***Warning to those who know me in real life and to those who are grossed out easily: read this at your own risk!***
I did the saliva ASI test earlier this year. Basically, you spit saliva into tubes and it gets tested for various things. When I told people about this, they thought it was gross. Really? I guess my definition of “gross” has really been altered by all this health 
crap (so to speak.)
Last weekend a friend mentioned that her kid has a lot of wax in his ears and she’s always having to clean it out (he’s still a toddler.) I commiserated, as someone with the same problem. When I started to mention an example, she thought it was gross. It turns out her kid’s earwax problem isn’t nearly as bad as mine, and apparently mine crosses the line into “gross” territory. It’s not like I love cleaning the earwax off of my mp3 earbuds, but it’s just what I have to do. It’s nothing, really.
Thanks to joint stiffness and limited range of movement, it is now hard to literally wipe my own ass. Some days are worse than others. Combine that with severe IBS (which is thankfully in remission!) and you can imagine the mess. Yes, there have been times when I accidentally got some of my own shit on a finger or something. I won’t pretend like I was thrilled with it, but what can you do? I just used extra soap when washing my hands and moved on. There was no point in dwelling on it.
As a child, I got frequent nosebleeds. This is common in my family. There were several times I woke up during the night to find a bloody nose and a bloody pillowcase. At 3am I’d be washing out the blood. So what?
Thanks to what I now know is PCOS, I never had a regular period. I’d bleed for 3 weeks straight, then nothing for a week, then it would come back for 4 days, then nothing for several months, then 2 more weeks of bleeding, etc. Since it wasn’t predictable, my period obviously caused some messes. Again, more washing of blood, this time washing it out of my underwear. Again, I just didn’t care.
Three times now I have crapped on a guy during sex. The first time it was a small amount and I assumed I was sick or something. The second time, years later and with a different guy, was not so small and was incredibly embarrassing. He handled it fairly well. I told my gastro about it and it helped her figure out one of my problems. She had me take a supplement which made me feel much better overall. Unfortunately, after that I kept getting nervous that it would happen again. It’s hard to have an orgasm when you’re constantly worried about shitting yourself. I eventually got over it and moved on. Then, years later with a different guy, it happened again. He couldn’t have been better about the whole thing. Of course, I got nervous again about another recurrence, but it hasn’t happened since. Then again, I also haven’t had much sex since (due to a lack of partners, not because I’m nervous about this.) I don’t know, maybe it will some day. I sure hope not!
These are just a few examples. I can think of others, and I’m sure you have plenty of your own. Feel free to share in the comments below. Sometimes chronic illnesses are gross. I’ve seen and heard about much worse than anything I’ve written here.
So spitting saliva into a tube? Really not gross at all.
In case you’re wondering about the picture of the ducks, I figure that was a lot better than any picture that would have directly related to what I’m talking about today. I’m guessing you don’t disagree.
Chronic Rants 