Plastic
and environmental concerns
While we
were at the hospital and rehab, we noted that a lot of plastic was used—it
seemed everything was disposable. Many people are trying to decrease their
environmental impact and cut plastic use, but this will be difficult during
recovery time. You’ll deal with a lot of pee, poop, sweat, and maybe stomach
sickness, all of it stinky and germy. My caregiver service insisted that I buy
a box of 1-time use vinyl gloves for their people to use. What’s a
conscientious person supposed to do?
This is
where you may need to lower your standards, environmentally speaking. It’s a
continual task to keep things clean with a bed-ridden or limited-mobile spouse,
and even reusable items need to be washed frequently. Some things, like cloth
bed pads, can be washed and reused. But others, like disposable briefs or
insets, will have to be thrown away. Decide what you can reasonably do and
forgive yourself for the rest. Remember: this is a long term but temporary
situation. You can redouble your eco-habits later.
The
Stinky Truth
You’ll
discover rather quickly that the sick room or adjacent bathroom will start to smell
like a gas station men’s room. Yuck! And bed-ridden patients often have
mishaps—after all, they’re not used to having to do their business lying down
or hovering at the edge of a bed. This is all new to them, too.
Still,
it’s your job to clean up the mess.
Buy lots
of laundry detergent, bleach wipes, facial and bathroom tissues, and wet toilet
wipes. The disposables will have to go into something, so get a good supply of
plastic bags for your trash cans or get a diaper pail. Room fresheners—either
the spray or plug-in kind—also help dispel stinky smells. Open windows if
seasonable and allergies will withstand it. Use those vinyl gloves for the
really messy times.
Hospitals
use a no-rinse bath and shampoo solution for bathing patients and the products
work pretty well. I found these at my local drugstore and used them for my
husband’s sponge baths, which aren’t the most comfortable way to get clean. But
not having to rinse eliminated yet another wet, messy step—yay! Easier for me
and less chilly for him. I also discovered it’s nicer to just wash a section of
him at a time (torso, arm, leg, etc.), covering with a dry towel or throw
afterwards to keep warm.
See above
for suggestions on bed pads and urinals. Some of these really saved me a lot of
extra clean-up. It’s a whole lot easier to change a pad in the middle of the
night instead of redoing the entire bed. And when laundering pads or colorfast
clothes, a little white vinegar (1/2 cup for a full load) with an initial rinse
in the washer got rid of urine smells. Wash and rinse as usual after that.
It’s
truly amazing how much waste an adult can produce. Just don’t make faces or
make your partner feel worse about an embarrassing situation. Remind yourself
that it’s temporary. You can deal with it.
