DAY 3: Clean at last

 Day 3 arrives and I am a wee bit down.  That little lull from pain over Day 1 and 2 was gone like the wind!

Some damn storm seemed to have blown in pain that took your breath away and for some other  reason it was taking up residence in the calf of my leg, very  similar to my old friend sciatica, but steadily growing in strength. As of today it was stronger than any sciatica pain I had ever felt.
To top it all off, I was having some problem with my blood pressure dropping dangerously low 78/35 , had the headache of the century, spiking  fever, and verging on passing out. Ugggh!

I had not yet had a sponge bath although was supposed to get one each day and then an actual shower on Day 5. Poor DH tried to do the best he could with wetting paper towel and then drying me with paper towel but it is just not the same.

By the time my surgeon arrived on Day 3 I was a bit teary about it. I think I was just in so much pain, I was getting a bladder infection as the catheter was still in, was running a fever,  and feeling at the end of my rope. He had never seen my with tears in my eyes or complaining and was quite sympathetic. He asked what would make me feel better. I blurted out the catheter he had ordered removed at 6 am the day B4 was still in, and I felt the spiking fever was due to a UTI . Then in a little tiny voice, cuz I had decided I must sound like a mad woman to pursue such a small thing, I added that I would like my sponge bath that I never got yesterday! I felt really small and whiny and sort of embarrassed.
His face perks up and says well that can all be solved quickly and minutes later that foley was out, urine sample collected,  and a care aid showed up to bathe me.

It was heaven! The water was warm and soothing.  The lovely stroking motion she used to bathe me was so relaxing and helped distract the pain cycle in my leg. I had my eyes closed, just lost in how good it felt and how much better I would feel with clean teeth, cleanish hair and a cleanish body.
The care aid shared a lovely story of how she came to this country from India with no English skills so did not have immediate access to education here. She had built such a good life for her children on the wages and overtime wages,  from bathing people and making up their beds. This lovely lady, who was roughly the same age as me, had 4 children. One a doctor, one a pharmacist and one a lawyer. She still had  an 18 year old at home and when he was through university, she could finally stop working overtime!

She was such an inspiration to me. I felt so renewed with strength after that sponge bath. It is just so amazing to me that such a simple thing can lift your spirits, strengthen your resolve and let you move through managing the pain..

Here is the card my daughter, SIL and little Mr P gave me

Little Miss C made it. She had seen a similar card on my desk and had asked for 6 images stamped off for her. She coloured them all and stickled them up. The other 5 are not made up yet but she assembled this one with a snippet of pink self -adhesive  floral ribbon and  a spellbinder die from the die cut baggie I made up for her. The only help she need was a straight line dotted across the page to line her ribbon etc up to. I thought it was quite well done.