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Staff member
First post here. Over the years, I've experienced what I feel is an odd phenomenon and I'm wondering if any of you can relate: I had a spinal fracture and subsequent fusion when I was in my 20s and, in the process, I suffered nerve damage that persists today. Luckily, I'm ambulatory, in relatively good shape, and not necessarily "visibly injured" apart from a bit of a strange gait and severe atrophy of my calf and hamstring muscles (what remains of them, anyway), which is why you'll never catch me wearing shorts in public..
Anyway, I do struggle with both bowel/bladder continence and I've grown more comfortable simply managing both with diapers over the years. I typically just order online, but occasionally I'll purchase in public. When I do so, often an employee will come over to offer their assistance, which is appreciated, but also not necessary. Often times they'll say things to me like, "does 'the patient' prefer a pullup or tab-style", etc. I can understand that, as they clearly don't have any way of knowing who I'm buying for, and perhaps they're just not trying to make any assumptions or embarrass me. However, often times it goes further than that, as it did yesterday. I was trying to pick up some Tranquility ATNs and the employee randomly brought up my mother, "what does she like", etc. I sort of ignored it at first, but he persisted, continually mentioning her. When I mentioned that I would be using my FSA card to make the purchase, he follows up by saying, "oh, yeah, that should be fine... I mean, even if it's your FSA, you could purchase for your mother and who's going to know?" Finally at that point I flatly stated, "Well these are for me actually" and I think he was embarrassed.
Anyway, I just found it odd, although it's not the first time for this type of thing and I wonder if any of you have experienced anything similar. Is it really that rare for people without obvious physical disabilities to need to buy protection??
(I apologize in advance if my use of the term "able bodied" is offensive to anyone... I'm just trying to refer to folks who seem otherwise healthy to the naked eye and I couldn't think of a better way to phrase it.
Anyway, I do struggle with both bowel/bladder continence and I've grown more comfortable simply managing both with diapers over the years. I typically just order online, but occasionally I'll purchase in public. When I do so, often an employee will come over to offer their assistance, which is appreciated, but also not necessary. Often times they'll say things to me like, "does 'the patient' prefer a pullup or tab-style", etc. I can understand that, as they clearly don't have any way of knowing who I'm buying for, and perhaps they're just not trying to make any assumptions or embarrass me. However, often times it goes further than that, as it did yesterday. I was trying to pick up some Tranquility ATNs and the employee randomly brought up my mother, "what does she like", etc. I sort of ignored it at first, but he persisted, continually mentioning her. When I mentioned that I would be using my FSA card to make the purchase, he follows up by saying, "oh, yeah, that should be fine... I mean, even if it's your FSA, you could purchase for your mother and who's going to know?" Finally at that point I flatly stated, "Well these are for me actually" and I think he was embarrassed.
Anyway, I just found it odd, although it's not the first time for this type of thing and I wonder if any of you have experienced anything similar. Is it really that rare for people without obvious physical disabilities to need to buy protection??
(I apologize in advance if my use of the term "able bodied" is offensive to anyone... I'm just trying to refer to folks who seem otherwise healthy to the naked eye and I couldn't think of a better way to phrase it.
