Thursday, June 12, 2008

Stuck in the Tub

Yesterday something funny, yet very embarrassing happened. I woke up with stiff shoulders, fingers and knees. Getting out of bed was a challenge! My body craved the warmth of hot water. I felt a little nauseated and feared I wouldn't be able to stand in the shower without passing out but knew I was going to have a difficult time getting out of the tub. I decided to go with the tub. The warm water felt great on my achy, swollen joints but the time came to get out. Since I was the only one awake, I knew I was fine moaning and groaning as I made my way out of the tub. Only, I couldn't pull myself out of the tub. This was the ultimate in embarrassment. I tried sitting in different positions, moving my body around in the tub, etc but I just couldn't pull myself up without slipping. Then I got this brillant idea. I called for our dog Izzy. She came into the bathroom right away. I said, "Izzy, go wake up Sophia." She ran right into the bedroom and started her morning ritual of licking Sophia's face. As soon as I heard her moving around, I called for her. She came in and tried pulling me up. Unfortunately her 75 pound body wasn't able to pull my 120 pound body up. So, she woke up Alexander and together they tried pulling me up. The problem was the places they were holding onto were so painful that they couldn't get a get good grip on me. At this point I was crying hard and felt totally humilited. Then something must of hit a funny bone because in an instant everything seemed funny. I started laughing which made the kids laugh. As I am sitting in the tub naked, we were making jokes about how funny this would be as a SNL skit or wouldn't it be funny if we had to call 911 and the ambulance and fire department showed up. That would be an interesting one to tell the neighbors. "Uh, yeah, I was stuck in the bathtub and had to have emergency help to be pulled out."

I think it must have been the laughter that finally gave us the energy to get me out of the tub. The rest of the day we would just giggle at each other thinking about me sitting in the tub not able to get out.

5 comments:

  1. Your so funny! I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time but I'm so glad you didn't let it get you down! I hope your feeling better!! Love you!

    Sherry

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  2. My dad called to tell me that he too was stuck in the tub recently. I said, "It is sad to be having the same problems as your 68-69 year old father." I also found this interesting piece of information:
    President William Howard Taft got stuck in his bathtub on his Inauguration Day and had to be pried out by his attendants. He was over 300 pounds

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  3. I have never been stuck in a tub, but I have had pain in my legs and feet so bad that I had to take pain relievers just to get to sleep. When I went gluten free, the pain in my legs and feet went away.

    I know not everyone is gluten intolerant, but it might just be worth a try to eliminate gluten from your diet for a couple of weeks to see if it helps.

    email me for more info if you are interested in this.

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  4. Hi Karen,
    I have been gluten and dairy free for almost four years. When I originally went gf/df, I had amazing results that stayed with me until around Christmas of this year when the symptoms returned. So, we are digging deeper to find the cause.
    Thanks for reading my blog.
    Cathy

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  5. Oh, I am smiling with tears in my eyes because at the beginning of my RA I often would climb into the bathtub in the mornings and then have a very hard time getting out, and a couple of times I really thought I might be stuck.
    It is good to think of those things with a light heart, it is kind of funny.
    Also, I remember the feeling of having to fully wake up just to roll over, and not being able to clutch my bedspread to spread it over myself, or being able to sleep with my legs bent. Remembering that makes me feel good at how far I have come.
    By the way, I bought a Tempupedic bed, and that was the best investment for this RA body. I sleep so much better on it.
    :-)

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