Do you wash when you are ill?

[booksandnooks]

Yabu - I wash daily even if I'm on death's door
yanbu - I wash when I'm better

You need someone to help you take a bath even if is just with wet cloth to clean your body. Hope you feel better soon

I'm a bit gobsmacked by PPs being worried about showering in UK hospitals. Isn't patient hygiene a priority to counter against hospital borne infections? I've had a couple of operations where I live in Europe and you are literally harried to get out of your hospital bed and have a shower, sometimes twice a day, and the nurse comes back and checks. They are very , very strict about it. And you have to shower in a sort of reddish disinfectant prior to an operation. And if you can't shower the day after your op, they come and give you a full bed bath. I was feeling really weak on one occasion when they told me to shower and they asked me to call them when I needed help.

Musicmenu I'm very sorry about your DH and what you are both facing currently

When ill with pneumonia two years ago I didn't wash for 11 days. Recently been unwell and didn't wash for 8 days, and even then I pretty much needed dh to hold and wash me like a baby.

As long as I'm well enough to shower, then I'll shower. I hate feeling dirty or sweaty.

There have been a few times I've not been able to shower due to illness and I've absolutely hated it, lol. I swear it makes me feel worse.

I had an awful virus a couple of years ago where I could only just crawl out of bed to go to the loo. I didn't shower for at least 3 days. On the 4th day I finally pulled myself together and managed to shower but spent most of the time hanging onto the wall/in a foetal position. I felt somewhat better after my shower but then had to get back into my not very clean bed because there was absolutely no way I would have been able to change the sheets. In retrospect it was probably foolish of me to try to shower - I was very close to fainting - and I should have waited another 24 hours. I stank, but it's not as if I was receiving visitors.

I hope you feel better soon OP!

I once spent 7 days in hospital on total bed rest. Was not allowed out of bed so just had a wash in the morning in bed. When finally allowed out of bed I was whisked pronto in a wheelchair to have a shower.
Boy did that shower feel good. Mind you I had asked DH to bring me some shampoo and he brought me a 750ml pump bottle of wash and go. It would have washed the hair of the whole ward for months.

No not mastitis level ill. It's worse than flu and I've had both. I ended up in hospital for over a week with it and I have never known pain like it. Don't worry about washing and rest, get yourself better.

Yabu
I'm
Not saying I'll have a full bath/shower but just a wash down is usually enough to make you feel a little better

@Physalis

I'm a bit gobsmacked by PPs being worried about showering in UK hospitals. Isn't patient hygiene a priority to counter against hospital borne infections? I've had a couple of operations where I live in Europe and you are literally harried to get out of your hospital bed and have a shower, sometimes twice a day, and the nurse comes back and checks. They are very , very strict about it. And you have to shower in a sort of reddish disinfectant prior to an operation. And if you can't shower the day after your op, they come and give you a full bed bath. I was feeling really weak on one occasion when they told me to shower and they asked me to call them when I needed help.

Musicmenu I'm very sorry about your DH and what you are both facing currently

The staff can't force patients to wash. They can offer to assist but if people refuse, what can they do?

Last time I was in hospital, the help I asked for to shower never came, they didn't have a shower seat I could sit on (a tiny one with a weight limit stamped on it of 12st. I am considerably more than that!) so I could not attempt it on my own...

No one offered to help, when I complained no one had come to help when I asked I was handed a pack of cold wet wipes (no they couldn't heat them up despite the instructions on the pack to do so) and I had to wait for my OH to come in to help me.

I was in for 10 days, not impressed.

At home, it really depends on how ill I am. If i can't regulate my temperature and our shower is bloody cold in winter, then no - warm wet wipes (the bed bath type not bog standard ones) and water free foam wash stuff will have to do.

I remember vividly, Mother forcing me into the bath when I had flu (real flu, 3 weeks in bed, another 3 not really with it under blankets on the sofa, hallucinating, fevers, chills, the lot).... I vomited in the bloody bath, it was too hot which really messed me up, then when I tried to stand to shower off the vom I slipped and fell out of the bath onto the bathroom floor and she bloody shouted at me!

During my illness mentioned in my previous post I was admitted to hospital 3 times , on the third occasion I was in for a week and nobody even bothered to clean the floor in my room / bathroom let alone worry about whether I had had a wash .

Agonizing pain and/or unable to move then no but this has never gone on for more than a day for me.

Any other kind of illness (and esp. if painkillers work) then yes I shower and bathe as usual.

Surely it depends how ill you are? If someone has genuine flu and not just a bad cold they probably can barely get out of bed.

I had flu about 5 years ago and I literally could not get out of bed for a week. After a week I needed a shower but DH had to wash me and hold me up and then dry me. I then had to go back to bed as I was exhausted

I suffer bad migraines that can last 3 days. Again, I can't get out of bed. I can't even sit up without throwing up and almost passing out. Couldn't shower if I wanted to

Depends what I'm ill with.

Mastitis, a scaldingly hot shower and knuckle massage will help (and hurt like a motherfucker).

No for me the definition of ill is that I can't get up and wash, I feel too unwell. In my mind, if you're well enough to spring into the shower in the morning, you're not really sick!

@booksandnooks you need antibiotics ASAP. Call 111. If you can get an out of hours appointment over the phone they might be able to prescribe and get it sent straight to a local 24 hour pharmacy that your DH can then pick up.

You have my sympathy. I had mastitis last year and it’s no fun at all. Do you have a pump? I found feeding as much as possible and then pumping them as empty as I could helped a little, but might be difficult if you have a very young baby.

Hoping you feel better soon.

I was really ill and in hospital for a month and still had to shower everyday. The nurses were so lovely and had a chair in their for me to sit on and one always hovered at the door and helped me a good few times to wash my hair when I was too weak to do it.

Those nurses will always have a special place in my heart for being so very kind to me.

OP if you have a temperature with mastitis you need to get antibiotics ASAP. The infection won’t go away with just home remedies once a temperature sets in. x

They sound brilliant @Iyland. Glad they took care of you.

I abandon everything when I'm ill and then sigh at the amount of work to do when I get better. Wash wash wash tidy etc.

Absolutely not! When I've had tonsillitis I have greasy mangled hair and there's not a chance I'm getring in the bath when I have the shivers etc, only when I start to feel better will I have a bath etc to try and make myself feel refreshed

I think it was mostly for my own peace of mind that the kids would see me looking semi normal.

I couldn't have done it without the nurses help on many occasions and I also had my husband come in and help a more than a few times. It felt like a small victory in an otherwise uncertain time so I was really focused on it. Seems a bit daft looking back but it helped me through a little each day.

Yanbu

I've had flu and didn't have the strength to crawl out of bed for a couple of days

Same with a stomach.bug.

I've had a migraine today..just coming out of it..but ill shower in the morning.

People smell funny when they’re ill. A little bath every 48 hrs through flu is a nice way of tracking getting better.

Washing would be insane if you’re too wobbly to negotiate the bathroom. Wipes, if that.

The bliss of clean sheets kicks off recovery like nothing else for me.

Wet wipes if you smell, or just nice to wipe your face. Hope you soon feel better

If I've got a high temp then no.