The Day I Decided..

There comes a day in everybody's life, when they simply have to admit, that while their brain still functions twenty miles per hour faster than their body can work, the body is simply getting older.

Today was that day. I asked my husband to install a stabilizer bar in the tub. I am very unsteady in there on two feet, let alone one (because I scrub my feets there), and I have nothing but a slick wall to steady myself. I'm getting a little arthritic in my back, and have to steady myself to slip my toes into the pants--now, I know that I could sit down on the bed to do that part, and I do, but you can't do that when you're taking a shower. If I should fall, and I do expect that to happen at some point, I would not be able to raise myself up.

I do fear a broken hip may be in my future, and I would like to avoid it if possible.

My husband's answer is a bath matt. Well, for those of us who have cleaned bathmats (and I'm quite sure he's NEVER so much as PEEKED under one), we know that while they might steady the feet, they still don't steady the upper part of the body. And you cannot get those sticky flowers, butterflies and other manner of things people stick to the bottom of tubs to keep you from slipping and falling on your collective, UP and OUT when you no longer want that kind of decoration, or they start to deteriorate, fade and no longer look, well--decorative.

My husband says "no" to stabilizer bar. He doesn't get that there really is a need here. I am no longer 26. Or 30, or even 40, and while I am not 60 or 80, I would feel much safer if I had something to hang onto while I wash my feet. So maybe I will buy something to sit on in the shower, so that at least I can sit down to wash the last of me. Maybe a chair in the shower. His BarquaLounger sounds like a good idea, though I don't think it would fit. My mother has a stainless and plastic stool she keeps in her shower. Of course, it takes up LOTS more room than a stabilizer bar, and maybe that's my answer. Threaten a stool in the shower if he doesn't provide a stabilizer bar. A stool that he would have to take out if he should desire to shower. It's a thought.

In the meanwhile, I sit down to put my pants on. I'll have to work on HIM the shower end of it.