shop assistant if I could use theirs and she asked if it was for my little girl. Now I've never been one to tell lies so said no it was for me. She flatly refused saying that if it had been for my little girl then it would have been ok.

Now remember this was happening in a crowded shop and everyone was listening to our conversation. In the precious time it had taken me to get the answer to my question it was too late. There in the middle of a crowded shop I messed myself very loudly and with a huge stinking, bloody UC explosion.

I just dumped the things I had been meaning to buy onto the counter and fled the shop with Emma crying at the top of her voice "Mummy you stink!" while holding her nose and giggling.

After finding a toilet in a nearby pub I cleaned myself up and threw my soiled knickers into the sanitary bin. Luckily I always carried a spare pair, plus baby wipes because although this was the most embarrasing it was an all too frequent event during my 20+ years with UC.

Never did go into that shop again.

Shell

Hi, I'm a new member. I've had many embarassing moments both with the UC (over 20 yrs)and since I've had my J pouch (4 years). I guess one of most embarassing is when I was out of town and went into a Walmart and felt that sudden urge. Of course I was half way across the huge store from the restrooms and had maybe 30 seconds to make it. I rushed to the back of the store and into what I thought was the men's restroom. I didn't look at the sign on the door because where I lived the Walmart had the men's restroom on the right and the women's on the left. All of them I had been in were set up like that. Anyway I rushed into the one on the right and into the nearest stall and slammed the door. (of course I didn't make it on time) When I looked up from the toilet I saw this metal receptacle on the wall and I wondered what that was doing in the men's room. Then I hear these voices coming into the restroom (women's of course) so I pulled up my feet so they couldn't seem them and waited for them to leave restroom. I cleaned myself up best as I could (there was a big stain on the seat of my blue jeans) and I shot out of there when I got the chance. There was a little girl and her mother coming in just as I was leaving. I didn't bother looking back I just headed out the door at a fast clip. After that I decided that it was less embarassing to buy and wear disposable underwear (adult diapers) than to keep ruining clothes in public. ... 4 years after the J pouch and I'm still trying find ways to stop the urgency.

Wow. I have so many. The best ones were in 2003 during the beginning of the flare that never ended. I went to the bank to close an account and while I was waiting for the teller to finish the clousure i felt "the feeling." As soon as the teller denied my request of a bathroom, it happened. And since I was going commando after an accident less than an hour earier, it was messy. Needless to say once **it started running down my legs, a security guard escorted me to the employee bathroom. Luckily, I never had to enter that building again.

In 2005, I went on a trip to Israel during the aforementioned flare. Even though I carried pads, extra underware, and wipes whereever I went there were some icky situations. I hope it rained before the next hiking group went on one particular trail. I had no choice but to leave a few rememants behind.

If anyone has smoked or still does smoke he/she can relate to the trigger situations which bring on the urge to light up....the phone ringing, starting the car, finishing a meal, having a drink, etc. Well, for me, I had certain triggers which would bring on an instant bout of diarrhea! One particular intersection near my home, for instance, was a serious trigger. If I missed the green light, it seemed to take forever for that red light to change back to green. I was usually trapped between cars...couldn't turn around....and each time my body just reacted by "dumping"! So...I invested in some plastic/rubber-like pants I ordered through a medical supply catalog, which I wore over my underwear. Those pants held EVERYTHING and I just resigned myself to sitting in that warm mess until I could either return home or go through the signal to one of my bathrooms of preference (one which was self contained with a toilet, if at all possible, sink and enough room to clean up, rinse everything out and change underwear. I always traveled with a backpack containing wipes and a change of clothes, including several changes of underwear and new rubber-like pants. I was able to do a complete clean-up/change in about 7 minutes! If I didn't have a sink, I'd flush the toilet and use the water in the toilet to rinse out my underwear before I bagged them. I was sure determined!