Big Pet "Pee"ve

As I get ready today for my trip to PA (a 7 hour trip in the car, or as I call it "torture with a view") one of the things that I have to make sure is replenished and packed is my bathroom sanitizing kit.

Not everyone travels with one of these... but I had to start taking one with me out of dire necessity!

I am handicapped... I must use a forearm crutch or wheelchair to move about (my Dr has told me to stick with the wheelchair but I am in denial and try to walk when I can) and that means that when I am in public I must use the handicapped stall of the public bathrooms.

"What do you have to complain about?" you may be thinking "that is the palace of public restroom territory!"

In the average fast food restroom there is one handicapped stall... in most interstate rest stops there might be as many as 4... but guess which stalls are almost always taken first by just about everyone entering a public restroom?

Women prefer using the handicapped stall because there is more room in there to 'hover' comfortably... this means that they can stand and hover over the toilet seat without touching it while they urinate. This also means that they are urinating all over the seat as well most of the time.

I am handicapped... I CANNOT HOVER... the handicapped stall is made the way it is not so women can pee comfortably all over the seat but so that those with mobility issues have a stall that is big enough to maneuver a wheelchair into or has handrails for those with weak legs to help them get up and down to that seat that the hoverer's have so kindly urinated all over.

Before I can use a public restroom handicapped stall I must put on vinyl gloves and clean the seat and surrounding area with Clorox disinfecting wipes, then dry the seat, then place a flush-able seat cover over the seat. Of course, before I do any of that I have to wait looking at all the empty regular stall as a hoverer gets comfortable in the handicapped stall.

When I am done I must wash my hands then roll outside... then wipe down the wheels of my wheelchair with the Clorox wipes (since the urine has 'sprinkled' on the floor around the toilet as well) then use my waterless sanitizer on my hands...

This might seem like a bit of overkill in being upset over something so trivial... but part of my 'joy-oh-the-belly' is sudden onset diarrhea that can strike without warning... so imagine that you have to spend 5 minutes cleaning a wet toilet seat while hoping that you do not have an accident 3 and a half hours from home and your destination and tell me how you would feel.

So I beg all the able bodied public restroom users of the world... please use the normal stalls first and the handicapped ones only if no normal ones are available, (This does not go for mothers with small children or if the changing table is in the handicapped stall) and if you do have to use the handicapped stall... clean up after yourself as much as you can.