I suppose that would be embarrassing.

On the other hand, it could be much worse. I couldn't imagine suffering from uncontrollable flatulence.

i was sitting in a non-emergency clinic waiting room one day for a checkup, and some kid sitting near me was belching uncontrollably. the wait was pretty long, and when it was his turn, the doctors just told his mom to take him to ER because they had no idea what was wrong with him. it was really strange and pretty unsettling. i was fairly grossed out after the first 5 minutes, and it went on for about half an hour before the doctors could see the boy. i feel really bad for this poor woman. 2 years is a loooong time to have to deal with that sort of shame.

It can indeed be unsettling when one loses control of one's simple assumed functions. Last year I was reading about people who lose their sense of balance, so even trying to walk across the room makes them feel like they are about to fall off the edge of a roof. I was also reading about an area north of Montreal where a fairly high proportion of the population felt very little pain - they might be cutting their finger off or burning their hand on a stove and not even notice until the damage had been done.