Tag Archives: Digestive Disorders

Irritable bowel syndrome and public toilets


I have mild irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). I’ve learnt the importance of routines and the types of food I should keep to (mostly). This is difficult when I love trying so many different types of food and when my jobs in the past had a lot of travel or long distance driving. I’m a big fan of twice daily Metamucil and keeping very regular. I really do not like change or unexpected changes to my routines and habits. The feeling of urgency and being caught short and the potential for a very embarrassing result is enough to torment me regularly.

It’s great that in Australia we are blessed with abundant free public toilets in shopping centres and most public spaces. The threat of some idiot wanting to blow up a toilet block or having someone loitering for illicit purposes is pretty low here. My major gripe though is the use of bulk dispensers of really cheap and nasty toilet paper. What I really dislike are the ones that have huge rolls of paper without  perforations and often the free end gets caught up within the dispenser making it really difficult to get paper out.

This is a good example.

Toilet paper dispenser (iPhone)

Addendum

I should have also added this amazing website funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Health and Ageing (The department I work for). http://www.toiletmap.gov.au/