There are times when we are unsure if one of our residents needs to change their clothes because they had an accident. A few months ago, I had quite the perplexing situation with one of our men, whom I’ll call Dr. Singer.
During our mornings, we hold our Sit and Be Fit exercise activity around 11am, just before lunch. As we began, I noticed a very small puddle underneath Dr. Singer’s wheelchair. I wasn’t quite sure how it got there, was it from him, or did someone spill a little water? I decided to go over and whisper in his ear that I could escort him to the restroom if he needed to use it. He quietly obliged and nodded his head towards the door, not wanting to make a big scene.
I walk him through the door and about twenty feet to the nearest restroom. He can walk short distances, so I locked his chair and helped him stand up. I then held the restroom door open and told him I’d wait outside. He’s always very jovial, and started to sing to himself as he walked inside. As the door closed, I turned around and couldn’t believe what I saw in the hall.
All the way from the activity room down to where I was standing I saw a trail of tiny puddles. I knew I had about five minutes before Dr. Singer would be finished in the restroom, so I tried to bend toward the ground to see if it was indeed what I suspected it was. It was a pretty clear liquid, but I was almost certain it was urine. Oh boy, I thought, I’m going to have to help him change his outfit when he’s finished!
I patiently waited by the restroom door for him to walk out, trying to plan in my head the best way to ask him to change. As he opened the door, I immediately tried inspecting the front of his pants. I couldn’t believe it, they were as dry as the desert! I asked him, “Do your clothes feel wet, at all?” He said, “Nooo, everything’s fine!” I checked the back of his pants, and down to his shoes, but everything was dry.
I decided to wheel him back to the activity room, over the trail of tiny puddles. What was going on? As he seemed fine, I quickly got a mop to sanitize the floor and tried to figure it all out. There were puddles everywhere, more than I noticed before! How could he have gotten the floor all wet and be completely dry?
And then I remembered. Dr. Singer was a very well-dressed man. He probably spent more on his wardrobe than I could afford for mine. Now, there aren’t very many breakthroughs in men’s business clothes, but I vaguely remembered a commercial where a man poured a cup of coffee into his kahkis and then from his khakis back into his cup. When the coffee returned, the pants were dry. They were treated with some sort of chemical that resisted liquids.
And there I had my answer. Dr. Singer didn’t have magical mystery pants, they were just the latest and greatest. Nice pants.
-Justin Zarb ADPC
Image by Robert S. Donovan
