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A Delicate Matter

Every day I'm alive I'm forced to deal with elimination. The past few years, my reality has been that I'm unable to use the bathroom by myself. ALS has left me paralyzed, a quadriplegic, unable to attend to any of life's most basic necessities.

Prior to coming to the nursing home situation, my husband was my caregiver and aided me with such matters. Too bad his first wife passed on before I became incapacitated. I am certain that she would have been gratified to learn that he was forced to assist me clean and change following unfortunate incidents. I heard that he did not do his fair share of diaper changes. Karma?

In my wildest imaginings, I never thought that I would be naked and vulnerable with gay men, lesbians, transgenders, and straight men and women attending to my bits. I've been attended to by Christians, Buddhists, agnostics, Jews, and Muslims and I've had very good care by all. I think one of the best aspects of becoming disabled and entering nursing care, is how my world opened up to other people, not people I sought out but people that God put into my path, to enrich me in other ways. I've met people from all over the world.

One of my favorite people is a young, happy, Somali, Muslim woman with whom I've had talks about her life and religion. Another favorite is a cuddle-worthy, anglo, gay man whom I share a love of photography and a warped sense of humor. The greatest compliment he paid me was an off-hand comment to another caregiver, She gets me. One of my most hilarious moments had to be getting my well-endowed bosoms into my bra by two gay men. Think about it.

Exposure of my delicates is still a challenge and not much fun. I am so fortunate to have such good people to make an awkward situation better.
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Location: 2720 E Madison St, Seattle, WA 98112, USA

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