As a girl, A used to play with dolls. Figures, she was a girl. Oddly enough though, in her fantasy doll scenarios (FDS to the hardcore) her doll was always a Ninja, Detective or a Ninja-Detective. I imagine Laura Ingals with a Mr. T complex. "I pity the Pioneer..."
Come to find out that things don't change much. I now imagine she had some really L.A.M.E. college parties with her "doll friends." I found in the mail today an American Girl catalog. A ripped it from my hands and ran off as if she beat me to the chance to read through it first. Cause I'm all over that like newsprint in a birdcage.
As she hurriedly flipped through the girl-child catalog, I had to ask; "What the &#@ is that and why is it in this house?"
"Just a sec...just a sec!" she said. Waving her finger of justice at me without raising her head from the estrogen scented girl mag.
"I've gotten this catalog for 10 years, since ordering a Christmas present for our niece. But that's not important right now. What is SO GREAT, THEY FINALLY MADE A DOLL THAT LOOKS JUST LIKE ME AND SHE COMES WITH A PONY! OH, YEAH!!!!
I turned my head toward the bedazzled print and sure enough...
Showing posts with label opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opinion. Show all posts
Oct 15, 2012
Sep 21, 2012
The Business
This blog is big business. The demands from it are incomprehensible to the little people. Readers from all over the world. It's humbling. Google though, in their infinite wisdom, decided I was too young to blog. Under age for such mature content. So they shut this outlet of enlightenment down cold like a kid crashing after a day at the circus. I'm gonna be totally honest; I'm over 40. I haven't even been carded when buying alcohol in years.
The damage though was to you dear reader. Your heart felt like it stopped when you saw the blank page on your work computer as you desperately tried to avoid the eyeball bleeding work that you do. And I apologise for that. I am mature enough to know the pain my alleged mistake of transposing digits to make me 3 years old on the Internet brought to you.
So I did what any graying forty-something would do; I yelled for my wife of a decade-and-a-half to bail me out. Again, with the honesty; I'm no technophile. I chase a kid on a wooden bike with no pedals around the block and never seem to catch him.
A danced around the ring with her laptop for a few rounds, found Googles weakness, then stuck one to the breadbasket and shazaam! La Gazzetta dello NewmaForma is back. Now get back to work!
Mar 26, 2012
Incognito
A few weeks ago G and I were at Home Depot and amid the excitement of buying project supplies he pee'd his pants. Sucks, but goes with the territory of late. It seems he's been swinging at bad pitches and watching the good ones pass over the plate without even flinching. He'll stand or sit at the porcelain with no action, then do the cowboy walk through the doorknob aisle with urine seeping out his shoes.
"It's all a process," I told us both trying to be an example and stay cool as we left the store. People laughed at his scowl or asked,"Why the pouting, little man?" I didn't understand that one as anyone only had to look at his soaked pants or the trail of urine droplets from his Lighting McQueen kicks to figure out why a 3 year old might turn foul. Hell, my smile would be upside down if I drained my bladder into my Samba's in public.
Two weeks and some heavy head colds pass and G and I find ourselves back at Home Depot to pick up some small bits to finish our project. It's pouring rain and snowing a little so I say to him that we gotta hurry so we can get back before the inside of the car gets cold again. He agrees but stalls while insisting to put on his sunglasses.
I'll be honest; I don't care if the kid wears pajamas to church. He's got a doll named Abby that's either his sister or daughter depending on the day. Abby doesn't bother me. Abby's mom is always A so him being the dad gets a little dicey, but he's also got a Rocky Balboa action figure and fire trucks and helicopters so the doll doesn't shake my conviction that he's all dude.
Suffice it to say the shades have no effect other than slowing us down. Inside the store people point and laugh. Ha, ha, funny stuff, a kid in shades on a rainy day. Great, I'm in a hurry. G's a good sport, keeping up and not wandering off to collect stuff he thinks we need. What we need are 2 electrical plug covers and one more tube of paneling glue. We get through the store unscathed and back to the car before the seats even got cold. All is well.
Then at home it hit me. He wore the shades because he didn't want to be recognized as the kid who left a puddle of pee in the store two weeks ago. I wish I could buy him a beer.
Mar 7, 2012
Keep it Simple
A friend recently decided that his SRM power meter wasn't helping him gain the performance advantages he sought on his daily commute any longer. So he sold it and we discussed the virtues of knowing what gear one is riding in and being aware of cadence. It's amazing how when the chatter is muted, the fundamentals of training are timeless.
Another friend, who is preparing himself for post-apocalyptic survival, called one recent evening for a pick up as he had flatted 3 times and was out of spare tubes and patches while on his training ride. Part of the discussion on the 10-minute drive home was about thinning down the spare tool bag from multi-tools, 3 tubes, patches and a spare tire to just a tube or two. "Back in the day," we decided, we didn't have cell phones so we had to actually be self reliant.
When I was 17 and 18 I was lucky enough to spend most of my training time with a Pro racer who had prior lived in France and Italy. Rob and I crossed paths on rides a few times before he called me and said to be at his house at 9 sharp the next morning. I showed up early. The interaction wasn't formal, but was succinct. He sat me down at the small kitchen table, across from a Graham Watson calender on the wall, made me my first ever doppio espresso, then left the room to get dressed.
Not previously being a coffee drinker, I drank the espresso without milk and despite it's flavorful strength wondered why it was in such a tiny cup. He walked back into the kitchen dressed for training, sat down to put on his shoes and said simply that we'd always leave at 9 and to be prepared for at least 3 hours, sometimes 7 but almost always 5. When I asked about structure, his response was to ride at least 3 hours, almost always 5 and sometimes 7. Pretty simple.
Last weekend I got out to ride with friends both days for my 2nd and 3rd rides in 6 weeks, my first in 3 weeks. We saw both cars below on the same ride. Given all the years of improvements to handling and performance, paying attention seems to remain fundamental.
I wonder if the Asia cassette is still in the tape deck?
Nice parallel parking job by the Miata.
Jan 23, 2012
5,000 views to this ramshackle little corner of the inter-web as of today. Should I be proud? Is that a substantial number? A quick review shows views from every continent over the last 4 years or so. The most active month of views was last April after rolling out Thomas. The most popular post by far is the one about a guy taken into an ER by his pregnant wife, then meets a HOT nurse and a bottle of KY.
What started as a joke, became a place to journal childhood memories while in bed and house-bound after my 2nd major accident in 18 months. Then a way to leave updates on A as she recovered from likely the most messed up, life threatening baby delivery ever. A place for me to write down the moments I don't want to forget while trying to not remember many of the realities we've faced. 8 surgeries to get A through the last 4 years we've navigated. Rehab starts and stops for me and learning and relearning the boundaries of what activity level I can sustain. Geez, this blog is bad luck!
The good is so much more. I never anticipated getting home from a bike ride with a 3-year old and having to explain why we couldn't immediately go surfing. Or when he was 2, going to Builder Bear workshop and seeing that his only motivation to build a bear was the Skateboard accessory kit. Hearing praises of parenthood directed at A, then getting a pat on the back with, "Oh, and you're alright too."
A few 'real' writers have commented privately that I lack a focus of subject matter and that my blog could be so much more. Maybe flashing, annoying advertising in the side bars for rubber gloves or Fiber? I remember the early thought that this blog would help me write more. Like I did in college. Then I consider the fact that since it's my blog, I can do what I want. I think in hindsight, I chose poor, starving bike racer over poor, starving writer. Crafting words is pretty far down the priority list these days. Maybe when I retire this blog will have enough content to fuel a bigger writing fire. So 5,000 or 5,000,000 hits doesn't really mean much. But that's still a lot of people the world over reading mostly the one story about HOT nurse and her long, thin fingers helping me take a crap.
For now, it's all about the adventures and projects of a guy, his wife and kid. I hope that is enough for you. And leave a dollar on your way out. 5 large can make a lot of cool things to replace Thomas.
What started as a joke, became a place to journal childhood memories while in bed and house-bound after my 2nd major accident in 18 months. Then a way to leave updates on A as she recovered from likely the most messed up, life threatening baby delivery ever. A place for me to write down the moments I don't want to forget while trying to not remember many of the realities we've faced. 8 surgeries to get A through the last 4 years we've navigated. Rehab starts and stops for me and learning and relearning the boundaries of what activity level I can sustain. Geez, this blog is bad luck!
The good is so much more. I never anticipated getting home from a bike ride with a 3-year old and having to explain why we couldn't immediately go surfing. Or when he was 2, going to Builder Bear workshop and seeing that his only motivation to build a bear was the Skateboard accessory kit. Hearing praises of parenthood directed at A, then getting a pat on the back with, "Oh, and you're alright too."
A few 'real' writers have commented privately that I lack a focus of subject matter and that my blog could be so much more. Maybe flashing, annoying advertising in the side bars for rubber gloves or Fiber? I remember the early thought that this blog would help me write more. Like I did in college. Then I consider the fact that since it's my blog, I can do what I want. I think in hindsight, I chose poor, starving bike racer over poor, starving writer. Crafting words is pretty far down the priority list these days. Maybe when I retire this blog will have enough content to fuel a bigger writing fire. So 5,000 or 5,000,000 hits doesn't really mean much. But that's still a lot of people the world over reading mostly the one story about HOT nurse and her long, thin fingers helping me take a crap.
For now, it's all about the adventures and projects of a guy, his wife and kid. I hope that is enough for you. And leave a dollar on your way out. 5 large can make a lot of cool things to replace Thomas.
Sep 27, 2011
Wabbit or Coyote?
photo courtesy of teamJVA.com
I've heard numerous references to this article recently. The point taken is that we all rise a little with some healthy competition. Setting the bar too high can break one's spirit or even worse harm one's physical health. But reaching 2% seems to be the magic threshold. 3% I guess turns the Rabbit into a Road Runner and nobody wants to be Wile E Coyote.
In the movie, For Love Of The Game, Kevin Costner shuts out distractions by reminding himself to "Clear the mechanism". He then is able to focus solely on the task at hand as a (fictional) MLB starting pitcher.
The last 6-months I've worked through more PT with the hip to allow myself to get back on the bike for more than just easy pleasure rides. However, the motivation comes in irregular flurries.
Putting myself out there to "race" is humbling as I know what I need to do to compete and I also know what I am doing. The two are not intersecting.
A month ago the Newmaforma packed up and went to the first cyclocross race of the season. I rode around a tree with G instead of properly warming up. I had a mechanical and only rode 10-minutes of the 45-minute race due to previously working on my bike while playing with G in the garage and not focusing on tightening the parts correctly. The thing is, he didn't care. He got to ride the kiddie race, ride around a tree for an hour and eat a Nutella waffle.
The next chance to race rolls around and I'm off to it alone. All I need to do is finish to better my record of anonymity. I try to "clear the mechanism" and just ride the course consistently each lap. I want to improve on the technical hiccups and be smooth through the parts I am competent at. I'm alone off the back of the group quickly so focusing on the mechanics is really the only thing I can do. What I can't do is let my mind wander. If I do that I'll end up in the parking lot, quitting.
But competitive people like to have a gauge. Some want to compare themselves to others or to what could have been if this day was 5 years ago, 10 years ago or more. So by averaging my lap splits and that of other categories and being the math genius I am, I figure I would have finished:
@5th in the beginner mens race
@Last, 5-minutes behind the actual last placed rider in the Master A group
@72nd, but not last, in the Master B's
@35th in the Master C's.
What is more scary is that while I would have completely dominated the Junior Girls race, I would have been a mere 5th against the Junior boys.
Ten of the age 35+ women would have beat me. And even though I don't weigh 200 lbs but am still 25 lbs heavy, I would have managed 12th in the Clydesdale stampede. But worst of all, I would have been smoked by two old men in the 60+ race.
So all that just confirms to me that a 2% improvement is far less important than the half of the battle of simply showing up. Chasing anything at this point will only get me to ride myself off a cliff like Wile E. Coyote or as frustrated and empty handed as Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs Bunny.
Feb 22, 2011
Just Standing Still
It's pretty rad as a parent to get a compliment about your kid. A is the one who really reads the variety of child development books to pick and choose what strategies or routes we take with G. I'm more of the "throw mud on the wall and see what sticks" approach. So when someone shares something positive about G, I know they really mean for me to pass the compliment on to his mother. That pat on the shoulder? That's more for me being able to keep him in one piece thus far.
Some of the compliments revolve around G in public. Trust me he has his moments. Melt downs at the grocery store happen. The big dump he took at Home Depot? He freaked out about walking from the bathroom through the checkout, to the car, commando style. It was a confidence builder. A father/son teaching moment I reveled in. I reassured him it was fun to sometimes not wear underwear. Like a joke that only you know the punchline to. He didn't get it but I can't expect much understanding of my analogies; he's only 2.
All this to say that recently I've received some compliments about how he goes everywhere and can handle situations that some kids wouldn't stand a chance in. We don't need to boot up a laptop with movies at restaurants. He sits in his sled for 3+ hours AFTER the hour drive to the trail head. He likes to look around.
Last summer he caught me being more motivated than aware on occasion. Twice, for whatever reason, he hadn't been to the park in a few days and simply wanted to play. I wanted to ride the boat bike a solid hour before any alteration. But both times, he explained that he just wanted to swing and slide. So I let up and we rode a few blocks to the park and played. Would I have had more fun riding? Sure. Did we have fun together doing his favorite things? Absolutely.
My logic is that if sometimes I give in, he'll continue to enjoy the times we go big and do long, epic adventures. If he always has to tag along doing what I want to do, he'll hate the things I enjoy when he's old enough for us to really enjoy them together. Right now, he could care less about my V02max or FTP. Will it matter when he's 17 what my max sustainable power was when I was 40? Doubtful.
The tricky times are situations like last Saturday when we committed to driving to Mt. Hood, changed into proper XC-Ski gear, packed the sled with his current play list of books and animals, made it a mile down the trail and he says, "I want out."
"What?"
"I want out."
"Do you want to ski on your ski's?"
"No. I want to walk."
So we walk. 10 or 15 minutes pass. He's walking like I used to walk to school (before I rode my bike as far as I could in the other direction!). Long marching strides until something big enough to kick or step on grabbed his attention. He'd kick a snow ball or pick it up and throw it. He laughed a little, but kept walking.
Until he stopped.
Usually when he stops like that he clinches his fists and his face turns red. I thought about that and the prospect of changing his diaper on snow. I patted his butt but felt nothing. Whew!
"Are you okay son?"
"Yeah."
"Are you trying to poo?"
"No."
"Are you trying to pee?"
"No."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm just standing here."
And there he stood. Watching the clouds move and open a window like view of Mt. Hood. Watching the trees sway and drop piles of snow to the ground. Watching me get colder and shiver and mumble about the one time I didn't bring extra wind shell pants or jacket.
It annoyed him that I'd interrupt his silence to ask about getting back in the sled or strapping on his ski's.
"Seriously, why are you just standing there?"
"I'm just standing here."
So I let him just stand there.
After about 20-minutes he was done standing there. He climbed in the sled and slept for 2 hours while I trotted around the lake and thought about the value of stopping to just stand still. To be perfectly motionless and watch a view of a snow covered volcano open up right before you while not hearing a single sound. That is pretty epic. Even if your more than 2.
Oct 27, 2009
Old habits

After a rocky start burning through a few of my parents cars, I ended up with a 1971 Volkswagen square back. The catch (like a disease) was the maintenance. The valves had to be adjusted regularly to keep the engine from blowing up. The motor also needed to be driven at less than 90mph for extended distances, but I learned and observed that rule pretty early on.
My dad regularly said that not maintaining my car was like not changing my underwear. Funny because bike racers, not just 19-year-old bike racers, are generally very aware of their crotch and go to great extremes to keep them clean and free of saddle sores. Why waste time working on a car when I could be applying oily concoctions to the chamois I spent so much time in?
Change of subject.
I've had the same coffee cup for 15 years. It has my name on it. In 12 different languages. It was a gift after someone at a job stole my previous coffee cup. At various employers, I've rinsed it out and washed it on Fridays. Now I work from home. Occasionally I rinse it out with left over boiling water meant for the French Press. It's a system, my system works, no one gets hurt.
Recently A made an issue of my system. Using words like. "disgusting, nasty, gross", you get the idea. We've been married 12 years; she knows me better than I do at this point. Why now? Why at all? It's my mug...with my name on it. In a dozen languages no less.
The conversation escalated when she said, "It's like not changing your underwear!"
"No," I said, "not maintaining a car is like not changing one's underwear."
Aug 21, 2009
Other peoples' garages
I was in a friend's garage recently and happened upon this oddity, scratched my head and took a picture of it. Then I wondered...

A) "I have some oil and need a place to put it,"
B) "Yeah! Now that I'm home from the urologist, I know just what to do with this piss pot,"
C) "Man, I need to drink more water and less 30-Weight!"
answer: "I'm glad you asked; it works great for the lawn-mower."
A) "I have some oil and need a place to put it,"
B) "Yeah! Now that I'm home from the urologist, I know just what to do with this piss pot,"
C) "Man, I need to drink more water and less 30-Weight!"
answer: "I'm glad you asked; it works great for the lawn-mower."
Jan 1, 2009
2008 Top Ten

The easy summary would be to simply say that 2008 sucked. However after a butt-load of time to think it over, the good things of '08 were pretty damned spectacular. So with that in mind, I decided on a list of the stupid, untrue, dumb-fool things people said to us this year. Some statements came from "Professionals", the rest from ignoramus or filter-less minds. Here are the most entertaining. Enjoy!
10. Rest for a minute, you probably just bruised your leg.
9. No baby can sleep through the night before 6 months.
8. Babies don't like formula straight from the fridge.
7. Watching 3-seasons of That 70's Show non-stop will kill your morale.
6. Once we put the tube down your wife's throat (for 8 days), she'll be fine.
5. After we take out your wife's gallbladder, she'll be fine.
4. Your wife has numerous blood clots in/around her lung. This is serious, she was released once already? (3rd stay at the hospital.)
3. Once I give you an enima, it'll fall right out.
2. Friends disapoint you when the chips are down.
1. Beautiful people have ugly babies.
Here's to an uneventful 2009.
Dec 20, 2008
Tastes Like:

I’ve never been a big fan of the specialty “energy” foods. Perhaps it was my early experiences with PowerBars back when they were still developing the recipe in 1986, which tainted my opinion. I recall a hot and windy road race in the desolate foothills near Walnut Creek, Ca. An area surely covered by track housing and strip malls today. The PowerBar leaked out of the wrapper like some sort of high density, fudge milkshake, covering the inside of the center pocket of my wool jersey. I was young and impressionable. Highly concerned about fitting in. Getting dropped in a bike race and looking like I crapped myself then stuck the poo in my pocket was not going to win me friends and it was pretty much crystal clear that I couldn't win races.
My next PowerBar memory was the following winter on Skyline Road above Palo Alto, on a group ride with Eric Heiden, the speed skating Michael Phelps of the 1980 winter Olympics. The whole ride is fodder for a different story, but suffice it to say; still hypercritical of my presentation, I bit into the bar while riding next to the 7-Eleven team rider’s left leg which was as big as me. I about broke my jaw because the damned bar was frozen solid.
As I developed as a racer I tried again the trendy bars and gels but found the specialty stuff to ignite my digestive track and clear a motel room of all 5 or more of my roomies. I learned about ham sandwiches, Fig Neutons, Pop Tarts and pastries of all varieties. I further justified my desire for “real” foods on long rides and in races because that is what the Pro’s ate. Even today, a mussette bag in a Grand Tour has more pastries than gel packs.
I still maintain that Pop Tarts, the cinnamon ones, are one of the greatest snack foods in the world. I love Pop Tarts. Cinnamon Pop Tarts. Sans Toaster.

I’m fast approaching 40 and not riding my bike. Exercise, as rehab isn’t burning the calories like regularly riding a bike. Last month I had to buy new pants in a bigger size. FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS YEAR! I can’t get away with eating the way I am accustomed to any longer. I need more salads, more whole grains. Fewer Pop Tarts.
Last week, I found High Fiber Pop Tarts. They have a dryer, less cakey taste than the white flower variety, but match the same sugary, cinnamon spice nectar. I imagine on a long ride they won’t offer the sugar spike like the traditional tarts, but again; I’m not riding my bike so what do I care? I can wash them down with a beer while stretching out the exercise band and watching TV if I get the knock. Besides, at this point in my life and past impaction experience, a little extra fiber can go a long way.
Nov 3, 2008
Confession

Tonight at Dinner A came to a personal truth.
A: I truly believe I am a freak.
NF: Oh, Really.
A: Yes. When you fall asleep before me, I am lonely. When you stay awake watching TV, while I am trying to go to sleep before you so as to not feel lonely, it bugs the crap out of me.
NF: These biscuits taste really good.
Sep 24, 2008
Sleeping or Lounging; she keeps her cool until I bring it up

I knew it would happen and I was okay with it. Mentioning it was my downfall. The dialogue went like this when I got home from work yesterday.
Newmaforma:I see you are still in your pajamas. I am glad to see that you've been able to just chill with G around the house today. (Opposed to trips to the MD on most days for blood tests, etc, etc. -ed.)
A: These aren't pajamas they are LOUNGE WEAR. (Pointing from shoulder to toes with both index fingers while shaking her head in a bobbling motion that is a sign of attitude and a coming "discussion".)
NF: They are pajamas...it's what you sleep in.
A: No. I slept in a night gown, I changed into this at two-oclock.
NF: Oh, you changed INTO them? They are pajamas.
A: Yes, I changed into them. They are LOUNGE WEAR as I am wearing them in the daytime to LOUNGE IN and I am wearing underwear as well.
Then we were done.
Jun 26, 2008
Hormones or Loud and Proud?
The Mrs. seems to think that no one reads the comments on the blog posts. She may very well think that no one reads the posts either. She might be right on both counts. Either way, she e-mailed me today to make a clarification. Being 37 weeks pregnant she seems to have alot to say and say loudly or emotionally so at first I took her statememt with a grain of salt until she backed it up in person as how she truly feels. I just don't know what to think.
"I would appreciate it if you would amend your blog - I actually AM into the show Walker Texas Ranger and was royally pissed when we lost the Hallmark Channel and I could no longer watch it each night as I mentally gave a round house kick to my work day. I am not ashamed of it; am quite proud of it actually, and would like your readers to know. =)"
At least she put it out there that we no longer have the Hallmark Channel.
I love you too, A.
"I would appreciate it if you would amend your blog - I actually AM into the show Walker Texas Ranger and was royally pissed when we lost the Hallmark Channel and I could no longer watch it each night as I mentally gave a round house kick to my work day. I am not ashamed of it; am quite proud of it actually, and would like your readers to know. =)"
At least she put it out there that we no longer have the Hallmark Channel.
I love you too, A.
May 22, 2008
May 18, 2008
IMPACT
Enough requests for this diddy have led me to simply post it for anyone interested to read. I cannot in good conscience not warn you -dear reader, that if detailed discussion of bodily waste is not your thing; read no further. If on the other hand, you relish poop stories...enjoy!
- IMPACT -
On Wednesday the hospital staff wanted me out of their room. They had been feeding me fruit, yogurt and painkillers since Saturday when I arrived after breaking my right hip and right elbow during a crash on a bicycle ride. I was recovering from the surgery to place pins and screws in my broken bones so they would heal correctly. Now I had over stayed my welcome. Before I could leave though they wanted me to prove that I could get out of bed, into my wheelchair and onto the toilet by myself. I also had to take a dump. The P/T did some drills, got me in and out of bed a few times, had me roll to the end of the hallway and back and got me on the can to whiz as a test run before the nurse shoved a suppository up my butt for motivation.
The suppository worked. I got to the commode, did what was required and was in a hospital bed in my own living room a few hours later. Thursday I moved a triplet of rocks and figured even though I still had mud on my boots, I was out of the woods. I wouldn’t have another BM for 5 days. While continuing on the prescription pain pills every 2 hours like a junky with a rich enabler for a lover, my wife, A, fed my pain like clock work day and night. My appetite was back and friends brought me pizza, burritos, grilled cheese sandwiches and ice cream. I was blessed to be surrounded by such caring and loved ones.
Tuesday I was awake by 8, in my wheelchair and at the table by 9. Finished my coffee and breakfast and was booting up the laptop at 10 when I felt the urge. A wheeled me to the bathroom, got me to the commode and something in my gut didn’t feel right. The turd felt as if it had overshot the hole. I’m not crystal clear on anatomy but I know enough that going down that road, there is nowhere else for the crap wagon to drive. Like telling a hiker to turn left at the top of Half Dome. Said hiker can go over the edge or back down the cable ladder but there is no lateral option.
I squeezed and moaned. I focused on the contraction and then tried to relax. I was afraid that if I could rally myself to push any harder I’d rip the skin to shreds and still not be able to rid myself of the bad-man.
During the 2 hours I spent in the bathroom I tried to massage the area externally and began to understand what I was up against. The anus was swollen clear to the pointy edges of pelvis commonly called the sit bones, compacted with a weeks worth of concrete-like waste. I used a plastic spoon in attempt to pick at, maneuver, extract or all three the orb that was now lodged in purgatory between intestine and commode. My muscles quit contracting and the shit had no reverse gear.
On occasion a small nub would crown, showing itself like a turtle slowly shows its head. I would pick it loose with the spoon. Its consistency was tacky like a block of clay. The spoon clogged up quickly and was soon useless. I had to work manually. The pain, disgust, awe and confusion that something this large and toxic could coagulate inside me without fair warning from the medical professionals who bolted, pinned and stapled me back together kept me in an emotional quandary. A cleaned me up and got me into my wheelchair. I tried to sit square but quickly realized the pain my double parked shit was on the area’s soft tissue. Like standing up quickly to go to the chalkboard with a hard-on in a high school class, I sat back down but angled heavily on my left hip to avoid pressure on the log-jam.
Situated back into bed, I curled near fetal style. In the days since my accident, A had been a trooper, over-powering or at least hiding the emotional roller coaster of work, being 6-months pregnant on top of nursing a broken husband back to health. Finally though, on the phone to the Emergency Room staff, she broke. Explaining my condition, her condition and my inability to sit square, she asked for some staff to get me onto a gurney once out of the car. She was in tears. Frantically dressing, gathering snacks for the day ahead, we both wondered how she would get me into the car. Just at the moment when we looked each other in the eyes with a decade of highs and lows behind us, and silently committed to attempting to move me; knowing the possibility of either of us falling, someone knocked on the door. A friend was in the area for work and thought he’d stop in to check up on us. He put A at ease, got me into the car and off we were to the ER.
The Triage nurse was kind enough to leave me fetal on a gurney in a dead end hallway with a piss-pot and a blanket. Should I have another BM I was a shade closer to privacy than display and could moan, contort and cry with at least no one sitting next to me. Hours passed slowly.
About 5 pm I was put in an ER room of my own and a male nurse explained he would give me an enema or perhaps two. “We are super swamped,” he told A. “If this one doesn’t work in 15-minutes, give him this one.”
He held up his other hand with a tube that looked like a family sized tube of tooth paste. He began to explain the process to her while I instead focused in on his strawberry hair and fair, freckled face. “Jam the tip all the way in and SQUEEZE real hard,” he said. His face turned red and his beady-eyes were about to pop out. “Really SQUEEZE the tube to get all the fluid out and up into his butt. Okay? If you have trouble just call for me.”
He fully inserted the tip and SQUEEZED real hard, just as he said he would, filling my bowls with an oily concoction. I held my breath pinching my ass shut to keep the lube inside me. A attempted to distract me by recalling recent phone calls she’d received from concerned friends in an effort to keep the time from seemingly standing still. 15-minutes passed and I stumbled onto the portable toilet, drained the enema concoction and moaned in absolute pain while the pressure of the giant shit pushed against my anus. I almost cried. A found the nurse again and I explained that this thing was simply not going to come out with an enema. He assured us it was a multi stepped process and we would continue with a second round.
After the second enema ended like the first, a moderately attractive 40-something female doctor with shoulder length blond hair came in, shoved her hand up my ass and asked if it hurt. I told her the truth. Lying naked, fetal and turtling an aircraft carrier, I had lost all sense of humor and dignity. For a moment she fingered me like a puppet, then removed her hand, removed the glove and asked if I preferred an injection of pain killers or an IV. I chose the IV. Through the entire hospital experience the week before I learned that more drugs and fewer punctures into my flesh was the best I could hope for. Moments later the male nurse returned, put an IV into my arm, and hooked me up with fluids.
A asked for directions to the bathroom and left me alone with my morphine drip. On her return I was visually calmer and she told me the doctor was waiting for a particular nurse who was about to start her shift and was the best at removing the blockage of an impacted bowel. “I just spoke with the nurse,” A said. “She is the best because she has long thin fingers.”
I immediately put the worst case scenario together. “Oh, no, no,” I cried, “a nurse with long, thin fingers? She’s gonna be a hottie! Is she hot?”
A stuttered; looking at me curled up naked but for the bandages over the incision wound from my previous surgery, “Yeah honey, she is an attractive girl.”
I was pissed.
Moments later, from my fetal position and relaxed, morphine haze, I sized up the “specialist” nurse with long dark hair that hung in soft loose waves framing her smooth sun kissed skin to be about 5’10”. She wore a t-shirt with a print of mountain biker who had already ascended to the base of her shirt and was about to climb the hill of her left breast. Her shirt fit perfectly in all the appropriate places and hung loose from the round edges of her fit figure. Even her frigging scrub pants hung better than a pair of top shelf jeans on a super model. She walked from my field of view to my exposed ass and I knew this was in fact the worst day of my entire life. I asked weakly, “So you like mountain bikes?”
Hot Nurse said yes. She asked about my broken hip and elbow. I apologized for having her start her shift digging out my shit. She said it happened all the time. Maybe for her it happened all the time, but not for me. Not with a hot nurse. Not ever.
Hot Nurse said she had broken her pelvis and femur in a water skiing accident at age 13. Funny, I thought; at that moment I felt 13. Naked, drugged, chilly, and completely naked, I asked her about her activity level now in a faint effort to diagnose my future but mostly to establish that we shared not only the same injuries but interests too. She said all was well, that she ran marathons and rode her bike all she wanted. I cried a little. Hot Nurse applied lube to her long, thin, latex-gloved fingers then stuck two digits inside me. I again apologized and clarified, “All your gonna find up there is a giant crap. I swear I haven’t put any G.I. Joe's or Hot Wheel cars up my butt as some sort of fetish.”
Hot Nurse laughed. I made Hot Nurse laugh! I was still naked and chilly though.
A stood in the corner painfully sympathetic for me but enjoying her own secret fetish of talking about funked up bodily processes and the disgusting things other people do to themselves for enjoyment. She jumped into the conversation with a nod to Hot Nurse and in a whisper asked what kinds of things Hot Nurse has found up people’s butts. The two talked softly about objects that do go -but shouldn’t go- into one’s anus. I shifted uncomfortably, politely not interrupting their conversation as she roamed the inside of my anus with her hand.
Hot Nurse pulled her hand out of me and stripped the gloves off. By this point the room was rank with the smell of my stalled shit. I looked at her giant hazel eyes and she looked back at me. I watched her mouth open as her lips separated and her tongue unconsciously moved forward in her pallet to form a word. All I could think was how insanely gorgeous she was. “That thing is the size of a softball! I can’t seem to get a grip on it,” she said. “It just keeps spinning.”
A Pause filled the room for a moment. Her lips that had so sensually teased me delivered words that did not match her beauty and brought my fantasy escapism quickly back to reality. On top of being stunningly gorgeous, this girl was a total tom-boy. How hot was that? How else would she have ended up a nurse? She could have easily been a swim-suit model.
I was never that quick witted with girls, especially in this sort of situation. I wondered if she played softball in High School. Hot Nurse broke the silence and exclaimed, “I have an idea. I’ll be right back!” then disappeared.
A clasped my hand with one of her own and patted both with the other. “I’m so sorry that she’s hot. She does this all the time. Don’t worry about her being beautiful.”
Much time seemed to pass before Hot Nurse returned slightly out of breath and medical supplies cradled in her arms. “I had to go all the way to Central Supply for this!”
She breathed heavy, her chest expanding, contracting rhythmically. I could tell she had abs as tight as a drum skin. From her still straining diaphragm, I figured she must have run all the way there and back.
I imagined what she looked like running through a basement hallway gripping the supplies in each hand as her arms pumped back and forth in stride with her long legs. Her shirt shifting left then right over her firm breasts held with care by a sports-bra. Yelling, “Outta the way S.T.A.T. I have a patient to save from a giant softball sized shit!”
She would skip the elevator and take the stairs. Having already worked out earlier in the day wouldn’t be a problem for her strong thighs and lean glut's powering her up each step through the corkscrew stairwell back to the ER where she would explode through the door, angelic, tossing her hair back without even a drop of sweet, Hot Nurse, angel sweat then burst into my room to spare me from certain death by my own uber constipation.
In reality Hot Nurse held up a catheter tube and two boxes of K-Y jelly tubes. “I’m gonna run the catheter past the stool and have your wife inject the tube of K-Y while I turn the stool with the catheter. Then we’ll do the same on this end of it and I’ll move it around with the catheter to really lube it up and it will just fall right out. Sound good?”
“Okay,” I said.
A jumped from her seat, pulled the surgical gloves on and was giddy with excitement as the two stared at my plugged asshole. Once manipulated, Hot Nurse pulled the catheter tube out of me and gave the same instructions as I heard for the previous enemas. She left the room, A again held my hands and laughed at the excitement Hot Nurse had for her idea.
After 10-minutes or so I felt the turd moving south and the K-Y beginning to drip out, down the inside of my leg. I moved quickly and carefully onto the commode. I feared falling on my broken hip, shitting all over myself and looking foolish.
A saw me onto the commode where I asked her to glove me before she left the room to avoid the stench. The giant turd crowned, turtled, and then stalled. The familiar pain of an orifice fully dilated but in need of one more centimeter consumed me. I fought from crying, instead trying to focus on squeezing the bastard out. I moaned and swore in pain. When it would budge no more, I reached down with my left hand grasping it like a 40 ounce bottle of beer and pulled. “Oh, good Lord,” I exclaimed.
A stuck her head back in the room. I held the largest handful of shit I have ever seen, out in front of me, steaming for her approval. “Wow, honey,” she said, “drop that in the bucket and I’ll get you another glove.”
Minutes passed and I worked an equally large shit out in the same manner as the first. Hot Nurse came back in. By now the room was rank, worse than a construction site porta-pottie in the peak of summer heat. “Sit up straight,” she said. Arching her back to display proper posture which pulled her shirt taught in an inspiring way. My broken arm rested on one thigh and my good arm on the other. My gloved left hand covered my chilled junk. I followed her directions and sat more erect. My bowels gurgled loudly. Hot Nurse’s eyes opened wide as I had a blow out that echoed and reverberated in the plastic bucket filled with waste beneath me while we maintained eye contact. I fought back from severe sobbing. I felt relieved but none the less wanted to die. Hot Nurse smiled, said to relax and left the room.
She returned carrying a steaming stack of wet hand towels. A followed and asked if I felt better. Before I could answer, Hot Nurse asked if I could stand, with my weight on my good leg and lean against the bed. As I did, she took the bucket of bile away. I heard voices in the hallway and Hot Nurse reply, “Yeah, finally!”
A told me all the nurses knew about “the guy in C-23.” I heard a splash and curplunket in the toilet of the bathroom next door, then a flush. Hot Nurse returned, telling A that her wiping me was unnecessary and that she was happy to clean me. “Really, I do this all the time, it’s no big deal, have a seat…rest.” Hot Nurse said.
I stood semi-bent over, legs spread as if being frisked. Hot Nurse wiped me off with care opposite a cop feeling for weapons or contraband. A sat in a chair in front of me on the other side of the bed, smiling. My bowels relaxed, my anus felt like a freight train had gone through me. I couldn’t escape the embarrassment of Hot Nurse wiping the shit and K-Y off of my ass and from the inside of my thighs.
By this point it was nearly 11:00 at night. I got dressed again, the male nurse returned with papers to sign then wheeled me out to the door as A went to get the car. When she pulled up, the cars headlights lit up the foyer of the ER. The male nurse looked me straight in the eyes, “Bro, you were awesome. You did us all proud back there.” He helped me into the car, shook my hand and wheeled the empty wheelchair back into the foyer. Hot Nurse ran past the Triage desk, rushing to help another patient in another room.
- IMPACT -
On Wednesday the hospital staff wanted me out of their room. They had been feeding me fruit, yogurt and painkillers since Saturday when I arrived after breaking my right hip and right elbow during a crash on a bicycle ride. I was recovering from the surgery to place pins and screws in my broken bones so they would heal correctly. Now I had over stayed my welcome. Before I could leave though they wanted me to prove that I could get out of bed, into my wheelchair and onto the toilet by myself. I also had to take a dump. The P/T did some drills, got me in and out of bed a few times, had me roll to the end of the hallway and back and got me on the can to whiz as a test run before the nurse shoved a suppository up my butt for motivation.
The suppository worked. I got to the commode, did what was required and was in a hospital bed in my own living room a few hours later. Thursday I moved a triplet of rocks and figured even though I still had mud on my boots, I was out of the woods. I wouldn’t have another BM for 5 days. While continuing on the prescription pain pills every 2 hours like a junky with a rich enabler for a lover, my wife, A, fed my pain like clock work day and night. My appetite was back and friends brought me pizza, burritos, grilled cheese sandwiches and ice cream. I was blessed to be surrounded by such caring and loved ones.
Tuesday I was awake by 8, in my wheelchair and at the table by 9. Finished my coffee and breakfast and was booting up the laptop at 10 when I felt the urge. A wheeled me to the bathroom, got me to the commode and something in my gut didn’t feel right. The turd felt as if it had overshot the hole. I’m not crystal clear on anatomy but I know enough that going down that road, there is nowhere else for the crap wagon to drive. Like telling a hiker to turn left at the top of Half Dome. Said hiker can go over the edge or back down the cable ladder but there is no lateral option.
I squeezed and moaned. I focused on the contraction and then tried to relax. I was afraid that if I could rally myself to push any harder I’d rip the skin to shreds and still not be able to rid myself of the bad-man.
During the 2 hours I spent in the bathroom I tried to massage the area externally and began to understand what I was up against. The anus was swollen clear to the pointy edges of pelvis commonly called the sit bones, compacted with a weeks worth of concrete-like waste. I used a plastic spoon in attempt to pick at, maneuver, extract or all three the orb that was now lodged in purgatory between intestine and commode. My muscles quit contracting and the shit had no reverse gear.
On occasion a small nub would crown, showing itself like a turtle slowly shows its head. I would pick it loose with the spoon. Its consistency was tacky like a block of clay. The spoon clogged up quickly and was soon useless. I had to work manually. The pain, disgust, awe and confusion that something this large and toxic could coagulate inside me without fair warning from the medical professionals who bolted, pinned and stapled me back together kept me in an emotional quandary. A cleaned me up and got me into my wheelchair. I tried to sit square but quickly realized the pain my double parked shit was on the area’s soft tissue. Like standing up quickly to go to the chalkboard with a hard-on in a high school class, I sat back down but angled heavily on my left hip to avoid pressure on the log-jam.
Situated back into bed, I curled near fetal style. In the days since my accident, A had been a trooper, over-powering or at least hiding the emotional roller coaster of work, being 6-months pregnant on top of nursing a broken husband back to health. Finally though, on the phone to the Emergency Room staff, she broke. Explaining my condition, her condition and my inability to sit square, she asked for some staff to get me onto a gurney once out of the car. She was in tears. Frantically dressing, gathering snacks for the day ahead, we both wondered how she would get me into the car. Just at the moment when we looked each other in the eyes with a decade of highs and lows behind us, and silently committed to attempting to move me; knowing the possibility of either of us falling, someone knocked on the door. A friend was in the area for work and thought he’d stop in to check up on us. He put A at ease, got me into the car and off we were to the ER.
The Triage nurse was kind enough to leave me fetal on a gurney in a dead end hallway with a piss-pot and a blanket. Should I have another BM I was a shade closer to privacy than display and could moan, contort and cry with at least no one sitting next to me. Hours passed slowly.
About 5 pm I was put in an ER room of my own and a male nurse explained he would give me an enema or perhaps two. “We are super swamped,” he told A. “If this one doesn’t work in 15-minutes, give him this one.”
He held up his other hand with a tube that looked like a family sized tube of tooth paste. He began to explain the process to her while I instead focused in on his strawberry hair and fair, freckled face. “Jam the tip all the way in and SQUEEZE real hard,” he said. His face turned red and his beady-eyes were about to pop out. “Really SQUEEZE the tube to get all the fluid out and up into his butt. Okay? If you have trouble just call for me.”
He fully inserted the tip and SQUEEZED real hard, just as he said he would, filling my bowls with an oily concoction. I held my breath pinching my ass shut to keep the lube inside me. A attempted to distract me by recalling recent phone calls she’d received from concerned friends in an effort to keep the time from seemingly standing still. 15-minutes passed and I stumbled onto the portable toilet, drained the enema concoction and moaned in absolute pain while the pressure of the giant shit pushed against my anus. I almost cried. A found the nurse again and I explained that this thing was simply not going to come out with an enema. He assured us it was a multi stepped process and we would continue with a second round.
After the second enema ended like the first, a moderately attractive 40-something female doctor with shoulder length blond hair came in, shoved her hand up my ass and asked if it hurt. I told her the truth. Lying naked, fetal and turtling an aircraft carrier, I had lost all sense of humor and dignity. For a moment she fingered me like a puppet, then removed her hand, removed the glove and asked if I preferred an injection of pain killers or an IV. I chose the IV. Through the entire hospital experience the week before I learned that more drugs and fewer punctures into my flesh was the best I could hope for. Moments later the male nurse returned, put an IV into my arm, and hooked me up with fluids.
A asked for directions to the bathroom and left me alone with my morphine drip. On her return I was visually calmer and she told me the doctor was waiting for a particular nurse who was about to start her shift and was the best at removing the blockage of an impacted bowel. “I just spoke with the nurse,” A said. “She is the best because she has long thin fingers.”
I immediately put the worst case scenario together. “Oh, no, no,” I cried, “a nurse with long, thin fingers? She’s gonna be a hottie! Is she hot?”
A stuttered; looking at me curled up naked but for the bandages over the incision wound from my previous surgery, “Yeah honey, she is an attractive girl.”
I was pissed.
Moments later, from my fetal position and relaxed, morphine haze, I sized up the “specialist” nurse with long dark hair that hung in soft loose waves framing her smooth sun kissed skin to be about 5’10”. She wore a t-shirt with a print of mountain biker who had already ascended to the base of her shirt and was about to climb the hill of her left breast. Her shirt fit perfectly in all the appropriate places and hung loose from the round edges of her fit figure. Even her frigging scrub pants hung better than a pair of top shelf jeans on a super model. She walked from my field of view to my exposed ass and I knew this was in fact the worst day of my entire life. I asked weakly, “So you like mountain bikes?”
Hot Nurse said yes. She asked about my broken hip and elbow. I apologized for having her start her shift digging out my shit. She said it happened all the time. Maybe for her it happened all the time, but not for me. Not with a hot nurse. Not ever.
Hot Nurse said she had broken her pelvis and femur in a water skiing accident at age 13. Funny, I thought; at that moment I felt 13. Naked, drugged, chilly, and completely naked, I asked her about her activity level now in a faint effort to diagnose my future but mostly to establish that we shared not only the same injuries but interests too. She said all was well, that she ran marathons and rode her bike all she wanted. I cried a little. Hot Nurse applied lube to her long, thin, latex-gloved fingers then stuck two digits inside me. I again apologized and clarified, “All your gonna find up there is a giant crap. I swear I haven’t put any G.I. Joe's or Hot Wheel cars up my butt as some sort of fetish.”
Hot Nurse laughed. I made Hot Nurse laugh! I was still naked and chilly though.
A stood in the corner painfully sympathetic for me but enjoying her own secret fetish of talking about funked up bodily processes and the disgusting things other people do to themselves for enjoyment. She jumped into the conversation with a nod to Hot Nurse and in a whisper asked what kinds of things Hot Nurse has found up people’s butts. The two talked softly about objects that do go -but shouldn’t go- into one’s anus. I shifted uncomfortably, politely not interrupting their conversation as she roamed the inside of my anus with her hand.
Hot Nurse pulled her hand out of me and stripped the gloves off. By this point the room was rank with the smell of my stalled shit. I looked at her giant hazel eyes and she looked back at me. I watched her mouth open as her lips separated and her tongue unconsciously moved forward in her pallet to form a word. All I could think was how insanely gorgeous she was. “That thing is the size of a softball! I can’t seem to get a grip on it,” she said. “It just keeps spinning.”
A Pause filled the room for a moment. Her lips that had so sensually teased me delivered words that did not match her beauty and brought my fantasy escapism quickly back to reality. On top of being stunningly gorgeous, this girl was a total tom-boy. How hot was that? How else would she have ended up a nurse? She could have easily been a swim-suit model.
I was never that quick witted with girls, especially in this sort of situation. I wondered if she played softball in High School. Hot Nurse broke the silence and exclaimed, “I have an idea. I’ll be right back!” then disappeared.
A clasped my hand with one of her own and patted both with the other. “I’m so sorry that she’s hot. She does this all the time. Don’t worry about her being beautiful.”
Much time seemed to pass before Hot Nurse returned slightly out of breath and medical supplies cradled in her arms. “I had to go all the way to Central Supply for this!”
She breathed heavy, her chest expanding, contracting rhythmically. I could tell she had abs as tight as a drum skin. From her still straining diaphragm, I figured she must have run all the way there and back.
I imagined what she looked like running through a basement hallway gripping the supplies in each hand as her arms pumped back and forth in stride with her long legs. Her shirt shifting left then right over her firm breasts held with care by a sports-bra. Yelling, “Outta the way S.T.A.T. I have a patient to save from a giant softball sized shit!”
She would skip the elevator and take the stairs. Having already worked out earlier in the day wouldn’t be a problem for her strong thighs and lean glut's powering her up each step through the corkscrew stairwell back to the ER where she would explode through the door, angelic, tossing her hair back without even a drop of sweet, Hot Nurse, angel sweat then burst into my room to spare me from certain death by my own uber constipation.
In reality Hot Nurse held up a catheter tube and two boxes of K-Y jelly tubes. “I’m gonna run the catheter past the stool and have your wife inject the tube of K-Y while I turn the stool with the catheter. Then we’ll do the same on this end of it and I’ll move it around with the catheter to really lube it up and it will just fall right out. Sound good?”
“Okay,” I said.
A jumped from her seat, pulled the surgical gloves on and was giddy with excitement as the two stared at my plugged asshole. Once manipulated, Hot Nurse pulled the catheter tube out of me and gave the same instructions as I heard for the previous enemas. She left the room, A again held my hands and laughed at the excitement Hot Nurse had for her idea.
After 10-minutes or so I felt the turd moving south and the K-Y beginning to drip out, down the inside of my leg. I moved quickly and carefully onto the commode. I feared falling on my broken hip, shitting all over myself and looking foolish.
A saw me onto the commode where I asked her to glove me before she left the room to avoid the stench. The giant turd crowned, turtled, and then stalled. The familiar pain of an orifice fully dilated but in need of one more centimeter consumed me. I fought from crying, instead trying to focus on squeezing the bastard out. I moaned and swore in pain. When it would budge no more, I reached down with my left hand grasping it like a 40 ounce bottle of beer and pulled. “Oh, good Lord,” I exclaimed.
A stuck her head back in the room. I held the largest handful of shit I have ever seen, out in front of me, steaming for her approval. “Wow, honey,” she said, “drop that in the bucket and I’ll get you another glove.”
Minutes passed and I worked an equally large shit out in the same manner as the first. Hot Nurse came back in. By now the room was rank, worse than a construction site porta-pottie in the peak of summer heat. “Sit up straight,” she said. Arching her back to display proper posture which pulled her shirt taught in an inspiring way. My broken arm rested on one thigh and my good arm on the other. My gloved left hand covered my chilled junk. I followed her directions and sat more erect. My bowels gurgled loudly. Hot Nurse’s eyes opened wide as I had a blow out that echoed and reverberated in the plastic bucket filled with waste beneath me while we maintained eye contact. I fought back from severe sobbing. I felt relieved but none the less wanted to die. Hot Nurse smiled, said to relax and left the room.
She returned carrying a steaming stack of wet hand towels. A followed and asked if I felt better. Before I could answer, Hot Nurse asked if I could stand, with my weight on my good leg and lean against the bed. As I did, she took the bucket of bile away. I heard voices in the hallway and Hot Nurse reply, “Yeah, finally!”
A told me all the nurses knew about “the guy in C-23.” I heard a splash and curplunket in the toilet of the bathroom next door, then a flush. Hot Nurse returned, telling A that her wiping me was unnecessary and that she was happy to clean me. “Really, I do this all the time, it’s no big deal, have a seat…rest.” Hot Nurse said.
I stood semi-bent over, legs spread as if being frisked. Hot Nurse wiped me off with care opposite a cop feeling for weapons or contraband. A sat in a chair in front of me on the other side of the bed, smiling. My bowels relaxed, my anus felt like a freight train had gone through me. I couldn’t escape the embarrassment of Hot Nurse wiping the shit and K-Y off of my ass and from the inside of my thighs.
By this point it was nearly 11:00 at night. I got dressed again, the male nurse returned with papers to sign then wheeled me out to the door as A went to get the car. When she pulled up, the cars headlights lit up the foyer of the ER. The male nurse looked me straight in the eyes, “Bro, you were awesome. You did us all proud back there.” He helped me into the car, shook my hand and wheeled the empty wheelchair back into the foyer. Hot Nurse ran past the Triage desk, rushing to help another patient in another room.
May 7, 2008
Mar 28, 2008
Field Test
I recently test drove Providence Portland's in bed urinal. While better in many ways to a catheter tube with it's far less invasive, storable design, there are limitations when one's hip and/or pelvis flexibility is in question. That said, installation and removal are exponentially easier than the alternative.
Call it a bottle, receptacle or jug, the model tested has it's drawbacks. Keep in mind that this unit was put through quite a rigorous battery of tests, ridden hard and put away wet. What is important to know is to have a place for it after use. Cafeteria staff in their best efforts to serve are far better at waking patients up to inform them that one can order meals over the phone at their convenience than actually clearing dirty dishes and meal trays from ones bedside table. Add to the bed side table clutter a universal bed, tv and nurse calling devise the size of a Vietnam war era Motorola cell phone yet with an electrical cord the capacity of a refrigerator, a similar era corded digital phone, newspaper, assorted magazines and lung exerciser (for another post) and suddenly finding a place for the steaming bidon of piss to settle far enough to not taint anything like say a box of kleenex is suddenly a real estate nightmare on the portable table/entertainment center.
Should one's 6-mo pregnant wife empty the receptacle because lord only knows when a nurse might answer a call light, latex gloves are usually nearby. however, be warned snapping them on Doctor style is great for tv but in actuality stings like a bitch.
The bottle itself is simply designed like many things of PRO caliber. While Sven Nys might ride certain heavier but more durable pieces of equipment in liue of lighter but less resilient bits, the jug tested is more CHEAP than PRO. The polyethylene terephthalate material that disposable water bottles are made of and also suspected of causing cancer; is what our test bottle is made of and more importantly where I was stuffing my junk for regular re-use. Good thing the Mrs. is already pregnant! Our next kid may just end up going to Community College. I'm not dissin the CC after all I had 3 1/2 wonderful years there. I'm just sayin that like most bike racers if my kid wants to be PRO -that's alot of scratch for white bar tape, white shoe covers and Assos kit. The road from the CC to the world is more Arranburg than plaza San Remo and unbeknownst to the American cycling consumer, the road to Roubaix ends at a coal mine not an office tower.
Much how a Freshman English class is the same but different at Harvard or the CC, this bottle has similar but different features to other receptacles used in the past to cleanly retain urine whether on a plane or a train, in a hospital gown or around town. The handle has a glued seal across it. this seals the handle from functionable liquid storing capacity. In the moments when calculating rate of flow, distance from edge of the opening and angle of the bottle, having an extra 2 oz overflow reservoir can't be a bad thing. A guy works hard to start the race at all, there are few things worse than racing past the finish line for another lap after it's all over.
The opening is rough like a Flemish climb and of course smells about the same. Flanders and this bottle were rough on my wiener. The lid has a major recession that screams out liability in the event of fluid displacement like a teen-ager in a puffy coat wielding a disposable camera on Alpe d'Hueze cries MORON. All in all, I rate the Prov Portland in bed urine receptacle a 3/10 for things I can and have pissed into. The PRO solution is ceramic -like all things it's all about ball bearings these days.
This however is UroPRO!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)




.jpg)