Managing life and frequent trips to the restroom

The IBD symptom that impacts my daily life the most is the need for frequent trips to the restroom. Before having IBD, It was so easy to factor in when you had to use the restroom. Now it can be very tricky especially when it doesn’t act the way you would like. It primarily affects my dating and social life, work, as well as other hobbies like travel and hiking.

My top three tips for managing frequent trips to the restroom are:

1) The tip that I have found most successful, is carrying a portable packet of wet wipes with you at all times. Since IBDers’ use the restroom quite frequently, it could be very easy to get raw down there.

2) Try as best as you can, not to limit the activities you do in your life. For instance, camping is quite hard for me, but I’ve decided that I can do it as long as I bring a ‘honey bucket’ which essentially is a portable potty.

3) If there are new people in your life and they have questions about your life with IBD, don’t be afraid to tell them what you would like about your situation. Being a single adult male, I often get women that ask me questions and I will tell them a brief synopsis and the majority of them are fairly understanding, and some are even intrigued and wonder how I even deal with it, which ends up turning into a conversation starter.

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