Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Finally Granted Bathroom Privileges--a cause for celebration

I feel liberated!!  After an entire week of laying in a complete, horizontal position, I was finally granted a teeny, tiny little piece of emancipation!  Although it may seem trivial, this is actually quite a momentous occasion.  Imagine not being able to lift your legs out of bed for an entire week!  Imagine everything I have thus far described in what my experience has been like using a bed pan, constantly dependent on the nurses each and every time I have to use the bathroom!  Now, looking back five minutes in retrospect, using a bed pan wasn't even as bad as using a catheter, my first couple of days in the hospital .

So, it appears as though I have graduated from catheter, to bed pan, to now being able to emerge out of bed and walk the three steps to the bathroom.  I just had my first bathroom experience in a week and I can't even describe how euphoric I was--sometimes it really is the little things, or even not realizing how much we take for granted on a day-day basis.

As I gently eased my muscle-atrophied body off the bed, my legs wobbled, my head felt dizzy, I felt like a 90 year old woman!!  I even glanced at the nurses' station on my way to the bathroom--feeling as though I was breaking some rule or at any second my privileges would suddenly be reneged.  The nurse looked away, uninterested and I closed the bathroom door--my first privacy all week!  Relief!

I was even able to wash my hands, look in the mirror (not that I was so happy with my disheveled appearance) and use toilet paper instead of wipes!  This has opened up so many new possibilities--I can now drink all of the water I want without feeling guilty for calling the nurses in every twenty minutes, can stop at my min-fridge on my return trip from the bathroom, and don't have to worry about people constantly coming into the room while doing my business!

I would never have thought that I would be this happy over using the bathroom....but for now, I must go...have to pee again!

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