Friday, March 26, 2004
As you know, if you follow us...
...I rarely bother to report live from the scene of an event although I have occasionally, with success. This morning I am live and only a bit behind The Event. I couldn't resist. All my sisters, at least, will get a kick out of this.
Whether you (universal) know this or not, every morning my mother and I bathe her from head to toe. For many reasons having to do with her love of soaking in a bath but hatred of washing in that bath, I've been monitoring her baths (and, making sure she takes a healthy number) for some years, now. It may seem excessive, but our previous method allowed her the freedom to bathe herself (except for her back) and also allowed me to monitor and get rid of her persistent thigh crease rash and a build up of rough skin on her back. Now, of course, since she soaks in her urine every night, it is paramount that she be white glove cleaned at least once a day, sometimes twice. At first I was doing all the bathing. Now we each do half the appendages, she does her head and I do her torso, front and back. I monitor her progress and every morning I remind her (it's necessary, believe me) when she is, for instance, washing her arm, to "wash top of shoulder, armpit, back of arm, top and bottom of hand, and everything else, of course." After experimenting with allowing her to wash her belly and front groin area while I washed her back, I've denied those privileges. Some mornings when she has very little energy but has to get up she is grateful that someone does this for her. Otherwise, her feelings about this necessary ritual always contain some degree of hostility and a sense of dignity betrayed. I often attempt to dissipate this for her by attributing what could be her incensed outbursts to our cats, who wander in and out monitoring The Bath Procedure. Every couple of days Mom suggests "bath bathing" again. I truly evaluate the suggestion each time she offers it. All things considered though, it's still not a good idea. My mother accepts none of this gracefully. But, from day to day we work on it.
This morning after we completed her head, feet and appendages and I asked her to rise and face me she looked at me in innocent horror and asked, "Are you going to bathe all of me?!?"
"Well, yes, Mom," I stuttered. "I know you're not remembering this right now, but I do this every morning."
"No you don't! I bathe myself every morning!"
"Well, maybe soon, but not now."
"Well, I don't know how that happened!"
Oh boy. Here we go. "Well, Mom, since you hurt your back..."
"I'm just not sure it's necessary!"
I took a deep breath and decided to take another approach. "Mom, listen, I know it's a terrible inconvenience, but thank you for putting up with my insistence on doing this..." From this point, I continued on to explain why meticulous skin care is important, that the skin is the most important organ of the body, her back makes it very hard for her to reach her entire body without risk of reinjury right now, etc.
When I finally finished both my gentle lecture and her torso and she was facing me again she said, through an impish smile, "And, what was the original question?"
We both exited laughing.
Later.
Whether you (universal) know this or not, every morning my mother and I bathe her from head to toe. For many reasons having to do with her love of soaking in a bath but hatred of washing in that bath, I've been monitoring her baths (and, making sure she takes a healthy number) for some years, now. It may seem excessive, but our previous method allowed her the freedom to bathe herself (except for her back) and also allowed me to monitor and get rid of her persistent thigh crease rash and a build up of rough skin on her back. Now, of course, since she soaks in her urine every night, it is paramount that she be white glove cleaned at least once a day, sometimes twice. At first I was doing all the bathing. Now we each do half the appendages, she does her head and I do her torso, front and back. I monitor her progress and every morning I remind her (it's necessary, believe me) when she is, for instance, washing her arm, to "wash top of shoulder, armpit, back of arm, top and bottom of hand, and everything else, of course." After experimenting with allowing her to wash her belly and front groin area while I washed her back, I've denied those privileges. Some mornings when she has very little energy but has to get up she is grateful that someone does this for her. Otherwise, her feelings about this necessary ritual always contain some degree of hostility and a sense of dignity betrayed. I often attempt to dissipate this for her by attributing what could be her incensed outbursts to our cats, who wander in and out monitoring The Bath Procedure. Every couple of days Mom suggests "bath bathing" again. I truly evaluate the suggestion each time she offers it. All things considered though, it's still not a good idea. My mother accepts none of this gracefully. But, from day to day we work on it.
This morning after we completed her head, feet and appendages and I asked her to rise and face me she looked at me in innocent horror and asked, "Are you going to bathe all of me?!?"
"Well, yes, Mom," I stuttered. "I know you're not remembering this right now, but I do this every morning."
"No you don't! I bathe myself every morning!"
"Well, maybe soon, but not now."
"Well, I don't know how that happened!"
Oh boy. Here we go. "Well, Mom, since you hurt your back..."
"I'm just not sure it's necessary!"
I took a deep breath and decided to take another approach. "Mom, listen, I know it's a terrible inconvenience, but thank you for putting up with my insistence on doing this..." From this point, I continued on to explain why meticulous skin care is important, that the skin is the most important organ of the body, her back makes it very hard for her to reach her entire body without risk of reinjury right now, etc.
When I finally finished both my gentle lecture and her torso and she was facing me again she said, through an impish smile, "And, what was the original question?"
We both exited laughing.
Later.
