tips on bathing

[jambo101]

 One week into dialysis and due to mobility issues im having a tough time with this sponge bath routine, any tips would be appreciated.

thanks

[Cupcake]

I had the good fortune/luck to redo my bath prior to knee surgery-walk in shower with bench, grab bars and hand held shower head. Made it so easy when I had to keep things dry after PD catheter placement, transplant, etc.

At the very minimum a hand held shower head is easy to install. Don't know how I ever lived without one. Easy to completely rinse the nether regions without getting everything else wet. Europeans have bidets-they are on to something.

Best of luck

[GA_DAWG]

Agree completely about the removable shower head for washing the bottom half. It makes it seem more like you are actually getting clean.

[Rerun]

Never reuse your towel.  Why do people do that? 

 

[Simon Dog]

Use a Korshield so you can shower (removable head helps)

Take your shower head off once a week or so and soak it in a 10% solution of household bleach for 15 minutes or so.   Bacteria can set up shop in there.  This was part of standard protocol back when I was on home PD.

[rcjordan]

My cath is on my upper right chest, had it for 11 months now.  I cut off a cheap, $1 poncho so it draped just below the area and reinforced the armpits with packing tape.  It's made of saran wrap, so it is thin enough that I can pull the hood back and pinch it tight enough to form a good seal around my neck while I wash my hair.  If the dressing gets damp from humidity (I love loooooong, hot showers), I splash it with alcohol.  Works ok.

Simon Dog's Korshield is the official version, heh, but works much the same.

[jambo101]

Use a Korshield so you can shower (removable head helps)

That looks like it will work.. i'll order one tomorrow,  thanks for the tip.

[Simon Dog]

The rubber seal on my Korshield came partially unglued.  The supplier sent another one out the day I called and did not wait for a return of the old one first or demand a credit care number.  Good people to deal with.

Never reuse your towel.  Why do people do that? 

I only change towels when I do weekly laundry.   But then, I dry off by putting on a terry cloth bathrobe insead of towelling down.

[Charlie B53]

When I was little Gramma taught me to wipe down with the wash cloth repeatedly wringing it out so as to dry off most all of the water from bathing.  Then grab the towel, dry my back underarms, crotch, back of knees and between my toes.  Most all of the rest of the exposed skin has already air dried by then so the towel is hardly damped at all.  Then I dry my hair and hang the towel for tomorrow.

It's surprising just how much water I keep wringing out of that wash cloth.  I can't imagine soaking a towel drying off.

60 some years I can't imagine doing it any other way.

[jambo101]

tried modifying a rain suit to make showering possible... epic fail as water seemed to get through the rain coat a thoroughly drench the catheter

[Riki]

My mom bought a hairdressing cape and she would wash my hair in the sink.  There was no f-n way I was going to get an infection in that line.  I was so glad to be rid of it.

The PD cath was different.  My dressing wasn't sterile, so it didn't matter if I got it wet or not.  I just had to dry it with a clean, dry face cloth before putting a new dressing on.

[Charlie B53]

My PD Cath was tunneled and the exit site was high on my chest.  My Team didn't have any problem with the actual site getting wet and soapy being washed, they just didn't want the connecting fitting/valve getting wet at all.

I was taught to carefully wrap the fitting and a few inches up the  line with Press and Seal, the kitchen clingy wrap.  Far stickier than mere Handy Wrap.

My cath was long enough I would carefully fold it over holding the connector alongside the hose so there was a loop of hose on the bottom.  Taking a food one foot length of Press and Seal lay the loop and section of hose about a third way into the material and also about a quarter way up from the end of the material.  Enough so that I could fold the material up and over the end of the hose/loop, then begin wrapping the material around the cathe tightly, spiraling up alongside the hose so get to a nice water tight seal.

I could stand under the shower and not worry about any water getting anywhere near that valve.  Wash my exit site, rinse, then wash the exit site again using an antibacterial soap.

I don't normally use antibacterial anywhere else, only those small areas that I want to be sure to prevent possibility of infection.  Like maybe my hands if I have any slight injury.  Otherwise it stays on the shelf until I need it.

Now when I had my Hemo Cath into the major blood vessel, that was a whole different story.  I NEVER got that wet.  It stayed bandaged and only the Nurses cleaned that every treatment when they changed the covering bandaging.

[UkrainianTracksuit]

Not really sure what else to suggest here as it has all been done; especially with mobility issues.

If sponge bathing is difficult, I wouldn't suggest sitting a bathtub with waist level water and washing downtown and then uptown (arm pits and such) with a wash-cloth.

After I got out of ICU, and still had a catheter, I used to fill a sink up with water, and stand there, wash downtown and uptown, and was done in a few minutes. I was still weak, so I had someone (my husband) wash my arms, legs and back. Perhaps, if it is not too embarrassing or you have someone, a care partner could help. Man, I'm so used to people bathing me in various stages of nudity that it doesn't bother me anymore. You are probably very far off from the situation from my grandfather (war vet with BAD mobility), but we had a PSW come in and bathe him 3x a week, prior to dialysis. When he felt stable, someone would "watch but not aid him" as he did bird baths at the sink on the weekend.

Korshield, or even plastic wrap with that waterproof gauze, and an adjustable shower-head allows the most intense clean.

I have very long hair so my husband or mother washed it in the sink for me. Wrapped a dry towel around my neck to protect the catheter and that got it only a little bit superficially damp. Tegederm is pretty good for that: the water bubbled on it.

I've heard people use ponchos (as mentioned here) and others swear by shower shirts. No experience with the shirts but any sort of "moveable" coverage, such as a loose poncho, proved disastrous (meaning I got wet, but no infection). But that's just me...

[Kathymac2]

I am training for PD. My training nurse said to use antibacterial body wash in the shower. For those who have a peritoneal catheter, what brand of antibacterial body wash can you recommend? I bought what was advertised as Dial antibacterial body wash on Amazon, but when it arrived, the label does not say antibacterial.

[Marilee]

My hubby (PD catheter at belly button) keeps his exit site out of the water in the shower with a hand shower that he can control while sitting down. To clean the exit site, he doesn't use soap (because it can irritate - even the sensitive skin ones) so instead we use saline wound wash and cotton gauze there.

So far that is working well and without issue.

[Riki]

I am training for PD. My training nurse said to use antibacterial body wash in the shower. For those who have a peritoneal catheter, what brand of antibacterial body wash can you recommend? I bought what was advertised as Dial antibacterial body wash on Amazon, but when it arrived, the label does not say antibacterial.

I just used the store brand antibacterial hand soap.  I didn't take the dressing off to wash the exit site until after I'd finished washing everything else.  I'd wash the exit site with the antibacterial hand soap and a clean wash cloth, then rinse and get out of the shower.  First thing I did once I was out was dry the exit site with a dry wash cloth and put a new dressing on.   Once that was done, I'd continue with my regular routine.

[Kathymac2]

Thank you Marilee and Riki.