Follow
Share

I woke up to the smell of poop in the air. I hoped it was just that grandma took a poop in her bedside commode. She generally uses the toilet for #2. When I got out of my room, grandma was sitting in the living room with bare feet. 99% of the time she wears slippers. I walked into her room where the stench of poop was coming from. It was like a s**t storm happened. She did take a poop in her bedside commode. Mostly in. About 40% out. Of course she stepped in it. It happened during the night at some point since she went back to sleep and proceeded to get poop all over the bed as well. I walked out to the living room and had a look at the bottom of her feet. Caked with poop. So the hallways were pooped all the way from her room to the living room. Time was I would have busted out the steam cleaner. I just can't be bothered any more. If the dog isn't sniffing, I let it go with a vacuum. Of course with the dedicated poop vacuum. I have 3 vacuums. The regular vacuum, the poop vacuum and the extreme poop vacuum. It's used within 3 feet of the commode, the poop vacuum for the rest of her room and the regular vacuum everywhere else. The poop and extreme poop vacuums are old style bagged ones. Bagless would be a disaster.


Luckily I have a office chair protector under her commode so that made clean up much easier. The vinyl is poop infused now though so will smell for the next few days. Plastic absorbs odors very well.


Took 3 hours to soak and clean off grandma's feet, vacuum, throwaway the sheets, wash the comforter and I used up a roll of paper towels and two 80 sheet bins of Clorox wipes.


Grandma disavows that it was her that did it. She claims two strangers came into her room and did it. While I was changing her diaper, I asked if those same strangers also did that. She didn't reply.

This discussion has been closed for comment. Start a New Discussion.
Find Care & Housing
You are amazing. I love that you asked grandma if the strangers dirtied her diaper, that is classic.

Vinegar sprayed directly onto a smelly object will kill the enzymes that cause the odor, as it dries the vinegar smell dissipates. You do need to saturate the plastic.

There is also a product called nok-out that is a great odor remover.

You deserve wings, God bless you for the love you give to grandma.

Gotta keep those strangers out of the house!🤣
(2)
Report

Hm, I can't see using a bagged vacuum, I would have thought a wet/dry shop vac would work better🤣
(1)
Report

I’m going to have nightmares over this thread. My son and I had to help my father in the bathroom at Christmas. That was enough for me to say I would not be taking him out of assisted living again. I cannot imagine cleaning up what you all have experienced.
(2)
Report

ROTHFLOL

A 3 vacuum solution! Hilarious.

Thanx for that. If you can’t find a way to laugh in this ‘business’ you are dead meat.
(3)
Report

God Bless You. You go way beyond the call of duty. You sound like a kind soul.
(1)
Report

I've cleaned up poop too. My mom had a blowout and got poop on the toilet seat and on the floor and of course in her diaper. She went all over the couch once too. It's not a pleasant thing to deal with.
(1)
Report

My wife used to get up during the night and “let fly.” I have a couple of those alert system units where if a beam is interrupted it triggers an alarm up to 400 feet away (it says). Well I put one on the floor on each side of the bed so when she got up in the night off they’d go. I set em on loud. I sleep in the next room. They’d lift me up about 2 feet. I’d land running. My prevention success rate was about 75%. Sometimes it’d be a couple weeks between disasters. 

I also occasionally set 1 or 2 aimed so they see her arising from her chair in the living room so I can work at my desk w/o jumping up every 3 minutes to check. Not only that they detect movement in a mirror so the sending unit can be set up around a corner or out of the way. Clever huh?

There’s various types and brands. Got mine at Harbor Freight.
(5)
Report

Wow, you're a saint. You are indeed a better woman than most! God bless you! Your grandmother is very lucky to have you.
(2)
Report

Good Lord, I think you deserve a medal for putting up with this situation and not getting Grandma placed in Assisted Living. You are a better woman than I, that's for sure!!!

Keep laughing, I guess, it's better than crying!
Best of luck to you!
(3)
Report

I found with Mom that coffee and apple juice did a number on her so I cut them out.
(1)
Report

Sorry Riverdale, I meant bathroom. I put the bowl high up, on top of the medicine cabinet, so Mom couldn't get to it. Let it sit a couple of days.
(0)
Report

You poor thing! This is basically my worst nightmare! Seriously, I don't know how you deal with it, obviously over and over. I mean, 2 poop vacuums?? So horrible it's almost funny, in a twisted kind of way, but mostly just sad, of course.

I give you SOOOO much kudos for what you're doing!

The office chair protector is an excellent idea. I will try to remember it, if things get to that point around here some day.

This is the definition of a very long, very bad morning.

I hope you are keeping your sense of humor! Could you, eventually, laugh at the idea that 2 strangers came in and did this?
(2)
Report

Do you put the vinegar water by itself in a bowl or add it to bath water?
(0)
Report

Been there and swore if it ever happened again Mom would go to an AL or NH. I woke up to find Mom had had diarrhea in the night. The toilet looked like it had thrown up. All over the new vinyl floor. Out the door it was all over everthing. To clean Mom up I had to clean the bath first. So I grabbed some dish detergent. Got her cleaned up and upstairs to eat breakfast and sit with my DH. I followed with Pinesol and then bleach water. Could not get rid of that smell. A friend told me to pour vinegar in a glass bowl and put it in her bath. Within an hour the smell started to go away. One day gone, 2 days even better.
(3)
Report

This discussion has been closed for comment. Start a New Discussion.
Start a Discussion
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter