Where the Idea for SoSoak began

I have been an RN for 42 years. I have experience in Emergency Response, Med/Surg, Med/Peds, Psychiatry and Long Term Acute Care.

I can honestly say I’ve seen it all.

There are heartbreaks in healthcare. A stiff upper lip is mandatory. But that’s the nature of the job. You get used to it. But the heartbreak you never get used to are the ones that go on and on, day after day for the same patient. Just because we didn’t have the proper, quite simple piece of equipment to help them take care of their daily hygiene. It wasn’t rocket science; it was just ignored. By this point, most of these patients had lost most of their dignity. Why did we have to daily keep chipping away at what little they had left?

I used to apologize to my patients for the sub-par hygiene they were getting. Most of them were always gracious. In a way, that made me feel worse. They deserved better. So did I.

Let’s be honest, the people who design this assistive equipment don’t work in a medical facility or live their lives as a caregiver. We had to work with what was given to us. Which wasn’t much.

So, looking back over my career, I created SoSoak for:

• the 18 year old with a traumatic brain injury  who was afraid to bathe for sensory reasons. So afraid it was safer for his parents not to fight it. He ended up in the hospital with some of the worst skin breakdown I’d ever seen. His parents were devastated.
• the 32 year old with cerebral palsy who wanted to shower alone for the first time in his life.
• the old woman who didn’t want to “bother anyone” with the severe Incontinence Associated Dermatitis and skin breakdown she was hiding under her diaper. She spent most of her days quietly crying.
• the new mother so overwhelmed by her newborn and toddler, she forgot to take care of her own significant wounds.
• the child with a sensory disorder that made the shower spray feel like “pins and needles”.
• the patients suffering from pain in the anogenital region due to lack of proper hygiene. Physicians often call this type of pain “exquisite pain” for it’s sharp, unrelenting nature. Even strong pain medication doesn’t touch it.
• the caregivers who feel terrible about themselves because there is nothing quite like finding and leaving your patients in unnecessary pain and discomfort. And there is nothing you can do about it.
• the cancer patient going through the side effects of chemo therapy or pelvic radiation. Sometimes, the cure is as difficult as the disease itself.

Finally, I must add my own personal experience and motivation behind creating this chair.

Both my parents died of ALS many years ago. I took care of them at home initially by myself then with hospice (the best humans) at the end. Taking care of my parents by myself was difficult. That’s a huge understatement.

And I am a nurse. 

I remember trying to balance my mom on a flimsy shower chair as she fretted about me hurting myself. And my dad being so fiercely private and then so resigned to what was happening to him, he quit taking care of himself. And wouldn’t let me do it either.

I’ve thought about what it would have been like  if I had the soaking chair hooked up in their shower.

I could’ve safely sat them in the chair in the shower, turned on the faucet to fill the basin, shut the shower door and been right outside, chatting them up. 

We would have had nice conversations. 

Because soaking in a safe chair in the privacy of a shower would have done so much for them. Not only would they have been able to soak and cleanse their butts in peace, it would’ve given them a good portion of their privacy and dignity back. 

There is no surprise depression often accompanies old age and chronic ailments.

It’s virtually impossible to be happy when you’ve lost what little privacy and dignity you had left.

So this is why I created the SoSoak shower soaking chair.