Bath is done and I didn’t do it!!!

Handling Mom’s bath for the last month and a half paid off. 

Two weeks ago, her aide, Tina, told me that her goal was to get Mom to allow her to do the bath.  Last week, she joined us as I bathed Mom to get an idea of what worked and then said that she wanted to try this week by herself – without me around – to see if Mom would cooperate.

Tuesday, the day I usually did the bath, I waited to visit in the afternoon.  The bath wasn’t accomplished that morning but, quite frankly, I don’t know how anyone could have accomplished anything!  Oh my goodness!  You would have thought it was a full moon – it was a new moon so maybe the combination of that and the weather could explain it.

Mom had pitched a fit in the morning.  Night shift had forgotten to take her dirty clothes out of her room from the night before.  Mom was up early and dressed in them before Tina arrived that morning.  At that point, Tina was lucky to get Mom in clean clothes, let alone doing a bath.

Mom wasn’t the only one acting out, however.  I found one of the other ladies stripping off her clothes as she walked and she had quite a few harsh words for Tina and Whitney as they tried very kindly to get her dressed again.  Another one of the ladies was singing with us one minute and yelling at us the next.  Two of the gentlemen were up all night wandering around and so were sleeping off and on.  When they weren’t sleeping, they were yelling or getting into things – and also stripping!

I’m sure it wasn’t right but I couldn’t help laughing when Beth, the Life Enrichment Assistant, would try to get the residents together for an activity.  She would get one or two but before she could get another, those first two had wandered off. 

Everyone seemed to be in their own little world and they all seemed to feel that their world was a little off kilter at the moment.

It was comical but I did truly feel for the workers.  Those are the days that they are cussed at, hit and just generally abused.    You can see them getting tired as the day (or night) wears on.  It’s amazing that, in spite of the treatment they receive at times, it’s easy to see that they truly care for the residents and come to love them like their own family.

Wednesday was a new day, thankfully.  Tina set up for Mom’s bath and, other than a few minor grumbles at first, they sailed right through and Mom was a very happy camper.  When telling me about it today, Tina shared that her husband said she had talked about Mom in her sleep Tuesday night.  She thought it was probably because she was anticipating doing the bath – and hoping it went well!

Now that she has one successful bath under her belt, I’m sure my bathing Mom days are over!