Hard to Admit

 It's 5: 21 in the morning. I'm awakened because my condom catheter has failed. Causing me essentially, to wet my bed. 

It's not easy for a 61-year-old to admit to wetting the bed, but a lot of things have changed for me in the past 11 months. I have had to resolve myself to excepting a great many changes. My pride went out the window a long ago. 

I lie in bed and wonder if I want to trouble my wife with this. Finally, I decide that not telling her, might do more harm than good, and that waiting would probably cause my wife more work down the road. 

Reluctantly, I set off the alarm to summon my wife. 

When she got there, I told her what happened, and she immediately went to work stripping away everything that might be affected. The pillowcases of my arm pillows were wet, but the pillows themselves weren't wet. This made clear I had made the correct decision in calling for help. 

The pads which are used to protect the bedding were wet and needed to be changed. This meant she would need to wake up my 13-year-old daughter to help turn me. 

Lydia has seen a lot since I've come home from my short stay in the nursing home. She's gotten an education I wish she never would have received. Now she's being awakened to help deal with her father, who has wet the bed. 

She didn't comment, she didn't complain. She just did what her Mom asked, and they quickly got me cleaned up. 

I can't remember the last time I wet the bed, sometimes as a small boy, but when it happened this morning, there was a familiar feeling, that made me feel extremely uncomfortable. 

Lydia made a few adjustments to my machine and placed new pillowcases on my arm pillows. Then she took herself back to her room. 

My wife finishes up a few things, then heads back to bed. Alone with my thoughts, and comfortably dry, I try to go back to sleep.