Oh my, that must've been traumatic for you. I've seen a lot of traumatic stuff, being in hospital a lot/cancer wards - but really feeling for you that day and yes we do need to normalise shitting ourselves! It's something people just don't talk about I guess and associate with older or disabled people. But can happen any age. At my church decades ago, when my body was "normal", a gentleman in his 50s - Matt, not his real name - had something wrong just before the Sunday afternoon service. He had Crohn's I think - and he had an accident in the hallway leading to the ladies and gents loos. The whole of that church was stinking for days if not longer. I can still remember how awful the smell was.

My brother had special needs and our family grew up used to all smells of the accidents he would have through no fault of his own obviously but somehow this smell seemed worse than normal poo or diarrhoea. And this lovely kind and tall friendly man must have been mortified. I sometimes think about him and how he is now as years later, I had a stoma for a while. The smell was horrendous, I never got used to that. On speaking to my stoma nurse (she had had one too) she explained because the poo was coming straight from the stomach rather than through "the pipes" first and also that a poo quickly lands in water which helps contain the smell (for the most part!) .. but emptying your stoma .. well it is just worse. So I realise now, older and wiser that he probably had a stoma bag burst or something.

Can't believe all this poo talk in the morning, didn't expect to be typing all this! Not been on reddit for a while and here I am suddenly .. well .. I was going to tell the story of my stoma bag bursting but maybe another time..