but at the time it was horrible!
A couple of weeks ago I visited my mum with her shopping (I do this twice a week now because she seems to get through it at a rate of knots), put it away, made her a cuppa, made myself some lunch (pierce and ping from M&S) and sat down to eat.
While I was eating my mum casually dropped into the conversation "I wonder if the toilet is still blocked?".
So I went to look. Yep. Blocked.
I finished my meal and then went for a better look. I asked my mum if she had any wire coat hangers so she toddled off to look and came back with an armful of...plastic coat hangers.
Not a wire coat hanger in the place. Not one. So I used an old plastic one to poke around. I could feel the blockage, but without anything to put down there, there was nothing for it but to put some rubber gloves on and put my hands down there.
The rubber gloves weren't long enough and I got nasty toilet water in them (and yes, she'd been since it had got blocked, but thankfully not...solids). I managed to get hold of the blockage and dragged it out. I guess I was lucky it wasn't further down.
It was a pair of her knickers that she'd flushed - I'm guessing she noticed that they were filthy (I think she may be incontinent now but won't admit it) and just flushed them rather than put them in the wash. They went in the bin, along with the rubber gloves and the hanger I'd used. The knickers were relatively new too.
And I washed my hands. And washed and washed and washed. And tried to keep my lunch down.
I may never feel clean again.
I have now bought a special bendy thing to help from Wickes, as I have no wire coat hangers either at home, in case she does it again.
I have never been very good with stuff like that, I've never had a child so I never got used to vomit and poo and whatever, but as time goes on I'm gradually losing the squeamishness about such things.
A couple of weeks ago I visited my mum with her shopping (I do this twice a week now because she seems to get through it at a rate of knots), put it away, made her a cuppa, made myself some lunch (pierce and ping from M&S) and sat down to eat.
While I was eating my mum casually dropped into the conversation "I wonder if the toilet is still blocked?".
So I went to look. Yep. Blocked.
I finished my meal and then went for a better look. I asked my mum if she had any wire coat hangers so she toddled off to look and came back with an armful of...plastic coat hangers.
Not a wire coat hanger in the place. Not one. So I used an old plastic one to poke around. I could feel the blockage, but without anything to put down there, there was nothing for it but to put some rubber gloves on and put my hands down there.
The rubber gloves weren't long enough and I got nasty toilet water in them (and yes, she'd been since it had got blocked, but thankfully not...solids). I managed to get hold of the blockage and dragged it out. I guess I was lucky it wasn't further down.
It was a pair of her knickers that she'd flushed - I'm guessing she noticed that they were filthy (I think she may be incontinent now but won't admit it) and just flushed them rather than put them in the wash. They went in the bin, along with the rubber gloves and the hanger I'd used. The knickers were relatively new too.
And I washed my hands. And washed and washed and washed. And tried to keep my lunch down.
I may never feel clean again.
I have now bought a special bendy thing to help from Wickes, as I have no wire coat hangers either at home, in case she does it again.
I have never been very good with stuff like that, I've never had a child so I never got used to vomit and poo and whatever, but as time goes on I'm gradually losing the squeamishness about such things.