Roto-Rooter and The Fitbit

On a Monday morning a month ago, when I arose from the toilet to pull up my jeans, I reached behind me and hit the flush handle; as I heard the loud rush of water, I also heard a CLINK noise.

OH NO! The Fitbit was no longer on my wrist! The keeper loop was undone (again!) and had caught on my pants as I stood and twisted slightly to flush the toilet. It flipped off my wrist, perfectly timing its exit from my arm into the rush of the flush.

I originally wanted a Fitbit to track my sleep and my steps, but not necessarily 10,000 per day. Do you feel guilty if you don’t track that many steps? I know people who shake their wrist to get the tracker to count movement and increase their step tally. Walking for exercise is a good thing and keeps bodies in motion. Becoming obsessed by your step count is probably not in keeping with a health commitment, wouldn’t you agree?

Apparently, a Japanese company in the 1960s marketed their pedometer whose name translated as “10,000 step-meter.” A ploy to market tracking fitness, this was an arbitrary number and so well received, it was taken over by health experts and tracking companies like Fitbit. Now commonplace, people regularly post screenshots of their progress.

I wanted a fitness tracker that was waterproof for water aerobics. The first one I got was a simple tracker with no watch or phone/text notifications. It was just a tracker; when I rode my bicycle outdoors, I removed the small tracker from the wristband and placed it into my sock, to record my bike exercise.

That tracker lasted for a few years while everyone was getting fancy trackers with watches and heart rate monitors, some people preferring an Apple watch. Searching for replacement in the electronic section of a store, my eyes lit up upon seeing a Fitbit with a lavender band and large clock face in the display case. The color of the band is what attracted me; I admit to loving all blue-tone shades of purple. The salesgirl told me to select the size of the face, and what type of band I wanted and then go from there. I didn’t need to look further; I liked the lavender wristband original Versa, so bought it.

Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca Tracking

My Versa tracked my running in water aerobics and all the gyrations we did; it tracked REM sleep and awake times, and my heartbeats per minute. It tracked my 20,000+ steps when I walked Machu Picchu in Peru. Proud of that experience, I posted a screenshot to social media.

We visited Lake Titicaca and the Uros Islands, high in the Andes Mountains of Peru. We were hiking at an amazing altitude of over 12,500 feet; using my iPhone, I pulled up the compass and posted a snapshot of the altitude on social media. An amazing trip with accomplishments like this had to be shared!

Secure that Band

The Versa has a screen larger than an inch and the band is about an inch wide. That unfortunate Monday, I stood gazing into the toilet bowl, hoping for a glimpse of the lavender band, yet there was nothing but clear water. Nervously, I found my husband in the garage and told him what happened. He shrugged and calmly replied, “You need to call Roto-Rooter. They are the only ones who can get it out.”

My husband had nagged me to ensure I secured the Fitbit band once I had buckled it on my wrist. He pointed out regularly the wristband must be inserted into the keeper loop that clicks into the holes on the band and prevent it from falling off. He drove me crazy with annoying daily comments. Although I clicked it into place, the keeper loop would come loose, and spin around the band; it didn't stay in the slots I had locked it into. The keeper would slide down, down, and off onto the floor; or come loose while sleeping, and the Fitbit would unhook and get wrapped into the blankets at night. It was NOT my fault, and the safety mechanism certainly didn't live up to its name of "keeper!" I checked it frequently, but the loop stubbornly refused to stay put. Had it stretched out with use?

YouTube Plumbing

I thought we should be able to fix this plumbing issue and not need to call Roto-Rooter. I was certain we could do it; there had to be a simple way to get the device out of the toilet plumbing. I looked to Google for a solution; people post YouTube videos for everything. Scrolling through the feed, sure enough, there were articles and videos.

One: try a coat hanger - bend it almost straight and poke around in the bend of the toilet to see if you can feel the object. Two: manually drain the toilet and then use a Shop-Vac to see if you can suck it out.

“Ah-ha!” I thought. Tripping happily back to the garage, I gave him the good news.

“You can do it; I’m not. Call Roto-Rooter,” he told me.

“But the toilet flushed. It’s not clogged,” I reminded him.

“If you keep using it and it clogs, all the sewage will come back up! Call Roto-Rooter.” He turned away, so I went into the house.

I bent the coat hook and tried solution number one with no luck, gently probing so as not to scratch the toilet. I harassed him enough that he decided to try it, also giving the Shop-Vac a try, both to no avail.

“You better call Roto-Rooter.”

“What about those other plumbers we used to install the outside faucet?” I asked, thinking they might be cheaper and come quicker.

“Nope. Only Roto-Rooter has the equipment needed to get something like that out of there.”

Roto-Rooter Help

I gave in and again used Google, this time to find a Roto-Rooter plumber to come out. “Hello? Yes, I have a plumbing issue.” She asked me what the issue was, so I explained. The nice woman said they were booked all week and the first day they could come was Friday; she was so sorry.

“Let me give you some helpful suggestions to try in the meantime.” She proceeded to give me the same methods I had gleaned from the internet; I laughingly told her we had tried those and she sincerely apologized again. I set up an appointment and told my husband we could expect help on Friday.

Now I had to decide if I would use that toilet until Roto-Rooter arrived. All throughout the day, I worried about it: was it OK? Would it overflow? What should I DO? Finally, I decided to try using it – ‘it flushed fine,’ I softly informed my husband, who just looked at me. “I am SURE the thing went down vertically, not horizontally. If it went sideways, it would have clogged already. They can’t come until Friday, and I’m going to use the toilet.” He walked away again. I knew he was thinking that he would be using the Shop-Vac again when it overflowed. He had washed his hands of my plumbing problem!

All week, I used the toilet with no problem, no backups, no overflows, no gurgling in the shower, or in the other toilet – no backups! I was right, it went down vertically, we were safe. We would end up paying a huge Roto-Rooter charge for nothing. Yet, I was afraid to cancel the plumbing appointment.

Friday arrived and the Roto-Rooter crew of two was on the front step to save us. My husband let them in, all geared up in their navy cotton coverups with paper booties over their shoes. I stayed in the kitchen while he took them to the master bathroom.

A few minutes later, out they came to explain their findings. “Ma’am, the Fitbit is probably already in the sewer. I put a huge wad of tissue into the toilet and flushed it. If the device was in the elbow, the toilet would have backed up, and it didn't; it flushed fine. Here’s what you guys should do monthly. Put a Rubbermaid stopper in the shower while showering, then when finished, lift the stopper - all that water you shower with will flood the drain (he gave exact measurements of how much water was used in a shower) and clear any debris; the same works with that huge bathtub you have. Gallons of water shooting down the drain all at once clear the pipes. I do it at home regularly and have never had a backup. We aren’t going to charge you anything. Have a nice day.” My husband cheerily ushered them out; behind their backs, I was furiously fist-pumping and twirling around in the kitchen. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" I yelled. I was thrilled all was well but way more thrilled they hadn't charged us.

Soon afterward I ordered directly from the Fitbit company a Versa 2 with a gray band. The new device has the same small “keeper” loop to hold the band, but this loop stays in the band grooves easily and I don’t have to keep checking it.

Warning - make sure your jewelry, watches, and tracker devices are all secure before flushing the toilet. Maybe you want to consider scrolling back up and reviewing the pointers from the plumber. I will continue ensuring my Fitbit is secure on my wrist.