Thursday, October 23, 2014 

Rained this morning, but I walked Valentino before I left for market. I clean up his messes with an inverted plastic bag, a sort of glove. We keep a metal bucket for the bags and dispose of them on garbage pickup days. Today was one such day. So I was able to toss the poop bag into the bin. Evidence gone.

I had to run off to market where I helped out at the wine shop before mom awoke, so I wasn’t able to put her in the shower or help her through her ablutions. In a single day, I might go through 10 to 30 latex gloves for this task. But I was spared—at least early in the day.

I returned from market just in time to put up the soup for Rob’s supper. He picked up the organic produce at Rodale, and I prepared the soup from some of the bounty. Today, I made a Swiss chard soup with potato, onion, and garlic in a chicken stock. (Am having some of it now in my cup instead of evening tea. Delicious!) My purple rubber gloves from Williams Sonoma serve me well as I do the dishes.

Immediately after market and after putting on the soup, I drove off to meet my dear friend Carol. We meet at a local restaurant weekly to catch up on the news at market and share news of our families and to share pizza or a hoagie or better—ravioli or baked ziti. It was still drizzling tonight, and I was glad to be home before it rained heavily. Even though I wear latex or rubber gloves so much of the day, my hands felt rough. I was glad to be going home to get some hand lotion.

Rob met me in the kitchen to alert me that mom had had a bowel movement. He had already cleaned the bathroom and was washing the towels that mom had soiled. Mom herself was my responsibility. She was dozing in bed and watching “Family Feud”—none other. So I awoke her and told her that I needed to be sure she was clean. After donning my latex gloves, I tried wiping her clean with Baby Wipes. The wipes were not up to this task. So I put her in the shower and had to do a more thorough job of it with soap and paper towels. (I might have mentioned that I don’t use washcloths any more. They require handwashing in bleach, which quickly does them in, and then machine-washing separately in Lysol concentrate.) After quite a few minutes, all the while hoping that my latex gloves will hold up, mom was finally clean enough. A change of Depends and pajamas and mom was ready for bed again.

I peeled the latex gloves in proper fashion—putting one gloved finger under the cuff of the other and turning them inside out. Then I had to don the rubber gloves to wash the tub. I have learned that after washing mom, Clorox or some other heavy-duty cleaner and disinfectant is required to clean the tub and shower area.

I wash everything—except mom—in the hottest water. Even after I remove the gloves, my hands feel dry and rough. If it were not for my stash of lotions and ointments and creams (especially calendula), I don’t know what I would do. I need to purchase more latex gloves to prepare for what tomorrow will surely bring.