Today was a good day for a bath. Company’s coming, see, and I don’t want to look greasy. My sister and her two girls and a dear college friend and her fiancé are on the way to my apartment as I write this.
Today was just my second head-to-toe scrub town in officially two weeks. I’ve decided taking a bath is like writing. It’s challenging, but it feels great when it’s over.
If there was a shower on the first floor of the townhouse we moved into I could have gotten a shower chair. If so, I could use my transfer board to get into a shower chair and take a fairly normal shower. But, that wasn’t what we found so my mom is teaching me to make due with a sponge bath in a wheelchair.
After the first “bath” last week I learned it wasn’t smart to park my chair on the carpet. So today I set up in the kitchen. I parked between the cabinets and the refrigerator and washed my hair with a foam cooler full of warm water sitting on my lap.
Mom helped me rinse away the shampoo and washed my back. And she created a place to put that box of warm water so I could reach hit without worrying about knocking it over.
The whole process probably took 40 minutes. I ended up with a puddle of water around me and Blue Sunshine needed a good wipe down, too. But I got clean.
I’m completely free of medical tape residue! My wound-drain hole is healed enough to not need any bandaging. My incision is in good shape, too, and we decided not to worry about a bandage for that either.
We thought about taking my staples out ourselves, too. My mom did that sort of thing often when she worked as a nurse. We decided not to, though, because my pubis was very tender. It’s still a bit swollen, too. And, I figured the staples will have to be removed during my appointment Tuesday anyway, before I can have the bone scan. They’ll be able to help numb my pubis first, and that won’t be bad.
The ordeal of this bath was a good reminder of the things I took for granted before January 22. And I’m sure I will appreciate showers 10 weeks from now like I never have before. The power of perspective is an amazing thing.
Next week’s bath will be just before my return to the office. Something to look forward to!
Separated at Birth 