Dan had the first REALLY BAD bowel mess this evening. He's had a few others, but not like this one! It was everywhere...poor guy, all he kept saying was "Lord, help me". I had to repeatedly talk him through what to do, what to remove, where to put it (some went in a plastic bag to the garbage can!). Finally got him into the shower & while he was doing that (with my surveillance), I cleaned things up - the floor, the toilet inside & outside. The floor by far got the worst of it. I just wonder what recommendations there are for mops, cloths, etc. My twisting rag mop is now history (the twisty part didn't work anymore anyway). Do you use a rag type mop, a sponge mop, some kind of disposable mop or mop heads. I can't imagine buying a new mop every week or more. Also what kind of gloves do you use? Fortunately I had a pair of household rubber gloves, but they are being tossed.
I'm glad his slippers are washable & that he has two pair! If this keeps happening, I know I'll have to start the "new kind" of undies, but so far, it hasn't been much of a problem.
My head is just swimming right now. I took an anxiety pill & am beginning to calm. Dan was shaking all over, saying he was cold. I told him it was just his nerves reacting to an unusual occurrence. But now he's clean, in his jammies & in the recliner, feeling better. Honestly, I think maybe he already has no memory of what happened....wow, so hard to imagine.
I can relate so well to your clean-up problems But all I can do is to tell you what helped me. .........When these clean-up problems first hit me, it was very stressful. It took me awhile but I found that if I could just think of this as if I was cleaning up food...... like spilled soup or potatoes or whatever......It was no big deal.......It wasn't anything poisonous......I didn't even were gloves and I learned to ignore the odder. .............Below is one of my first contributions to this site.
________________________________________________________ ...........POOP STORY Nov. 2011
I 've been reading the posts about poop, thinking my time for this may be coming soon. Well, it happened sooner than I expected, and worse than I expected. So naturally I have to tell you all about it, and just possibly some of you can avoid it . Since my Dear Helen never flushes the toilet, I'm aware of how often she does number2 (I prefer to call it number2), which is usually every 2nd day, sometimes, every 3rd day....The longer between, the more there is. We've had a few accidents with this but nothing really bad. I had the depends ready but had never used them.
Well, today was the 3rd day and I was expecting it. When we went to bed last night the depends idea crossed my mind but since she had never messed up the bed and if she starts to get out of the bed, I always wake up and guide her to the bathroom and help her to the toilet... This morning, I got up and went to the bathroom and when I went back to the bedroom, she was not there. I knew immediately that I had made a big mistake. I went into the hallway and there it was....A trail of number2 all the way down the hallway into the family room, and footprints thru the family room into the kitchen....Puddles of number1 thru the kitchen and into the service porch where she was standing in a puddle and looking very pitiful and confused. I felt so sorry for her and turned my attention to comforting her. Her legs and feet were a mess. (I should say that we were both nude cause that's the way we always slept) I got her into a nearby bathroom and cleaned her up the best I could, then tried to get her to sit down somewhere out of the way so I could clean up the mess on the floor. This was difficult. She acted like she wanted to help me.
After scraping up the number2 off the Berber carpet and scrubbing the spots with hot soapy water and laying down newspaper on the linoleum to soak up the number1, I was quite proud of myself. Within one hour and fourty-five minutes everything was back to normal, but a big surprise was yet to come.
I sat down with my dear for a little rest, then proceeded to prepare breakfast. When I opened the refrigerator I was shocked to see a huge glob of number2 in the bowl of sliced peaches..... What can I say ?....I think she was just trying to help clean up the mess while I was busy and not paying attention to her.
I have to blame myself for this whole episode. I've learned so much from this site, but I can still make big mistakes... To look at the good side of something like this, I will probably not let it happen again, and if it does, I will be able to deal with it better. Maybe an hour and thirty minutes ??
Mim, I think it's time for the disposable briefs so you both won't be caught off guard should it happen again. Also, it will give your husband time to adjust to having different type of underwear on. My DH HATED the disposables and would tear them off as soon as I put them on. I think it took almost 1 year before he actually adjusted to wearing them and even now he will sometimes try to rip them off.
As for cleaning tools and mops, I've never had to use them so I can't really guide you.
Mim, I would definitely get a box of gloves--just go to whatever pharmacy you use--and say you need a box of "clean" (i.e. not sterile) vinyl gloves.They usually come with 100 in the box. I even think the Giant Eagle has some with their incontinent supplies. I still have mine, and use them for all kinds of routine chores...so they do come in handy for other things. In terms of the floor (or for whatever he poops on), I would use all disposable stuff. Paper towels, of course--I would buy them in bulk--just ask the store to sell you a case...or order them from Amazon. And sponges work well, but hold a lot of bacteria, so I would say just bite the bullet and buy some (Aldi's or the dollar store), and throw them out after you've used them for Number 1 or 2. And have a good supply of plastic grocery bags. When you're cleaning, just throw all the soiled stuff in there...gloves last...knot the top, and throw the bag out in your big trash cans...get the smell out of the house. Once I had cleaned up the floor with my sponges or paper towels, I just used a regular rag mop, with my gloves on of course, so I could just squeeze the mop with my hands. I liked to use vinegar to get rid of the Number 1 odor--in my opinion, it's the only thing that works--but the private-pay aide liked Mr. Clean, so I got her some of that. I'll admit to just throwing out soiled underwear...I hated rinsing it out and washing it well by hand and then putting it in the washer. Even though I washed his clothing separately from mine, I couldn't stand the thought of putting my clothes in the washer where poop clothes had been washed. (Much too finicky I suppose--money doesn't grow on trees...but I just threw out his soiled underwear till he didn't have any left, and then I went to disposables.)