Potty Talk

For those who may be turned off by potty talk, this may be a post you want to skip, but the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer in me, the family doctor in me, and the mom in me just cannot turn up an opportunity to talk about poop. Peace Corps Volunteers are infamous for their tendency to disclose tremendous personal diarrhea stories over dinner and beer with fellow volunteers. It starts early when everyone is hit with a bad first bout of traveler's diarrhea, and it basically never stops. Family docs are privy to an innumerable number of conversations about bowel movements with patients of all ages and stages, and most of the time we don't get to share them with anyone. And moms, well, mom deal enough with other people's poops for enough years that it is just normal to talk about it.

So, here goes a little potty talk in three parts: Part 1, Dog Poop, Part 2, Bidets, Part 3, Traveler's diarrhea

Dog Poop

During a visit to Ecuador many years ago, my friend Lucia recounted a range of experiences from the six months she lived in Spain. She had joined her younger sister there briefly before realizing that the proffered opportunities were not worth the sacrifice of being across the world from her young daughters. One time, Lucia talked at length about Spaniards' relationship with their dogs and, in particular, the whole concept of picking up dog poop. She thought it was absolutely hilarious that dog-owners in Spain walked around carrying small plastic bags with the express purpose of collecting their dogs' poops.

Ecuadorian dogs live a mixed bag sort of life. On the one hand, most roam more freely than dogs in North America could ever dream of; they are generally not tied or penned or kept in locked-up houses. They frolic through farmland, chase chickens and other birds, roam town in packs looking for delectable food options, bark after motorcycles, and are blissfully free range. Pretty nice day to day. Unfortunately, they are also often underfed and from a young age hit and/or whacked with sticks or belts to make them submissive and to teach them to protect property. This makes them aggressive to strangers and overly submissive to owners. Street dogs in urban areas -- even in downtown Quito -- are still relatively common, and their free range lives are less compelling than those in La Josefina: definitely more risk of getting run over or maltreated.

One of the consequences of being free range is that dogs poop wherever they please. Middle of the road, middle of the sidewalk. You name it, they poop there. And no one picks it up. It's pretty disgusting. We were at a cute new playground in a little plaza on the coast, great play structure, new nice Castro-turf, and big hunks of dog poop there right where kids are playing. It's not uncommon to encounter piles of poop in the middle of the sidewalk in La Maná. It's gross. And it's disappointing because it feels so solvable; just pick it up.

That being said, because most dogs are not being walked by owners when they are doing their business, there is not an obvious responsible person who can pick it up when it is first deposited. At least it seems that home, store owners, and other community members, particularly in town centers, could take charge of keeping specific areas clean of poop. I flash back on Lucia's laughing at Spaniards and their plastic dog baggies, and I wonder about how culture changes, how something goes from being unnecessary or ridiculous to habitual and expected. And I hope, some day, to walk through the streets of Ecuador, eyes up, without fearing for the splat.

Bidets

Anyone who has been to my house or has ever had a discussion with me about bathroom habits knows that I am a bidet fanatic. I was converted years ago, around the time Dillon was born, and it literally changed my life. We have bidet attachments in both of our bathrooms in Santa Rosa, and my kids are bidet users. The truth is once you start using a bidet, you never go back to toilet paper. Or at least, you never want to. Neither of our home bidet set-ups is fancy; one was previously a diaper sprayer-turned-bidet, the other a relatively inexpensive Amazon purchase that attaches easily onto the surface of any standard toilet. Both use cold water, and both work great.

When I travel, I definitely miss my bidet. With changes in diet and adjustments to foreign water, issues with poop and booty discomfort are inevitable and can be miserable. Plus, while toilet paper in Latin America is one step up from the scratchy purple stuff it was twenty years ago, it's still not exactly lovely. Being the kind human he is, Paul thoughtfully packed one of our old bidet attachments with the intention of making his wife very happy. Unfortunately, installing the attachment here has turned out to be a little more complicated than he thought, and so it hasn't been done yet.

In the meantime, I am mostly loving my new travel bidet. It works (as the reviews said it would); it is discrete and portable (I took it to the beach with us last week, packed in our little backpack). And, honestly, it's pulling its weight quite decently as our current home bidet. I would not say it gets the job done as completely and consistently as a bidet attachment, but it's way better than not having it all.

The design is simple enough to be elegant, easy to use, and it seems that it will hold up well over time. It's a squeeze bottle with a long extendable neck that bends at the right angle to hit your bottom just where you want to. A little squeeze increases the water pressure, and Voila! All you need is a little practice and water -- thankfully, we have plenty of that! This week, I may or may not have had a demonstration of said travel bidet with one of my children, who shall remain nameless, but who was very happy with the results after first use.

In closing, at risk of sounding like an infomercial, I definitely recommend investing in a bidet attachment for your home toilet AND now I will add to my recommendation a travel bidet for your travelling enjoyment. Don't leave home without it!

Traveler's diarrhea

Anyone who has spent any time abroad also knows traveler's diarrhea. We've been fairly lucky so far seven weeks into this journey. It may be because my kids are less adventurous with their eating, or perhaps because Paul installed our own filtration and UV water filter on our little house's main sink. It may be because we are so extremely careful. . .Well, let's be honest, we aren't that careful. We aren't exactly careless: my kids know to ask if juice has been made with boiled and/or bottled water, we generally don't do ice outside our own house, but we don't really regulate their consumption of street food (e.g. papipollo) or even of street fruits (it's not mango season yet but there are cut up mango cups with salt and lemon still everywhere). So, I'd say we are moderately careful but far from perfect in our diarrhea prevention practices.

All in all, we've had one family member have two episodes of troublesome traveler's diarrhea when we were traveling on the coast, both times it resolved pretty quickly after a tablet or two of pepto-bismal. And an additional little member with a mild case of tummy troubles a couple days ago. This too resolved on its own. I do want to put a little plug in for traveling with pepto-bismal, definitely a med that brings me back to my childhood, but also that works for mild tummy troubles! The CDC does recommend daily pepto-bismal on their travel website for travelers who are either really prone or very bothered by the possibility of traveler's diarrhea, using 2 tabs QID. That's a lot of pepto. But they say it reduces the risk of traveler's diarrhea by 60%! I used this regimen once on a trip to Vietnam and it mostly served me well, but I cannot be bothered these days. . . too many other booties to be worried about, too hard to remember a four times per day medication. And so, we do carry it for abortive purposes (it can be constipating, which is a nice side effect when your bowels are running too fast). Remember, pepto turns both your tongue and your poop black, so don't freak out.

I try to talk about it all as openly as possible with my kids to catch problems early, help them make food and drink choices that keep them safe but not scared, and make a concerted effort not to project my own tummy troubles onto anyone else. So far, so good.