Is hygiene a myth?
I just don't understand the whole hygiene thing, as MIL just will not allow anyone to interfere with any sort of personal care, either me, a carer or even the nurses when she was in hospital briefly.
She often develops infections in her belly button and under her breasts,I usually only find out about when I eventually manage to get her to change her underwear. There have even been occasions where this has got so bad it bleeds, but she insists that she doesn't feel it and I'm fussing over nothing.
I have seen the state of her fingernails where she obviously doesn't remember to wash her hands after passing a motion, and any suggestion by me is met with the utmost resistance, she's an adult not a child she doesn't need to be helped. I know this is a common problem with her as I have to clean up the toilet and the floor and the toilet roll etc etc several times a day. But oh no, she's not incontinent because she'd know if she was!!!!
I can't even get her to change her knickers regularly, and they are so hard to get clean when I eventually persuade her. The BO I can cope with, but several days of stained knickers are harder to escape the smell of!
My point is, to all intents and purposes she should have bubonic plague by now with her hygiene, but I think our elders are made of sterner stuff ( she's 90 this year)