I’m Tired of Hearing About Old People Who Don’t Want to Bathe

Get a clue — they’re just COLD

Listen to anyone who cares for the elderly. You’ll hear complaints about crotchety old Joe who refuses to get into a shower. Or Mrs. Coster, who starts to cry if she hears the word “bath”.

“You’d think Dad would get tired of his own B.O.!”

“Aunt Jill is such a dear — until you tell her it’s time to wash.”

Now think about this. Here are people who want their air temperature at 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) and need multiple sweaters even then. They wear winter coats outside on 90 degree sunny days.

Then you want them to take all their clothes off?

Think about those moments in your own bathroom. You’ve dropped your robe, and the goosebumps wrinkle up your skin. You quickly jump under the shower’s hot water to warm up.

Afterwards, you turn off the water and the second batch of cold hits you, harder than the first. You shiver your way through toweling until dry enough that your body recovers.

But how about that elderly person? No “jumping” into any warm shower. It’s minutes and minutes of cold exposure. No quick scrub down as you painfully bend to reach aching areas. And absolutely no way your chronically under-heating body replaces that much loss of body heat.

“But we just roll their wheelchair right into the shower. It’s designed for it. It’s fast.”

It’s still minutes and minutes of cold — as if you, yourself, went out in sub-zero weather without clothes.

I came across an excellent video describing how to caringly wash such a patient or relative. Using washing towelettes and carefully exposing only one limb at a time. Diane Vaughn had to figure these things out with her own mother. https://youtu.be/5uejoXxIzp4?si=r0OtO67projjUVTi

Diane makes a lot of sense. I appreciate the details.

And so will your washee.