Shit Happens. Literally. Part 1 of a series.

MAJOR WARNING - THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS STORIES AND IMAGES YOU MAY NOT WANT TO EXPERIENCE UNLESS YOU HAVE A WEIRD POOP FETISH.

 CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. 

Pictures won't be very great either...

So it's come out a bit that in my other life outside of Ogie I work in social services. It's one of the most idealistic of careers but also one of the worst, outside of probably Dolphin Euthanizer. I've been doing it for too long and as anyone who works in social services knows, there isn't a set time that makes it 'too long'. You know it when you get there. It can be 2 years, it can be 10 years but sure as shit, one day you will think "I've been doing this for too long.". Shit becomes 'normal'. Hints that you've passed that precipice is when things that in another world would be disgusting, disgraceful or downright disturbing are 'normalized' by your brain. What you find disgusting, I just think - well, at least I am getting paid for this.

This is a short bit about that 'normalizing' my brain does towards one of the most disgusting yet vital functions we must do on a near-daily basis to live; poop.

Technically, over here it's politically called 'a B.M.' for Bowel Movement. It's vitally important that everyone poops. We've written books about it and explain it early and often to pre-school kids. We look forward to the day our kids can POOP BY THEMSELVES! Ask any parent and that is better than any Mother's or Father's Day. There should be a specific day set aside each year for our child once they've POOPED BY THEMSELVES! just like a birthday, it's the second most joyous day of a parent's young life. Seriously.

Anyways, I digress. This is about Poop. Shit. Turds. Crap. B.M's. Feces. Excrement. And about how a certain sub-section of social service workers (and by extension, nurses) normalize incidents involving BM's. This is another therapeutic article for me as I realize I have 'been doing this for too long'.

So, here we go... read at your own risk. These are people/incidents that have been normalized by my brain. Ten years ago, I never would have thought that I would live to experience/witness/deal with these incidents that I will put forth to the wide world of the internet.

Instead of Poop, I'll just use Crap Movies.

Story 1 - 'This Kid Stinks' Child Pooper.  

This ties in with my other article that raised some flak about special needs or disadvantaged kids attending public school. This first bit is about one kid I worked with which I will call 'Pooper'. Now there's a huge ethical dilemma if I choose to believe in it regarding confidentiality regarding clients in care or just people in general. I am ethically bound by the social workers' unwritten law to not discuss people that may put them in a negative light. I once reported that I worked with a man being discussed on the forum, who found his newly born child in a dumpster. Others called me out for repeating said facts as if it somehow imposed on Dad's privacy because I knew of him (all I stated was the the baby was fine, beautiful and he wasn't a junkie drug addict). One person who defended me said they found out the name of the person in a few minutes time on Google, so really, I wasn't ethically 'outing' anyone. So I will do this with my Poop stories. Their anonymity will remain just that. Their conditions/stories won't.

Pooper was about 10 years old and in Grade 4/5? He was disadvantaged, came from an abusive home. His problem was a physical one. He had no sphincter control. There was no gate to his lower intestine. No lid to his asshole. Those muscles that close up your brown eye? He didn't have'm. He didn't poop so much as leak out a steady stream of brown bodily fluid. Sexual assault? Not that he admits to. Specialty nurses put him on a laxative (don't know why) in an effort to clean out his bowels, give him a chance to practice 'clenching' his sphincter and build up those muscles. He was on a laxative for 2 years, last I knew.

You enter his group home and the smell of feces hits you first. It is everywhere. No matter how much you clean, the smell won't leave. The best you can hope for is an ammonia/shit combo. His jeans/shorts are continually streaked with shit. And not like 'someone farted' streaks but serious 'someone shit his pants' streaks. His clothes are so bad that you can't use the washing machine to wash his shorts - you use the shower head and blast it off. Most of the time, because his shorts are so bad he would go commando. The little turd balls that look like mouse turd that cover the carpet and his bedsheets are actually from him, shaken down his pants leg or fallen out of the crack of his ass. He is to shower every day, sometimes workers get him to wash 2 to 5 times in an effort to keep him clean and the smell down. He hates it and there are often conflicts about his own responsibility when it comes to self-hygiene.

Now, this kid goes to school. As adults, we treat him with respect and kindness. We understand that he has issues that he isn't able to control. We're designed, after years of practice, to be empathetic. He's a nice kid, very social and always willing to have a laugh as most kids are designed to.

But what happens when he goes to school? Well, of course there is the discussion with the principal and teacher and a 'plan' is put in place. Despite this 'plan' the Pooper continue to poop himself in class. The smell is unavoidable. The teacher tells him to go to the bathroom. He does but it's too late. The school calls the home to tell you to come get him as he can't stay in the classroom the way he smells. You have already explained his situation and that you have tried to do what you can to minimize the smell but he should really just go home... the smell is really bad.

He takes a change of clothes to school every day that despite being frequently washed, still stink of BM that has entwined itself by now into the very fibers of the jeans or polyester pants themselves. We put him in child diapers but after his first accident of the day he takes them off and will say he's put on a new one, often not.
It works to an extent, but too late the damage is done.

So young Pooper goes back to class. He is surrounded by other 10 year olds, girls and boys. They know he poops himself and they know it's not right. He will never have a girlfriend, will never be asked to come over and play video games. His only friend comes from his home town and oddly enough, has the exact same problem. It was the worst car ride in my life. The kids in class sure as shit know he's a Pooper and once outside, out of teacher's earshot the truth comes out. What does Pooper do? Fight to defend himself? Laugh at himself? Smile and say 'shit happens' and then wonder why nobody wants to be friends with him?  

How does the current education system help a boy like this? Feel free to add your poopy stories in the comments.

It doesn't. But I've normalized it so it's all okay. Shit happens.