I’ve had this problem for a while.  I say a while, it’s been most of my life really.  For as far back as I can remember I’ve had this problem.

Before I was old enough to understand what it was, it was embarrassing for my parents.  When I was old enough to understand what it was, it was of course embarrassing for me, and those around me.

Over time embarrassment turned to politeness.  Quickly though, that went out the window and before I knew it I had been isolated by the problem.

As I grew older I tried to get a handle on it, to understand it.

Medical books and later medical websites would offer no answers, only suggestions.  My doctor told me it was my diet, so I did all I could to change it in order to fix my problem.

Nothing worked.

I’ve lost so much because of it, jobs, friends and probably more noticeably to me, sympathy.

Last week I did something that I felt was a last resort and visited the doctor who had diagnosed me with the problem all those years ago, when I was a child.

He not only remembered me and my condition, but had also kept my records fresh on file should he ever need to refer to them for a more recent case in someone else.

He wasn’t entirely surprised to learn that I still had the problem.  I told him that I’d been to see specialists and they were stumped but “hopeful” of beating it.  I recounted a life’s worth of hardship and isolation.

He still said that he couldn’t figure out what was wrong and before he could send me to another old medical school friend of his for consultation, I interrupted and asked him something that had never been explored:

“Do you think it’s hereditary?”

“Oh, I think we can rule that out without any further consideration”

“But if it is, we might be able to figure how to stop it”

“No, it’s a false hope I really think we need to look at the diet again”

“Oh for Christ’s sake, we’ve been down that road before and I’m sick of it, I just want to know what’s wrong with me”

“Calm down, I can only imagine your frustration and the hardships you’ve experienced, but we have to be logical about this”

“I don’t understand how you can rule it out without even exploring it first”

“In my 34 years in medicine I have never heard, read or studied a case of hereditary diarrhoea”

“It has to be, it’s in my jeans.”