Functions, Facilities, & Furniture

Vitruvius, the ancient Roman architect whose ideal concept of human proportions is still famous via Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man , said that architecture must encompass three principles: firmness, utility, and delight. Today, applying these principles means that products should be well-built, beneficial, and enjoyable.

Why the design lesson? To point out that any tangible product is just somebody using physical materials to convey a solution. Some solutions are great and some are not. Yet I’ve observed that many people allow their time, behavior, bodies—even lives—to be shaped by the products around them, often without asking whether the product creator’s solution is truly a good personal fit.

During fissure repair, I found that it’s important to preside over your products. As I’m using it here, to preside (intriguingly, from Latin prae sedere, “before sit”) means that you take charge of the products you use rather than allowing them to take charge of you. By products, I mean anything somebody made: personal care items, objects and surfaces in your home, even public plumbing. So here’s how presiding over your products can relate to functions, facilities, and furniture:

Functions

Protect your posture. For me, good posture became a key component of fissure repair. I started detecting how certain positions, postures, surfaces, structures, and work habits affected pelvic tension and relaxation. I also found that product combinations—the blended effects of footwear and flooring types, for example—had a definite influence on my posture and pelvic region.

If you’re unsure how to maintain good posture and flexibility, or if you need to break bad habits, check out the book Stretching, by Bob and Jean Anderson.

Know your angles. While the body position encouraged by common toilet shapes may be acceptable pre-fissure, I found that standard right-angle alignment can perpetuate unhelpful pelvic floor tension, can cause sub-optimal material exit, and can produce more pain. After noticing my network and focusing on feedback, I agree with the claim that an optimal excretion angle is important, especially during repair.

I’ve used the natural squat during wilderness backpacking, but that position isn’t feasible in most Western restrooms. So with some simple experimenting, I found the best compromise for my height and weight was a sitting position where the feet are elevated approximately 7–9 inches and tilted upward so that the ball of each foot is slightly higher than the heel. The resulting angle allows material to exit more easily and completely, minimizing the need for cleaning.

There are products on the market to help elevate your feet, but the ones I’ve seen take up space and look a tad therapeutic, so I’m not sure how popular they’ll become over the long term. However, since a solid foot support proved superior to other options, I agree that something is better than nothing.

Facilities

The term “facilities” comes from the Latin “facilis” which means “easy.” However, since architects often place plumbing near high-traffic areas, many restrooms require you to conduct private business in a public forum while coping with the hygiene of its previous occupant and the urgency of its next. Add the extra time and burden that a fissure can bring, and trips to the loo can be anything but easy. Here, then, are some suggestions for using facilities during fissure repair:

Profit from privacy. Accept that not every trip to the restroom will offer ideal conditions, so when a good situation does present itself, try to maximize its healing benefits by using the suggestions below. Though they may break from a typical routine, I found that each quickly became efficient and effective.

Welcome warm water. Use warm water for cleansing after defecation. For me, this technique rapidly delivered good repair results. For example, a quick dash into a shower equipped with a hand-held shower head allows a directed, medium-intensity stream of water—the universal solvent—to do a better and gentler clean-up job than either wood-based paper products or chemical cleansing agents (such as pre-moistened wipes). Modern bathroom cleaning supplies make it quick to sanitize the shower and leave it ready for its next user.

Soak successfully. Soaking in a shallow bath of warm water for 10–20 minutes at least once a day did exactly what my doctor said it would—helped relax the lower GI tract and pelvic region. And soaking did something more: it helped me notice my network in its calmer condition, which eventually helped me achieve that same state without water. Since I learned to use water only (no soaps, salts, or other additives), a quick tub clean-up was very simple.

If you feel you can’t fit a soak into your schedule, see the section Time. If you don’t have access to a tub, other options are available (such as a sitz bath), though I’ve never used them, so I can’t verify their effectiveness. Personally, I wonder if a sleek, modern, inexpensive “soak pod” may need to be invented.

Furniture

Since our bodies spend much of the day and night conforming to various support surfaces, it helps to notice the cumulative effect furniture has on your repair work. Here are a few observations that influenced my protocol:

Get good sleep. Good sleep is essential for healing, so it makes sense to create the best sleep environment you can. My overall protocol time included an 8,000-mile road trip through the United States, and since we stayed in numerous accommodations, I slept on surfaces of various size, firmness, quality, and construction. For me, foam mattresses caused a slight unwelcome downward pelvic tilt, but other than that, materials seemed to matter less than mattress age; newer products led to better sleep.

Occasionally, I elevated my lower legs by stacking extra pillows under my calves to encourage positive blood flow. It’s unclear whether this is an anatomically valid strategy, and trying to stay in this position while sleeping restricts natural motion, which can lead to restlessness. But I usually felt better the next day, where “better” meant less pain, more relaxation, and smoother overall functioning.

Understand your stand. When standing, take a moment to notice your internal network, especially your pelvic region. I found at times that I was tensing the entire area, including the muscles of my GI tract. Even if you’re not tense currently, tune in to your network regularly, especially if you often stand at a work surface. You may be tensing more muscles than needed, or perhaps using the wrong muscle combination, to maintain your posture.

Don’t let seating be defeating. Here are a few things I found helpful to consider when sitting for work, leisure, or transportation:

• Be careful of any seating where you have to conform to an unusual position, such as raising a shoulder, restricting natural arm movement, dropping a hip, arching a foot, or distributing your body weight in an unbalanced way. You might unknowingly contort yourself into a damaging posture. This same risk holds true if you regularly carry a wallet, phone, or other solid object in a back pocket.
• Be aware of any weight placed in or on your lap while seated. Once I began noticing my network, I sensed that things such as books, computers, and the well-fed family cat caused more pelvic strain than I had previously realized.
• Check your electronic device usage. Gripping a phone or tablet for even a few minutes while seated can cause all the risky tension faced by office workers. I found that shoulder, back, and neck strain can translate into tension across all muscle groups, which can result in poor repair postures while awake or asleep.
• Avoid long periods of “vigilant sitting.” I’ve seen it and done it many times, especially when working in a stressful situation: the body assumes a vigilant posture—head and torso lean forward while the neck, shoulders, and arms remain outstretched for typing, mousing, driving, or other intricate work. Hip and upper leg muscles tense to support the torso’s forward lean, calves tense to counterbalance the upper legs, and one or both feet might arch to a near-vertical orientation to maintain the overall position. Holding this posture can create a full-body burden that translates into unhelpful pelvic tension.
• Stay alert to uneven leg activity. Our interstate driving trip helped me realize that pelvic tension can quickly amass when one leg is highly active (e.g., working the gas and brake pedals) while the other stays mostly inactive. If you can’t change your environment, perhaps add some compensating activity to your protocol, such as a brief stretching routine that addresses the individual need of each leg.
• Don’t settle for a poor seat, especially if you sit for work. In my case, I found it best to avoid any chair that supports the outer thighs by rigidly curving the seat pan inward. On the other hand, using an exercise ball as a seat for computer work was disastrous. So if possible, get a surface that conforms to your use. If you can’t do anything about the seat, consider an additive product. I found that putting a gel-based split-cushion surface on top of a rigid seat pan helps offset unwanted geometry. Other cushions can work, too, but be aware that their added loft might require adjusting other objects to compensate (steering wheel, desk height, etc.).
• Sit and stand throughout the day. If you work in an office environment (including a home office), consider using a sit-stand adjustable desk. These are getting more popular for good reason, and some quality options are starting to appear on the market at affordable prices. Alternatively, if you have access to a few tools, you can make your own.

For assistance in creating a healthier home, work, or school environment, consider consulting a qualified healthcare professional; a few accommodations or ergonomic adjustments may go a long way toward helping you heal.

Next, products on a more personal level in Grooming & Style.

Last updated: June 2019