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I’ve always thought it was bizarre how all the previously private details of a woman’s bodily functions seem to become fair game during pregnancy. But our group of Aussie volunteers has reached a depth of disclosure that makes those Grade 10 Science videos on childbirth in the 70s seem like dinner conversation.
This new found openness is owed to the sheer variety and pressing nature of stomach complaints that accompanies life in Nepal. Diaorreha constituted an awkwardly large component of our pre-departure medical briefing, but I hadn’t really considered its potential to become such an all-consuming focus of my day-to-day attention. From the moment I wake up in the morning, I begin a micro analysis of today’s stomach status. Am I feeling cramps? Of course. Is it hunger or bowel? Too low for hunger. Just wind? Ummm….no. Have to go, right now. This thought process is eminent in my mind at most times, and I can only assume a similar situation for the other members of the group, as discussions on the scale of diaorreha, the nature of projectile vomiting, the specific location of feelings of unwellness and the possible root causes, which perhaps would be considered over-sharing at home, have become commonplace.
Thankfully, I’m not suffering debilitating stomach issues – they don’t stop me from going to work or to play and the other day I even had a Nepali cooking class during a bout of seediness and got through it ok. But one of our fellow Aussies has fallen victim to a particularly nasty round of bad-gut that kept her bedridden for two days and that’s served as something of a warning to us all.
If nothing else though, the unpleasantness is always a reliable topic of conversation. We’ve appropriated as a catchcry a philosophical quote one of the Aussies found among toilet graffiti in India: Happiness is a dry fart.
This new found openness is owed to the sheer variety and pressing nature of stomach complaints that accompanies life in Nepal. Diaorreha constituted an awkwardly large component of our pre-departure medical briefing, but I hadn’t really considered its potential to become such an all-consuming focus of my day-to-day attention. From the moment I wake up in the morning, I begin a micro analysis of today’s stomach status. Am I feeling cramps? Of course. Is it hunger or bowel? Too low for hunger. Just wind? Ummm….no. Have to go, right now. This thought process is eminent in my mind at most times, and I can only assume a similar situation for the other members of the group, as discussions on the scale of diaorreha, the nature of projectile vomiting, the specific location of feelings of unwellness and the possible root causes, which perhaps would be considered over-sharing at home, have become commonplace.
Thankfully, I’m not suffering debilitating stomach issues – they don’t stop me from going to work or to play and the other day I even had a Nepali cooking class during a bout of seediness and got through it ok. But one of our fellow Aussies has fallen victim to a particularly nasty round of bad-gut that kept her bedridden for two days and that’s served as something of a warning to us all.
If nothing else though, the unpleasantness is always a reliable topic of conversation. We’ve appropriated as a catchcry a philosophical quote one of the Aussies found among toilet graffiti in India: Happiness is a dry fart.
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