by Yvonne Donlon

Created on: November 07, 2009

At 89 years old, my grandmother has trouble with showering herself. Okay, she can't shower herself at all not sufficiently, and not without potential problems. Of course, her stroke in June of this year has proven to limit her options quite a bit. And, of those options that have come back as a result of therapy, showering herself isn't one of them. I suspect that, even before the stroke, showering should have been taken off the options list.

She can't stand for long lengths of time, so to really get clean, and rinsed, she just doesn't have the stamina. . She can't stand from a sitting position too many times in a row, so even the stool in the shower doesn't give her enough support or time to wash herself properly.

After the post-stroke rehab center stint was all used up, and the Medicare approved in-home care was at its end, the only people left to shower Gramma were me and my mother (Grammma's daughter). Mom is 67, has two replaced hips, is about 20 pounds overweight, and constantly bemoans being busier than a one-armed paper hanger. I am 46, lean, and am, at my job, constantly building the other cheek of another person's half-assed job. Mom has had three children, and therefore has bathed another human being many times. I have had no children, and anytime I've lathered anything on another human being it wasn't about the showering.

So, who should shower Gramma? Of course, all things considered, I am the one to shower Gramma. Right?

As I do most things, I consider the possibilities and build solutions into the plan's model. That is my job, and I take it very seriously. Showering my 89 year old grandmother, along with its potential problems, and their solutions, easily shoot to the top of my list of things to take seriously.

Shower #1 was a bit of a learning experience for me. After all, since the stroke Gramma's been showered by many people, all of whom are professional showerers. Professional showerers - just let that job description sink into your mind for a moment. Got it? Good.

I saw throughout Shower #1 what Gramma wanted from me in our shower experience. Very little, as it turns out. She wanted not to be showered by her granddaughter. She wanted to tell me they were showering her in a way that was impossible to believe professional showerers would advocate.

I am a professional. Not a showerer, but a professional. And nothing about the way Gramma tried to get me to believe she was had been showered by professionals, looked like anything a professional

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