Bath Day
December 1, 2009
Whenever I visit a retirement home I always come away with food for thought.
Today I was visiting a patient in a local home and whilst waiting for a GP to call me back I do what I normally do and start having a snout about. I love looking at photos for example. I like to see what the old crusty looked like in their youth. There is usually a wedding photo or two. Except today it wasn’t a photo that caught my attention but a poster stuck on the back of the patients bedroom door. It said ‘Beatrice’s bath day is Wednesday’. I asked a member of staff about this and it was exactly as it read. Beatrice has one bath a week. On Wednesday.
Now I am not sure how familiar my dear reader is with residential homes and their clientele, and I don’t by any stretch want to tar them all with one large crusty brush but… Old people stink. Of course not all of them do, but you would be hard pressed to pink a rose out of a line up of ten.
Its by no means their fault. They might want to wash and bathe but many don’t have the strength, coordination or perhaps marbles to be able to. They need help which is unfortunately like everything else in this world, on a budget.
So poor old Beatrice, who in particular has all her marbles, but cannot get about due to a stroke she had four years ago wants a bath. Yet its Sunday and its not her bath day. She has to sit in her own urine (she also has a weak bladder and can’t get to the loo without assistance) soaked pad for hours a day until this evening. After tea, if the stench of twenty other similar residents hasn’t put her off her food she will be assisted up to her room. Her damp pad will be removed, a quick wipe with a flannel, a douse of talc, a new pad and that’s that. All clean apparently.
Is it any wonder these people are much more prone to skin infections, urinary infections, systemic infections and anything else you could reasonably expect from poor basic hygiene?
I wonder if there are other special days? Teeth cleaning day perhaps? Talk to someone day? Or maybe a day out? Okay, I may be stretching reality a bit by suggesting a day out – that only occurs if you have family and that they in turn give a shit.
Some homes are a damn site better than others. They are not all bad. I’ll touch on that another day though. I’m off for a bath now.
M.
