trouble with hot baths/showers - could be OI / NMH

December 15, 2001

If you prefer to shower and not bathe, while it does make one feel like

an invalid (and I resisted it for a long while) get a bath seat . Many

come with backs. I absolutely CANNOT stand up and be vertical while

showering anymore.

And while I prefer bathing if I must for some reason shower I now have a

shower seat with a back. It's comfortable and you get the water falling

over you (which has some virtue). With it, it's helpful to get an shower

head attached to a longer extension hose, which will then allow you to

sit, rest your back on the chair, hold the shower head and direct the

water instead of having to position the seat and move it to get the water

all over you, which when you're well enough to stand in a shower is not a

problem: you just move about without thinking about it. That's difficult

to dangerous to do with a seat.

I absolutely hate every change of this sort in my life because they are

symbols to me of decline. Yet I have tried to think of it as evidence of

being flexible about coping with a tough situation, which ultimately has

me more independent than I would be if I fell standing up or couldn't get

the benefits of a shower, as sometimes it beats a bath.

Outsiders might think these are signs of invalidism, but they're not if

you don't invalid yourself in your head. I'm not saying it's easy,

believe me.

Judith Wisdom (who also had bars put up on the tile wall around the bath

tub, like they have in nursing homes. They prevent me from falling which

would have me in a nursing home. That's my choice.

Not one I like but if you don't see what your choices are and avoid them

they are made for you.

Judith Wisdom

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