Oh, Crappy Day--or educating the educators

Well, It's Tuesday at 2:25 in the afternoon, I just had breakfast (Brunch) and am starting my day. Actually, my day started at 3:00 a.m. this morning!! You see last night I took a few pills, as I do once a week, every week, and have been doing for the past 23 years (AT LEAST). NO I'm NOT a junkie, I take these pills to help me with a certain bodily function that most people with Spina Bifida have issues with, and that is... Drum roll please... GOING TO THE BATHROOM!!


I've always been incontinent with my bowels ( and at the time also bladder), but it started becoming a real issue in High School. Let me start from the beginning .I was always in public school since the 3rd grade... (1972 - I think i was part of a pilot program for the Education of All Children Act of 1975 but, I'm not sure.) I went to an elementary school that was in my town but out of my school district, because the school in district was 3 levels and this was only 1 level. I was teamed with the school psychologist whose only concern was to 'TIME' me with a stop watch to see how long it took me to walk from the class to the cafeteria and other points in the school!! ( OOOOH your tax dollars at work!) I also needed some help with my personal needs so I'd go into the nurse's office and use her bathroom. It would work out great until I'd actually need a little assistance and she'd call home to have someone come up and assist me in changing my clothes. They didn't have to bring the clothes up you see, because I always kept a change of clothes right IN the Nurse's office!! (imagine that!). Well, you want to hear something ironic??? (Of course, you do you're reading my blog aren't you?); well, the nurse would talk to my grandmother and they built up a friendship and one day when we were eating dinner the phone rang... It was the school nurse she called ot tell us that her daughter-in-law just had a baby girl ....WITH SPINA BIFIDA... (Who says the man upstairs doesn't have a sense of humor)... Then I went to my Home district for Junior High, This was great because some of my teachers were also my mother's and aunts' and uncles' teachers, so they were willing to work with me. The school was 2 levels and the Science labs were upstairs so what they did, since I was capable of climbing stairs with assistance, was to schedule my first 5 periods downstairs, then I would leave 5 minutes early- as i did with ALL my classes, and a classmate would assist me by carrying my books while I went up the stairs. luckily for her it was just notebooks because I was permitted to keep a textbook in each classroom to lighten my load. ( actually the load of my classmate since SHE was the one carrying both our books) I'd have 6th, 7th & 8th upstairs and again would leave 5 minutes early to go back downstairs and board the bus. 1/2 way through 8th grade it was becoming a struggle to do the stairs so they arranged to have me take the science class in an ALC -now I didn't need an ALC for academics, but it was a better alternative than the daily climb up to the 2nd floor and the risk of being in the stairwell when the bell rang!! I even went on a school overnight trip with the Chorus to Pennsylvania and New Jersey's Great Adventure where my chorus teacher organized a 'Lisa committee' comprised of my classmates to help me from 'point A' to 'point B' they were scheduled to meet me at several points in the park. It was a terrific trip!!Even the competition in Pennsylvania where i was in the bottom row 'cause i couldn't climb the steps, and my Mom was in the FRONT ROW I became a deer in headlights and Mom didn't make matters any better when she so nicely pointed out to me that she got that special seat and all I could do was lip-sync!! well in 1980 it was off to High School. NOW , again, I didn't want to go to the High School in my district because the darn building was so big that I'd need a taxi to get from class-to-class. and I knew 5 minutes wasn't enough to leave a class early and since the school had double the student body (maybe triple) If I was ever stuck in the hall when the bell rang.... UGH!! not a pretty picture!! So Mom asked if I'd want to go to an all girl's Catholic school 2 towns over and I said 'what the heck.' WELL PEOPLE...... it was the LONGEST year and a half of my life. I didn't have assistance I just had to ask another student if they'd mind carrying my books to class!! I always got help but sometimes they'd run ahead for fear of being late and just drop my books next to me!!! ( what wonderful Christian behavior!) One day it just caught up to me and well my 'Innerds' just let loose, I managed to make it into the girls room I was actually saying the'Hail Mary' over and over but not before, well let's just say the custodian had to be summoned with a mop and mom needed to come up with a change of clothes... Speaking about Christian behavior get a load of this; Each year the school would take an overnight retreat to Shelter Island in October, well since I was only in school a couple of weeks at that time, when they told my mother and me that it was best if I didn't go my sophomore year ( 10th grade) we were a little disappointed but understood, I had a whole year to prove myself and 11 grade was just around the corner..... Well, as luck would have it when I applied for the trip according to them I missed the deadline and the bus was full!-- bum luck,-- but mom wasn't discouraged she actually called Shelter Island and asked them if it would be alright if she drove me to the retreat since there was no room on the bus. well there was silence on the other end of the phone ( actually I don't know this because it was my mom on the phone but it's great effect isn't it??) and the person apparently said something in the line of 'what do you mean there's no room on the bus, there's PLENTY of room on the bus.' Well, Hell hath no fury like the single mother of a disabled child scorned. Mom went right up to school demanding to talk to the principal and when they started pleading their case. Mom asked the principal when was the last time she took a retreat , because she really should think about the vows she took before God!!! YIKES!! go MOM !! I'm just glad wasn't in the room at the time. Mom sat me down again and asked if I would mind going to Human Resources a school for the disabled, I was hesitant but i did, and althoug I didn't realize it at the time, it was the BEST move I ever made. I was on the swim team going to competitions out of state and it was an even playing field. finally fit in!! (although again I didn't realize it at the time) this was also around the time since that wonderful incident in the bathroom that I started taking laxatives over the weekend to 'clean me out' so if I ever had another nervous episode It wouldn't be such a fiasco. well I graduated school went to college and now I am working full time since 1987. and I am able to hold down the job because of the bowel routine I got into: I take a laxative the night before, go throught the night (I usually wake up about 1:00 stay up for 2 hours going and then go to bed. sometimes I get up more than once in a night) sometimes the next day until about dinner time. Yes, it kinda kills one day out of my weekend since I can't make any plans since I don't know exactly WHEN the laxative is going to work, but it's worth hanging out one day so I can enjoy life without worrying about if my 'innerds' are going to release at an inappropriate time!! anyway I'll leave you on that note today happens to be one of those 'hang around the house' days and it's off to Atlantic City tomorrow!! tata