Not so long ago, I lived in Bangkok, Thailand. I don’t know if any of you have visited Bangkok but if you haven’t, you’ve probably heard that the traffic is crazy.
The traffic lights are not automatic like in Spain. At every intersection, with a lot of traffic, there is a police booth. There are usually two policemen with “Walky Talky” sitting in it, but both policemen have two very different functions.
The finger
One is in charge of issuing tickets (whether they are fair or not) and the other sits in the booth using his finger.
The job of the finger is very simple, when the policeman outside the booth has given enough tickets, the policeman in the booth gives the green light with his finger and the cars start moving.
When they want to stop the traffic to collect again, the policeman in the booth hits the red button. It’s actually a very simple business model haha. I know it sounds like a joke but that’s how this big city works.
Taxi
As the city is big, the metro doesn’t go everywhere and buses are unthinkable (they carry chickens, hens and other weeds), one uses taxis. They are cheap and air-conditioned.
On that unforgettable day for me, I was in one of them. I was stressed because I was coming out of one meeting and going into the next one (moreover, where the toilet had been had not made a good impression on me). I decided to go to my next meeting but to make a “pit stop” at a hotel I knew on the way, so I could change the tampon that needed a refill.
Tampon screaming for a spare
I was in that taxi, heading for the hotel, as we hit the red button phase (you know what I mean). We were there easily about 50 minutes (don’t think this is a long time as I was once stopped at a red light, for over two hours!). I felt that tampon getting heavier and heavier. In my discomfort I crossed my legs (in that way we all know) to try to hold back as much as possible. Then I went through the phase of not moving an inch so as not to change position.
Minutes went by and minutes passed and the taxi didn’t move forward. Those are the moments when you feel physically ill, you don’t know if your blood pressure is going up or down. I tried to lower my breathing to calm my nerves while the taxi remained immobile.
After a few minutes the policeman gave the green light and finally the cars started to move, but at that minute I started to feel that my clothes were damp, and I thought ohhh it’s too late!
I didn’t even want to look… I looked in my bag to see if I had any handkerchiefs, I looked all over the taxi to see if I could see any boxes of them and nothing!
The seat
With resignation, I sat like a Sphinx for the last few minutes of the journey. That’s how I arrived at the longed-for hotel. The taxi stopped at the door and I got out with the most dignified attitude I could find. I looked at the seat and there was a big, big bloodstain on it; when I got out, it was all over the seat! 😱
Can you imagine how I felt? I was so ashamed, I think it was the biggest shame of my life.
Poor taxi driver
In my best Thai I told the taxi driver that I had a problem and the man looked at me from his seat with a questioning face. I got him to get out as well. Seeing the mess I had left him he understood. I asked him if he had anything to clean up and he replied Mai Pen Rai (which means, don’t worry…it doesn’t matter), took the extra money I gave him and left.
At the entrance of the hotel I saw that my trousers (pale pink jeans) looked “nice”. I entered the hotel, “feeling great” as you can imagine.
I was ashamed, angry with myself, angry with my body and actually with the whole world. I spent a long time thinking what was the point of feeling like that?
I called the person I was going to meet, I apologised as I couldn’t go anywhere but home.
They told me that menstrual cups existed.
This made me approach my gynaecologist and ask her why sometimes our period became so heavy? She told me that sometimes, every few months, the body decides to cause a more thorough cleansing and that results in a lot of bleeding.
She told me that there were menstrual cups, which had much more capacity than any tampon or pad, which were healthier as they had no chemicals like tampons. He assured me that once I tried them I would never go back to the disposable ones I had been using until now, not even under threat of death.
That’s how I came to the menstrual cup, and I must say that from the day I tried them, my life changed. I felt safe, calm, and I became aware that all the disposables I had used until that day were not the most suitable option.
I was so happy with this solution that I started to tell other people about my new discovery. Seeing that I had the same result with them, I decided to create PERIODINO and promote them in a more professional way.
I can imagine that reading this story made you laugh a couple of times, just as I know that during the reading many of you felt identified with this story. I don’t know any woman, who in her life, hasn’t had some awkward moments with menstruation.
I must say that when this happened to me I didn’t find it funny at all, but today when I remember it, I laugh to myself. If you wish, you can share with me in this blog some of these stories. Then we can laugh together!
Time is a marvel, when things happen we feel them so tremendous, as the years go by, if we have a good sense of humour with ourselves, they become just another anecdote in our lives. 😂
