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Caregiver

Why is my husband's personal hygiene is so bad?

Weeks go by without taking a shower. He will dress in the same dirty bad smelling clothes . Talking with him doesn't help. Nothing wrong with his smell. He wasn't like that pre injury.

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2
Caregiver

Hi, I was my husband's caregiver too, 15 years worth things get better but they got to be willing to work at it too. And he went through a phase like that about 3 years in it lasted for a while . He got smelly after some time . I had to fightvwith him to change the sheets and give me his dirty clothes he had on . It got bad enough for long enough i started sleeping on the couch the smell seemed sour to me after awhile . I tried everything

Calendars, talking to him having his mom and a friend talk to him but he only gave up and went and showered when he got tired of me nagging him to death or if I threatened to drag the garden hose thru the window and swore I would hose him down in that bed if he didn't go get in the shower and a few times I did drag it thru the window and was fixing to turn the water on .... ??whatcha do? I tried everything! He over time just started washing regularly again pretty much on his own.

Good luck

Survivor

I'm not very good at recognizing the passage of time anymore, sometimes I realize "oh my God its been days since I showered" because the brain fog makes weeks feel like one long day sometimes. It might help to make a schedule where bathing happens on specific days of the week. That might help with the time & hygienic routines.