One would think that having Crohn’s disease I would not have so many issues with bathrooms. I envy people who can just walk into a public bathroom do their business and move on. I’ve talked with other Crohn’s sufferers and they don’t seem to care too much about bathrooms. Sure they can tell you where each public bathroom is in a 50 mile radius of where they live but at the end of the day they all say the same thing, ‘when you gotta go, you gotta go’ and let us not forget, ‘better out than in’.
Me? I have rules! The door must have a working lock. Preferably the room must be clean. There should be nobody else in there when I enter, and yes I wait in the safety of the stall till the room is clear before I leave. It is a real bonus if it is one of those rare bathrooms where only one person can use it at a time. If the bathroom doesn’t pass my inspection, I live with the pain.
Many moons ago I was in a restaurant with my brother. He went to the bathroom a few moments passed and some guy came out rather hurriedly cradling his arm. Sure enough when my brother got back to the table he told me he was sitting there when a hand came in under the stall, naturally he gave the hand a good kick. I would have done the same.
In Vancouver they have a wonderful bathroom, (sarcasm) the nearest I can figure is that they had to make it wheelchair accessible, they did this by making a really large door in the stall. So big that when you opened the door it hit the toilet seat, in order to use the toilet you had to squeeze between the wall and the toilet, then straddle the toilet and only then could you close the door, to leave the stall you had to do everything in reverse and believe me it is more complicated than it sounds. Wheelchair accessible my arse.
I’ll end this post with a suggestion to those who maintain public toilets. If you think you are going to save money by finding the thinnest, roughest one ply paper that can possibly be made you will fail. I am on a personal mission to use at least 8 times as much toilet paper and then when I’m satisfied and the toilet is flushed I’ll pull a few more squares off the roll and toss them in the trash just to make a point. So go ahead purchase that cheapo toilet paper but its going to cost you in the end.
PanningForGold 
Wow, what an educational post! And, uh, ew….
Totally agree with you on the toilet paper – NO ONE-PLY, people, ever!
I still rememeber the restaurant and I’m never going back. 1 ply super thin sounds like a luxury in comparison with this building. They do keep changing the type just to keep us on our toes, one day it’s waxed paper the next it sand paper.
If I had the time I’d tell you about the stall that “volcanoed” on the guy with diarreah but lets just say, when in a bathroom on a lower floor of an office tower FLUSH FIRST leaving an escape route to test the waters as it were. And NEVER EVER remain seated for an in-dump flush on a toilet that’s not your own!
I used to have bathroom nightmares. I’d get in the stall and there would be no toilets. No doors. Couldn’t find them in the building. Would have to climb flights of stairs to get there and then they would all be full. No paper. You name it. I had that nightmare. Then the strangest thing happened. In real life. We were on the road and stopped at a station. I went to the washroom. I was in my nightmare. It had a door. There was paper. It was cluttered and there was one open space. A window, a big window that looked into the rest of the gas station store with no curtain. Now the toilet was below the window but anyone could look in. The funny part was, I didn’t even care. I had to go, I went. The heck with everyone else.
I stopped having those nightmares.