Women's Restroom Rant

Ladies, listen up, it's time for me to drop some science on your ears about the bathroom situation.

The fact that you can catch an STD from a toilet seat is a myth.

What part or your body touches the toilet seat? If you're anything like me, it's your ass/thighs. It's not your vajayjay. It's not your butthole. I'm pretty sure I don't hump my  toilet seat. Okay. So it's my buttcheeks and thighs. Personally, mine are pretty clean. They stay protected in my clothing all day. I don't wipe so crazily that fecal matter or urine end up on them. In fact, I'd go the extra mile and say my thighs and buttcheeks are cleaner than my hands. Seeing as they stay inside my clothes all day and aren't out touching all kinds of things.

Women are very good at urinating standing up. Typically, it gets all over the toilet seat. The toilet seat that would have stayed pristine if you had actually sat on it in the first place.

Okay, so all things considered: STOP HOVER PISSING!!!!! Seriously. It just gets things disgusting for the rest of us. I am so sick of walking into a stall only to find yellow droplets all over the toilet seat. EW!

And for the love of all things civil, if you dribble, clean it up. Gawd. We're grown ups now, it's time to respect each other's most basic right to urniate in a clean environment, okay?

Original Post by dalmalama:

heather, why'd you have to be a total ***** about a potentially fatal disease afflicting one of your fellow CCers? did someone shove a huge pole up your a$$ this morning? i apologize anndjoe, b/c she won't.

 That was very nice of you.

I'm not looking for pity, I am just making people aware of what you can catch from other peoples poor hygiene.

I'm gonna friend you

edited cause of B word.

Original Post by kae03:

andy, don't try to defend anything...this is NUTS!  she won't listen...sorry about what you are going through! that's horrible!

 

 Cheers kae, but I'm fine now it hasn't caused me any bother since the first time, but I have it, and therefore have to be careful.

Okay, so apparently because I am cutting through bullsh1t, I'm a b1tch. Okay, Great. I'm out. Because obviously people here are waaaay to sensetive for me to want to deal with.

Boohoo, I could die today. I win the argument of why it's more SANITARY for EVERYONE to SIT when they PISS and WASH THEIR HANDS.

Hey Sparkie: what's the pathology of the MRSA virus? We have used antibiotics only very rarely. Does that mean that we are less likely to be resistent, or more?

ok ladies - no namecalling on here -- please edit any namecalling remarks (including quotes of them) to prevent them from being deleted

---

annd - in America, I think most of our lakes and rivers are contaminated with various pollutants -- I went to a town council meeting about our water around here and 8 of the 9 creeks and rivers in this area tested positive for unacceptably high levels of both e. coli and coliform bacteria (which means raw fecal matter is getting into the water from somewhere)

one of the people from Richmond said that they had learned that some older houses along some of the creeks had toilets that emptied directly into the creek (really really old houses I guess)

so swimming in a lake or river in the U.S. would be somewhat risky as far as germs are concerned but no doubt there is some risk with a public toilet as well

I have accepted my mortality and do not fear death.  But I hope to enjoy all the days that I have, if for no other reason than to see my daughter grow into a beautiful, happy woman.

edit to add: so I sincerely do not consider hand sanitizer applied after using a public toilet and before eating to be inconsistent with taking reasonable precautions

MRSA is a bacterium, staphylococcus aureus, that has become resistant to the most effective antibiotic against it, methicillin. 

It's usually seen in healthcare settings because of lack of care exercised in administering methicillin - if insufficient courses of methicilllin are given, the non-resistant bacteria die off, leaving the resistant ones to proliferate.  Those are the ones we can't kill.

The Mayo Clinic has good info on it.  :)

K, so apparently the article I read was about how hand sanitizers act as methicillin in this instance, causing 99% of the bacteria to die out, leaving the strongest 1% to proliferate. Sorry about that.

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

ok ladies - no namecalling on here -- please edit any namecalling remarks (including quotes of them) to prevent them from being deleted

---

annd - in America, I think most of our lakes and rivers are contaminated with various pollutants -- I went to a town council meeting about our water around here and 8 of the 9 creeks and rivers in this area tested positive for unacceptably high levels of both e. coli and coliform bacteria (which means raw fecal matter is getting into the water from somewhere)

one of the people from Richmond said that they had learned that some older houses along some of the creeks had toilets that emptied directly into the creek (really really old houses I guess)

so swimming in a lake or river in the U.S. would be somewhat risky as far as germs are concerned but no doubt there is some risk with a public toilet as well

I have accepted my mortality and do not fear death.  But I hope to enjoy all the days that I have, if for no other reason than to see my daughter grow into a beautiful, happy woman.

edit to add: so I sincerely do not consider hand sanitizer applied after using a public toilet and before eating to be inconsistent with taking reasonable precautions

Unfortunately the only info I could find on it was written about the US because that's where it's most common.

It doesn't mean that the same circumstances apply over here.

I am fine with mortality, I never brought it up. I was only trying to explain what the virus was because as I said in the other thread most folk have never even heard of it. 

We were after all talking about things you can catch from public toilets, well that's what I caught, but boy did it rattle a cage! 

Sorry, anndjoe, what you did was basically a Godwin, minus Hitler, plus "I'm dying." And I find it pretty lame.

Original Post by anndjoe:

I have a virus because of someone else's poor hygiene in the toilet, "coxsackie B virus" it has the highest instant fatality rate of all viruses, I could drop dead as I sit here (don't intend to) was so tempted there to just stop mid word . But that's why I am so paraniod about public toilets.

 No I was actually making fun of it, you just haven't read it the way it was intended.

But whatever! either way your reaction was uncalled for.

Original Post by anndjoe:

Original Post by anndjoe:

I have a virus because of someone else's poor hygiene in the toilet, "coxsackie B virus" it has the highest instant fatality rate of all viruses, I could drop dead as I sit here (don't intend to) was so tempted there to just stop mid word . But that's why I am so paraniod about public toilets.

 No I was actually making fun of it, you just haven't read it the way it was intended.

But whatever! either way your reaction was uncalled for.

 I read it only as you typed it.

My rant was the funny thing making fun of things (mortality) so maybe you read my stuff wrong.

As I was the one who wrote it I think I should know what my intention was. Your just picking what you want to take from it, so clearly you were looking for a reason to have a go.

As for what you wrote, well I didn't read anyone laughing about it.

I'm gone.

 

It seems like a long-shot to me, to win someone over to your way of thinking by minimizing their situation/health problems and to further state that nothing matters anyway because we're all going to die.

We are all going to die.  But most people don't think that certain death is enough to conclude that nothing matters.

coxsackie B virus attacks the heart and the body's immune response kills the virus along with healthy heart cells, causing permanent heart damage -- that's what makes it deadly -- it weakens your heart, so you have to be careful after that

just because coxsackie B is out there (along with so many other germs), doesn't mean you have to use hand sanitizer if you don't want to --- but it also doesn't mean that anyone who uses hand sanitizer is a criminal

you go your way, we'll go ours

(and by 'go', i'm not referring to hoverpissing, because i wish people wouldn't go that way)

 

I'm sorry anndjoe, I hope you don't die. If it makes anything better, I feel terrible for being such a bitch just then.

If it is any consolation, I wash my hands thoroughly every time I use the restroom, or before preparing food, or if I am sick, I wash periodically.

But, I still hold by my assertation that the people who use hand sanitizers are only making the world a worse place, though. They do allow the 1% of the strongest bacteria to proliferate, unfettered by competition from the weaker 99% of the bacteria, which will, in the end, cause super-bacteria to form that will be resistant to treatment.

the people who use hand sanitizers are only making the world a worse place, though. They do allow the 1% of the strongest bacteria to proliferate, unfettered by competition from the weaker 99% of the bacteria, which will, in the end, cause super-bacteria to form that will be resistant to treatment.

I agree.  Washing thoroughly with soap and water is sufficient to remove the vast majority of pathogenic organisms from skin... and anyway, most microorganisms aren't pathogens.  Even staph isn't, usually.

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

no, i don't hoverpee and then footflush

i choose a toilet that has already been flushed if available
i wipe off the seat with a big wad of tp whether it looks dirty or not
i use a seat cover if available
i drop my drawers
i sit down
i make #1
i wipe
i stand up
i pull my drawers up
i wipe off the seat again just to be courteous, just in case i had a dribble as mentioned in #74
i flush with my foot, usually the left one
i exit the stall
i assess the paper towel situation, pre-pressing the lever to make one come down if necessary
i turn on the water
i wash my hands - singing one verse of happy birthday to me to gauge how long to wash
i grab the paper towel that i got ready 
i dry my hands
i use the paper towel to turn the faucet off and to get another paper towel if needed
if it's a blow dryer, i use my elbow to press the button
i use the paper towel to open the bathroom door if the trash is located so that i can easily throw towel away, otherwise i just use my sleeve or any spare material of my shirt to grasp the door handle 

 And this is why the women's bathroom lines are always ridiculously long, forcing me to infiltrate the men's bathroom. ha ha.

Bars are the worse, hello! when you beak the seal, you gotta go and those long lines for the women's bathroom are excruciating... sit, pee, wash and leave, please!

I flush the toilet with my tongue, so there.

 

i only use hand sanitizer when a sink and soap aren't available and i know i should wash them because i've just touched something likely to be putrid (like in a public restroom that's out of soap or like after handing over some cash for a salad from the chik-fil-a drive thru)

i don't use it constantly -- but i keep it handy, just in case i need it

is that really so wrong?  come on, now... you've borrowed hand sanitizer when you needed it -- admit it

Wellllll yeah, nomo, I'll admit it.  I think hand sanitizers are necessary sometimes, and have used them.  I used them when I was volunteering in an E.R.; I used to clean the EKG leads, and after I was done, when I had to then make rounds on patients, I'd use some.  I also used a hand sanitizer after delivering specimens to the lab.

While I do think it's better to wash with soap and water, I'll acknowledge that sometimes hand sanitizers are useful, and they aren't inherently evil.  They're just misused a lot.

edited for clarity

cool! then we're on the same page!

i also don't agree with over-using hand sanitizer!!

i fussed at a friend of mine recently because he'd put a bottle of hand sanitizer in his home bathroom instead of soap!!  i had to explain the whole deal to him - he thought hand sanitzier was better than soap and why not use the best?

My crime has been using antibacterial soap. But I just don't seem to stay as fresh, or feel as clean without it.

It is my hope that by not indulging in overuse of antibiotic meds that I am lessening my virological   I mean my bacteriological footprint. :)