Never Pass a Bathroom

The other day my wife and I were driving around, looking at properties in our area (did I tell you I'm a Real Estate Agent) and that good old feeling of "I gotta go NOW, and I mean NOW..." came across me. Those of you with this wonderful issue know what I mean. Now fortunately, we were in a particularly rural area and I was able to relieve "the pressure" by pulling off the road - well, you get the picture. I have to admit, since living overseas, this hasn't been as big a problem as it was before we did - though it does "jump" out at me every once in a while. I think I need to explain.

When my urgency problems started, we were living in Europe - England actually - our girls were small and we toured around every chance we could get. To this day I credit this period of our lives to a very unique ability I have - that of being able to find a toilet (in England, a bathroom is for taking a bath) in nano-seconds. Which for parents of small children, can be a god-send (hmmm, did I really use my children as cover-up?). It got so common in our family, that they wouldn't even think twice about how I would disappear to a hidden corner of some ancient castle we were touring and find that elusive toilet. I soon developed the habit of "Never Pass a Bathroom" because you never knew... the real family favorite was always stopping at EVERY rest area along the road because "there might be a traffic jam ahead". And I won't even get into what it was like to travel around Europe on business with this issue!

Then I was transferred to Brussels. We all know Brussels to be the center of European Government and Napoleon's downfall during that fateful battle in Waterloo (at least that's what the song said).

What you may not have known, is that they are also known for their driving, especially "priorite a droit" (French for "priority from the right" - have some fun and google it) and, no kidding, peeing out in the open!

Now I'm a I big believer in living somewhere to really know it - a quick tour doesn't do it justice (ask my oldest daughter who just moved to Mississippi!). And you will always find out the fun factoids that Frommer's doesn't know to tell you. I can't mention how many times in the first month after I was transferred that I saw men peeing by the sidewalk or next to a tree - so much so I had to ask one of my Belgian colleagues about it. With no apparent shame, he said "Of course - why not - when we Belgians need to go, we go!"

Hallelujah! The untold motherland of MSer's with urinary urgency. I must admit, as a prudish American in Belgium (by their standards) - I didn't imbibe that often in this open celebration of passing water - but knowing that I could, seemed to lessen my need to go all of the time. Amazing how the mind works.

In way of condoning this activity - I swear they have their own little god of "Peeing in the Open" - and you can find him off a little alley way attached to the Grand Place in Brussels - the Manneken Pis - and for you ladies, his female counterpart Jeanneken Pis hides herself at the very end of another alley off the Place as well.

Now, I was diagnosed in Brussels with MS, and was put on my meds at about this same time - but I choose to believe the "openness" in Brussels and the little cherub relieved my pain - not the meds.

So if you share this urgency issue with me, make a pilgrimage to this little god of "Peeing in the Open" and maybe you'll find some relief, too.

Until then, remember - never pass a bathroom!




Never Pass A Bathroom by Nick Marazita is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Early Morning Muses

They call it fatigue, but I just don't seem to get a full nights' sleep anymore. So can't fatigue be caused by lack of sleep, too? On a good night, I only get up once for that urgent bathroom call, usually around 2am, and go back to sleep, and get up around a more civilized 7am. But recently, I've been waking at 4:00, and wide awake!

Now that I write about it, I don't mind it as much as one would think I would. Some wonderful things happen early in the morning - quiet time to think, exercise at your own pace, and then there are the sunrises that I wouldn't normally take the time to look at (or get up for) if my sleep pattern was a "normal" one (...a benefit of having MS?). With all of the rain we've been having here in our part of Florida lately - the sunrises are particularly colorful - with the leftover clouds and the start of a clear and humid day.

I also find that I have a much clearer, or less cluttered, thought process at this time of day, and love to just be quiet and think.

I've always liked the serenity of the early morning. Whether it was being out by the pool listening to the quiet before the family rose, playing squash with friends or the early morning drive to one of the NY airports when we lived in Connecticut, travelling down the Merrit Parkway with very little traffic, no radio, and enjoying the solitude of my thoughts.

I'm not sure how to stop writing about this - other than to say tomorrow I'm going to embrace waking up so early, and enjoy it - now time to do some work...



Early Morning Muses by Nick Marazita is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Can You Stop Being Who You Want To Be?

I'm a 52 year old male with Multiple Sclerosis. In my younger years, I considered myself a "jock", with 5 varsity letters in High School, and 2 varsity letters at University. I have a BS and an MBA degree - and was living a successful corporate executive life, travelling globally 50% of the time - including being expatriated 6 years to Europe.

I went to college in the Midwest - and was recruited to a consumer products company in metro NYC. As a family, we went hiking and biking, playing sports together - and teaching my children what I had loved as a child. Socializing with my friends on the golf course or squash courts. Even as a corporate executive, I still defined myself with my physical abilities - playing tennis, golf, skiing, and working all kinds of crazy hours including schmoozing til the wee hours of the night.

After feeling "not quite right" for a few years and a couple of definable episodes, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1998 while living in Belgium.

I share this because I believe we are who we are; and when I was told I have MS - I didn't stop wanting to be who I had been - and i didn't want all my hard work and plans to go away.

In reality, life was about to change, in ways even I couldn't fathom. Nothing in MS is predictable (except it's unpredictability), and I figured my physical abilities would decline, but I never expected the effect my diagnosis would have on an extremely important part of me... dreaming.

One simple question kept haunting me:

Would I still be able to climb Mt. Everest?

I had never thought about climbing Mt. Everest before. Had this unconscious dream now been taken away, or was it a sign to start new dreams?

Can You Stop Being Who You Wanto To Be by Nick Marazita is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.