Too specific?

Nicholas Stix makes fun of me over what he sees as the too specific nature of my recent status report on my intestinal suffering. Personally, having gone through this experience, I’ve gotten over any embarrassment over the use of terms such as “constipation,” “bowel movement,” and “stool.” When certain bodily functions are working ok, we don’t think about them and we obviously don’t want to talk about them. When they’re not working ok, they can become a dread serious, even life-or-death, matter, and any squeamishness in discussing them disappears.

In this connection, the other day I sent this note of appreciation to a couple of friends who have been involved in my troubles:

Greater love hath no man than this, that he will ask his friend about his bowel movements.

- end of initial entry -

Jeanette V. writes:

Gosh how off-base of Nicholas. I have personally witnessed patients who died as a result of constipation

Joe H. writes:

This attitude extends also to proctologists, men and women who are many times the butt (no pun intended) of easy jokes, yet perform lifesaving work. I once asked a proctologist at a dinner party what made him choose his line of work, half-expecting a defensive response or some sort of evasion. He plainly stated that his father had suffered from bleeding hemorrhoids, and he remembered the pain his father was in when it was time to go to medical school, and decided to devote his life’s work to easing that kind of suffering. That shut me right up.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 15, 2013 04:17 PM | Send