03 The One You Can't Provoke
The parking lot in Aunt Xu’s community is full.
Xiao Ma Ge parked the car on the side of the road, opened the trunk and took out the bathing equipment: a split bathtub and a stretcher, plus a black tool bag as big as a travel bag, which contained medical accessories and toiletries.
They put everything on a small cart and three people pushed it into the community.
They were greeted by Aunt Xu's daughter, who wore a pair of tortoise-shell glasses, had light makeup on her face, and exuded a gentle and elegant demeanor.
"I spent the whole morning cleaning up. I moved the coffee table to the kitchen and the cabinets to my room, and finally I made a space in the living room. Do you think it's big enough?"
She said as she led them into the living room.
"That's enough!" Xiao Ma Ge started to assemble the bathtub without saying a word.
Zhang Chenling and Ni Yue followed Aunt Xu's daughter to the master bedroom.
I saw an old man with a white bun half leaning on the bed. His light yellow pajamas were very loose, and he looked very thin as he was hunched over inside.
When she heard someone walking into the room, she didn't react at all. She was still staring out the window in a daze. Even the fine strands of hair on her temples seemed to be fixed with glue, not moving at all.
Ni Yue looked around and saw several award certificates and photos hanging on the wall opposite the bed. The frames had turned yellow, but the golden characters on them were still eye-catching and dazzling: "Outstanding Young Teacher of Shanghai Jiao Tong University", "Group Photo of Shanghai 'People's Educator' Award Winners", "Group Photo of Shanghai Professors Visiting the United States"... The dates can be traced back to the 1990s.
She exchanged a quick glance with her cousin, who also looked awed.
"Mom, Xiao Zhang and the others are here to help you take a bath!" Aunt Xu's daughter walked to the bed and called her.
Aunt Xu then turned around and glanced in their direction.
Ni Yue took a breath of cold air.
She had never seen such empty eyes, never seen a face without any emotion, sadness, joy, pain, hatred, curiosity... none of these.
Aunt Xu is like a grayish-white clay figure, without a soul at all.
"She's been in a particularly bad state lately." Her daughter turned to the two sisters and whispered.
Zhang Chenling smiled and stepped forward to greet him, "Aunt Xu, we're here to help you bathe!"
Aunt Xu turned her head away from her and muttered, "No, taking a bath is hard!"
"Auntie Xu, we'll help you take a bath, so you don't have to work so hard. Our big bathtub is very flexible, and I guarantee you'll be incredibly comfortable lying in it!"
Zhang Chenling has lived in Shanghai for nearly 20 years and can speak some poor Shanghainese, but the words she speaks most fluently are "戆度" and "脑哇特了".
"What can we do if we can't move?" Aunt Xu forced out another sentence.
"Don't move, they are helping you throughout the whole process, just cooperate with them!" Aunt Xu's daughter advised.
"Whatever." Aunt Xu lowered her eyelids and did not express her opinion.
Her eyelids felt like they weighed hundreds of pounds.
Before helping bathe, some simple body indicators need to be measured. Zhang Chenling took out a thermometer, blood pressure monitor, blood glucose meter, and blood oximeter from the tool kit and measured Aunt Xu one by one.
"Hypertension 145, diastolic pressure 82, blood oxygen 95... Aunt Xu, your physical indicators are quite good!"
Zhang Chenling gave a thumbs-up while taking the test, but Aunt Xu still looked cold and indifferent.
Ni Yue wrote down the numbers one by one.
Finally, we helped Aunt Xu take off her pajamas, covered her with an oversized bath towel, and with the help of Xiao Ma Ge, carried her to the living room on a stretcher.
In the center of the living room, the split bathtub has been assembled and placed on a waterproof mat. It is filled with water, in which a nylon bath bed, Chinese herbal bath bags, and a waterproof thermometer float.
Several people carefully placed Aunt Xu's body on the bathtub and slowly immersed her in the water.
"Oh!" A comfortable sigh came from deep in her chest.
Just as her body relaxed, she caught a glimpse of Xiao Ma Ge approaching from the corner of her eye, and she suddenly became nervous again, her two tree-branch-like hands flapping around violently.
The water splashed everywhere.
It splashed on Ni Yue's face and even got into her mouth. Her mouth was instantly filled with the taste of Chinese herbal medicine. She couldn't help but exclaim "Wow".
Zhang Chenling understood what Aunt Xu was worried about and quickly held her hand. "Don't worry, Auntie. We'll be covered with towels the entire time during the bath so we don't expose your privacy. This guy is also my colleague. Can we let him help wash your hair?"
After hearing this, Aunt Xu regained her composure, raised her eyelids, and said the same thing: "Whatever."
The three people each have their own responsibilities.
Xiao Ma Ge used an extended shower head to wet Aunt Xu's hair. Her hair was thin and soft, not even as thick as her little finger when pinched in her hand. He finished washing it quickly, then wrapped her head with a quick-drying towel and gently massaged it with his fingertips.
The whole set of operations was extremely delicate and gentle. Ni Yue glanced in his direction from time to time, secretly sighing that no matter how tough a man was, his charm would increase sharply once he started taking care of others.
Turning his gaze to his cousin who was sitting opposite him, he saw that she was gently scrubbing Aunt Xu's wrinkled arms with a soft bath towel.
Grayish-white strips of mud kept falling into the bathtub with a crackling sound.
This scene made Ni Yue feel mixed emotions.
The cousin who used to be a domineering boss and could call the shots is now helping old ladies to scrub their backs. In the eyes of her cousin, there is probably only loneliness.
She sighed silently, lowered her head and concentrated on her work.
The task assigned to Ni Yue this time was simple, but essential: using a ladle, he repeatedly poured water from the bathtub over Aunt Xu to keep the floating parts warm. Meanwhile, he constantly monitored the thermometer to ensure the water temperature remained between 38 and 40 degrees Celsius.
Aunt Xu's cheeks slowly turned red.
She kept her eyes half closed until the bath was almost over, then she slowly opened them.
He didn't look at Zhang Chenling, Ni Yue, or even Xiao Ma Ge. Instead, he stared at the ceiling and said slowly, "Thank you."
Back in the bedroom, Zhang Chenling helped Aunt Xu apply body lotion, gently massaging it in. She then changed into the clean, light yellow pajamas her daughter had prepared. Finally, she trimmed her nails briefly, measured her body parameters again, and recorded them.
Aunt Xu's daughter was so happy to see her mother looking clean and refreshed after taking a bath. While the two sisters were packing their tool kits, she chatted with them about family matters.
"When my mother was young, she was known for her love of cleanliness and dressing up. She loved light yellow the most and would wear it all day long while teaching students in a light yellow shirt and dress... She had a light yellow cashmere coat that she had someone buy from abroad. It had been hanging in her closet for years, and she was reluctant to wear it..."
As she spoke, Aunt Xu's daughter choked up.
Before leaving, Ni Yue looked back at Aunt Xu.
She was still leaning against the head of the bed, staring out the window, just like when they first came in.
I can imagine her standing on the podium, full of energy and confidence. Her daughter is almost a replica of her.
But now, she had completely lost her luster. Her eyes were like two black holes, devoid of light and unable to focus. Her expression was dull, and aside from occasional nervousness, she possessed almost no emotion. Her skin was dry and thin, as fragile as paper, covered in age spots and with barely discernible blood vessels.
She was like a dried-up salted fish. Even with the nourishment of water, her numb soul could not be awakened.
So this is what depression is like in the elderly: the mind and body are both worn out at the same pace. Rather than calling it depression, it's more like waiting for death...
Ni Yue is a literary young woman who likes to read novels and hang out on Douban all day long. She also has the habit of recording her life insights in words.
When she got home in the evening, she sat down at the dining table without even drinking a sip of water and wrote this text in the memo on her mobile phone.
After typing a few ellipsis, she let out a long sigh.
"What are you doing, sighing?"
Zhang Chenling was sitting opposite her, typing on a laptop. When she heard the sigh, she couldn't help but frown.
Ni Yue didn't answer, but came over to look at Zhang Chenling's computer.
It turned out that my cousin was updating an Excel spreadsheet - the customer data sheet of "Shangshan Ruoshui".
This is a habit Zhang Chenling developed after working in housekeeping for several years: establishing complete customer files to facilitate scientific management and after-sales follow-up in the future.
The content includes: basic information such as the client's name, gender, age, as well as the reason for being unable to take care of themselves, the severity of the disease, whether they are taking medication, whether they are incontinent, whether they have children or a babysitter, and the date and frequency of bathing assistance services, etc.
A lot of this information needs to be roughly understood before the customer places an order, and then completed after the service is completed.
Each customer is a row of boxes, marked with Arabic numerals and different colors.
Aunt Xu's line is light yellow. Her daughter said that this is her favorite color.
Ni Yue's nose felt sore, and the softest part of his heart was touched again.
Zhang Chenling noticed her temper brewing from time to time and joked, "That's really strange! Just now in the car, someone was chatting happily with Xiao Ma, but why did their mood turn sour as soon as they got home? What's wrong? Didn't they chat enough with Xiao Ma?"
Ni Yue wrinkled his nose. "Oh, please! Brother Xiao Ma is not my type... He's too old!"
"Don't be so slanderous!" Zhang Chenling chuckled. "Brother Xiao Ma is younger than me! And he was also a handsome young man a few years ago!"
"...The threshold for young handsome men is a bit too low!" Ni Yue muttered softly, his mood still low.
Seeing this, Zhang Chenling reached out and put her arm around her. "Hey, you, stop being so emotional. Today's service went smoothly. If you had a difficult client and pooped in the bathtub, I guarantee you'd be crying and telling me you don't want to do this anymore!"
"You got it right!" Ni Yue's eyes were cunning and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
She is indeed most afraid of shit, pee and fart.
But who isn’t afraid?
Zhang Chenling shared the form in the Shangshanruoshui group. "Please check if you have anything to add and edit it directly. If I get busy in the future, I'll let you do the paperwork!"
Ni Yue said "oh" and got up to find something to drink in the refrigerator.
I would like to ask
Is it true that descendants cannot shoot on weekdays?
Why can't Nuwa make up for Sunday?
Can Yugong
Move Wednesday aside quickly.
Dayu, please can you fix my salary first...
Just as she opened the refrigerator door, she heard her WeChat ringtone. She stretched her neck and looked at the phone on the table.
——The one you can't mess with
He immediately rolled his eyes and didn't want to answer.
Zhang Chenling was busy checking WeChat when she heard the funny ringtone on her phone. She couldn't help but glance at it, "Huh! Who's that person I can't afford to offend?"
"Who else could it be?" Ni Yue said as he opened a bottle of soda water, gulped down a few gulps, and immediately burped loudly.
Then he spat out five words: "Your Aunt Wu!"
*Some scientific knowledge about bathing aids:
equipment:
There are mainly inflatable bathtubs, split bathtubs, and bath chairs, etc. The former two are more suitable for the elderly who have poor self-care ability and can only take a bath instead of sitting in the shower.
Zhang Chenling's team uses a two-piece bathtub that, once assembled, resembles a traditional bathtub. The tub's head is supported to facilitate hair washing for the elderly. The tub also features a suspended bath bed (made of nylon, similar to a hammock) to prevent the elderly from slipping and drowning while bathing. The bed also allows the elderly to partially float above the water, preventing complete immersion and discomfort.
The bathtub is equipped with two water pipes: an inlet pipe and an outlet pipe, which are connected to the shower and drainage facilities in the customer's home to ensure that hot water comes in and dirty water goes out during bathing.
Standard operating procedures:
Each bathing session is usually completed by three bathing assistants working together.
1. Before assisting with bathing, sign a service agreement with the client's family, including a waiver of liability clause. Learn more about the client's physical condition, medical history, and personal preferences, and measure and record basic physical parameters. Provide haircuts and shaving services to clients who require them.
2. During the assisted bathing process, three bath assistants are responsible for washing the face and hair, scrubbing the body, and applying water to maintain body temperature. If shampooing is not necessary, two bath assistants will be responsible for scrubbing the body. The bath towel is always covered to protect the patient's privacy. The bath assistant in charge of scrubbing the body usually scrubs the patient's limbs first, then scrubs the torso and private areas under the towel, and finally turns the patient over to scrub the back and buttocks. During the assisted bathing process, the thermometer should be monitored to ensure the water temperature is between 38-40 degrees Celsius. The patient's reactions should be monitored at all times, and frequent communication and emotional support should be provided.
3. After the bathing is completed, help the elderly dry their body, apply body lotion, blow dry their hair, trim their nails, change into pajamas, make the bed, and measure and record the elderly’s physical indicators again.
4. Drain the water, remove the bathtub, and perform a simple cleaning and disinfection. Make an appointment for the next bathing assistance service.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
