Sharing whether you use deodorant and how often you bathe seems to be the topic getting a lot of attention in the social media world today.  My news feed has had the stories of some of the male heartthrobs and how often they shower and whether they use hot water has been a topic that fills the gap between the stories about who is going to host Jeopardy.

I see posts in COPD360social about how to shower and not feel totally short of breath.  You can click the link and insert shower into the search box.  My friend Ed has some very good advice about how to make the shower more pleasant.

I have always preferred the bath to a shower.  I have posted about the ideal bath to relax in COPD360social as well.  I have another secret that I have not shared until now and that is that I do not run a bath every day.  Do I bathe?  Yes.

When I was growing up on a dairy farm in rural WV, we did not have electric service.  The closest service was probably 50 or so miles away.  For my first year in school, my mother heated water on the stove and I took a bath every evening in a tub.  By the time I was in the second grade, my mother had discovered that there was a better way than giving me a bath every evening.  She would pour some hot water into a washbasin and add cold water so that it was suitable for a sponge bath.  With a sponge bath, you bathed everything, you just used less water and added less work for my mother. 

I have taken the sponge bath to another level.  My sponge bath required even less water and included essential oils and oil that is absorbed by the skin.  I use sesame seed oil either from CVS or Nivea combined with lavender essential oil and baby oil.  I mix the sesame seed oil and baby oil approximately half and half and add enough lavender oil to give my skin a nice fragrance.  I got the idea from my mother and the doctor who delivered me.  The doctor told my mother that I was thin-skinned and that she should not bathe me in water for the first few months of my life.

Fast forward to age 60+ and the thing with the skin thinning and bruising easily had me concerned especially since I was on an inhaled corticosteroid.  Add to that the difficulty in having enough energy at the end of the day to do all of the shower and bathing thing.  I remembered my mother telling me what the doctor had told her when I was born and adopted the oil bathing routine.  I moisten the washcloth prior to adding the oil.  I rinse the washcloth under the faucet in the lavatory frequently so that I am not just moving the dirt and dead skin cells from one place to another.

I hope that this is of help to someone.  I might add that I do not get the blood blisters than many people far younger than myself get.  My take on it is that these come from the skin being so thin which makes the vessels much more easily ruptured.  I have also remained active which I think also helps.