Public Restrooms?

I feel your pain, sisters. It's got to be an absolute emergency for me to use a public bathroom. Every trip out of the house is planned around my bladder and bowel schedule.

My best friend will use any bathroom, any time, anywhere. If we are together I always have her check it out first and report back to me... she knows whether it meets my standards or not!

I always breathe out of my mouth the minute I walk in. If I catch the slightest whiff of anything I will start to retch. I carefully poke open a stall with my finger and scrutinize the area. Any drops on the seat? Anything still in the toilet? Anything nasty on the floor? If those tests are passed, then I grab a huge wad of toilet paper, drop trow, and hover. One of my biggest fears is that my pants or clothing will touch the toilet. It's kind of hard to manipulate all of this, but somehow I do it. And I amaze myself by not touching a single thing.

As gross as it sounds, sometimes I don't wash my hands afterwards... but that's only if the sink/soap/towels are really filthy and nasty. My thinking is it will cause MORE germs!!! But it's got to be a really extreme case for me to not wash my hands...

For the most part I just DONT use a public bathroom.

you're welcome...yep, I hate the gaps between the doors as well. Back in the fall, I was in the strangest restroom. It was a women's room with one stall. It didn't make any sense to me, just remove the stall and make it a private bathroom! Anyway, I was trying to go, and there was a line of about 5 or 6 women in the same room, all waiting to use THIS ONE STALL. It drove me completely insane, I couldn't pee. I went about a half hour later (the line formed because it was halftime of a high school football game) and was able to take care of things then. Another thing that sets me off is when I'm in a private room with the door locked, and someone starts knocking and trying to pull the doorknob.

I'm really glad I don't have a fear of germs, it would make this problem 1000X worse...I feel for all of you, however. I just figure, I've been going in a variety of places for over 25 years and I'm still here, germs are out of sight & out of mind for me.

I do not use them. Never never never never never never NEVER!