Oh here we go again! You've hit the nail on the head yet again Don. Putting it all in rhyming words is amazing. I bet many of us reading that poem will have experienced all of those things you mention. Apart from the humour it really is a way of life for many of us. Thank you Don. Chrys
Trying to have a shower with a make do sling and one handed just didnt work, I felt so unsafe and it took so blinkin long, will make do with strip washes until my daughter returns. I may think about removing the bath in future, its too hard climbing in to have a shower x
I had the bath taken out before my wife died ten years ago. They are very dangerous things to have with elderly people around, though I miss being able to have a long leisurely soak for my aching bones.
SirSki I am sure that neither you nor the Cap'n has ever smelled like that . . . . but please try to point out the inadequacies of his current arrangements. I also had an elderly next door neighbour who was a feisty Scottish lady who was unable to get out of her bath and was later found at death's door in it! So it can be very dangerous!
Hello lovely Lindy,beauty of vancouver,long time no hear or here.good to hear from you again and i hope you are still feeding those birds on your veranda or have you bobbed up the hill to Whistler for a bit of mountain pleasure?
The only thing I can add (with me it is the bath with a "bath bubble" to lower me in, and raise me up)! I have a water tight case, see through and made for taking small cameras to the beach, put my little mobile phone in here and hang from the basin tap, can reach from wherever I fall. I feel it is a little like an umbrella, if you have one it does not rain, go out without one and it pours.
Once had cause to softly berate an older lady, she had fallen in the bath and spent all night in the water. She had one of the alarms you wear round your neck, (and knew where to put it when in the bath) to call for help. She eventually admitted it no longer worked. When she at down in front of the TV in the evening she used to take it off and hang it from the nearest handy place. Just happened to be on her gas fire adjuster, the pendant had melted, so dared not tell anyone. I did explain, I would rather have giggled at her and replaced the pendant, than found her after a night in the bath.
I must admit to having much more fun with those with less sense, and have been saving up much of what they did, to annoy my carers as I get more ill and older. Although I do draw the line at spending all night in a cooling bath.
Lotsalols SH - That had not actually dawned upon me - the annoyance of carers etc however now I must certainly take some notes - too often I try to avoid altercation or arguement - no really lol, however I can definitely see the merits of SH plan - and to all those involved in caring for anyone I know just how difficult and stressful the role can be and you have my very sincere sympathies - let us hope that the support that we are supposed to be able to attain will be there for us when we need it - sadly I would not bank on it! We must stay positive!
On a more serious note, I was an Occupational Therapist, and never had to work with/care for someone who was a relative. It is much easier to work with a stranger, when for how ever long you may know them, there is not the personal background, which, can be both good and bad. My own mother had a diagnosis of Paranoid Manic Depression for the last 20 years of her life, with dementia kicking in for the last 3 years. There is no way I could have cared for her on a live in capacity, one of us would have ended up murdered.
I do hope some care will stay available, though having worked in both the NHS and Social Services since 1970 I have watched the criteria for help getting tighter and tighter, in both financial status of the client and also their illness/disability level. It will be OK for the very ill/disabled if they have no money. We need places for other people to go, to get free advice on how to care, and what safe equipment would work for them, as some stuff that is advertised, only works for certain people, and in some cases people can spend money on things that are downright dangerous for them.
I am sorry to hear of your mother's depression SH - that must have been incredibly hard to deal with as you end up losing the very identity of the person who brought you into the world! I feel incredibly lucky at the moment as my oncology nurses are absolutely amazing and I could not feel more supported! That is why I write letters to the hospital on a very regular basis and try to get things changed with far more support for the staff working there - if we don't support them now, we will be the ones who have little or no support in the future
Cap' n you really should have one of those fixed shower chairs installed as mats and standing up in a bathtub simply are not SAFE!!! My stepfather who was a WW2 Test Pilot out in India and I think Canada, well one of his extremely distant relatives decided they would have installed a brand new bath (allowing him to pay for it) in which one is supposed to open the door in the side of the bath, then get into it, shutting it carefully, then fill up with water, then manoeuvre a heavy bar to keep it shut tightly then empty out the bath water then exit the bath - unfortunately they forgot to take into account the fact that he was partially blind (well almost completely) 97 years of age, had no heater in the bathroom so it was always cold and he really thought he was getting a proper shower with a pull down seat which of course he did not! He went through all that building work and probably managed to use the bath 3 times if that - then was whisked away to a care home and died a few weeks later. So I do hope that you will consider a pull down chair seat which would be far safer both now and in the future. Sorry to go into such detail but I still feel angry at the lack of thought that was put into that particular decision.
Oh and leave a note on the front door window glass advising you won't be available to answer the door until a certain time please - so now that's sorted I am off to bed - good night to all xx Apologies for being such a bossy boots today.
So very true Mr Don! Everything takes so much longer! What I hate the most is False Teeth! Chemo killed my roots! Now I have more to do!!! LOL oh yes! I forgot..I am a blond now! I was very bored! God Forbid! So.......Haven't been Blond in 32 years! I will get a pic...Later! Janet127
Ah! False teeth are a bind. I got myself a new set a year or two back, I wrote about them at the time. (There's not much I haven't written about on here, come to think about it.) A new photo of your new blond self will be nice. It need not be of you in the shower, unless you insist of course. 🙄
Drying off oh why oh why should I have a shower to feel so tired so breathless so knackered when I can wrap up in a nice hot bath sheet and dry off at my own leisure oh why oh why so much easier
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Those great bath sheets are the best invention ever. 😃
Still use the shower over the bath just the thought of the upheaval puts me off having a walk in shower put in.
Who remembers bath night, gettng the tin bath off the hook in the back yard wiping it clean, and filling it in the scullery with hot water from a boiler. Then emptyng it bucket by bucket down the sink. Me in first, then Mum and then dusty dad the bricklayer! We don't know we're born these days, lol. Iris x
I have a friend who fell in the bath and couldn't get up so pulled the curtains down and spent yhe day there wrapped in those until her son came home. Then it happened again, still she would not have the bath replaced with walk in shower!
I have a bath board across the bath , just sit and turn sideways to pull legs over into bath and stand up or sit down to shower. Reverse to get out of bath. Simple . It is secured in place and doesnt slip.
Available from Ableworld for princely sum of £23 tnis year.
( was given it by social services when I broke my leg 10 yrs ago)
The most important thing is to have some means of communication to hand and that's where I have slipped up. (Pardon the pun.) The iPhone is said to be waterproofed but I think I'll by a little bag for it to hang in the shower, somewhere low down because if I do need it that's where I will be. 😉
Loved the poem Don. Best thing I ever bought was good quality towelling dressing gown. It is on a hanger above the radiator in the bathroom so is warm for the colder weather. Also, you can be reasonably decent to get to the door if necessary - not that I have ever tried it!
Believe it or not I posted a photo of myself on here wearing such a garment. Is there no end to what I will do to gain a bit of attention I ask myself ?🙄😂
My showers are getting fewer and further between, my shower takes a day to prepare as I have to hype up as if I’m going to climb the north face of the Eiger , and it takes as long and I need medical assistance at the end .
This damned emphysema, I’m as bright as a button and 32 in my outlook , I’m sure if I got a new set of bellows you wouldn’t catch me.
Well done Don keep up the good work and a happy Christmas and a very healthy new year best wishes to you and yours.
Janet1944, my reply to Don below is also like you due to Copd/Emphysema & a bit like you in my head & outlook feel much younger than my lungs allow!
I love music & dancing & when get the chance have inhalers in one hand & a friend or 2 on the arm! That way I can actually dance through most of 1tune before needing to take a seat or stop moving!
Well Mr.D, I'm just glad your worldwide 🌍 followers are enjoying your very quirky rhymes! You've definitely gone and posted your rhymes which in turn, got you a lot of folk who enjoy your writings. You can sit in your shower now and grin away, knowing the success you've had
Well I just write for my friends here on BLF and what I write and how often I write depends solely on the feedback I get from them. I never lock my posts because I think our problems should become more widely known and I wish others would do the same. I doubt my rhymes stray far from home. 😉
Haha, that’s great, I have to book a week in advance to get mine! @ have an hours slot of the carers time!! Fortunately she’s a friend first who happens to be a carer! I prepare myself before she arrives ( she calls to say when on the way) then I get the water at the right temperature for me, as hair as I like! Then she starts with washing my hair, conditions & rinses, luxury to get it done properly without breaking my neck over a sink or having shower straight at my face! Then continues to shower back, b.., legs & feet! I can manage my front areas fine, all while standing. She will dry hair & back & apply cream too! While I wrap dry the rest in font of fire she does cleaning, mopping up the pool in the shower room (pokey place) & hoovers carpets in hall & bed/sit room! Then we can have coffee & cake she has brought me! Bliss!!
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Shower advice for older members.
Showering with COPD
COPD
Why did I do it ???
