It may surprise many of you to learn that despite my current financial woes, I continue to employ the services of a cleaner. The cleaner comes fortnightly, and her services are paid for out of my disability living allowance. It is a necessary extravagance and it is an extravagance that I look forward to and loathe in equal measure.
My excitement at having a clean house at the end of a three hour visit is obvious. The awkwardness that I encounter for the duration of that three hour visit is almost enough to get me on my hands and knees attempting to dust the skirting boards. Almost, I cannot get on my hands and knees to dust the skirting boards. There has been an empty bottle of water on the floor in my kitchen for two days, which I have been unable to pick up. I really hope she spots it today. Imagine what would happen to me if I partook in continuous exercise below the waist. Imagine indeed… At best, I would be a moaning minny. At worst, I would be on the Oramorph demanding another X-ray.
Let us face it, I also have a strange middle class, but on benefits, guilt of paying somebody to come and do my dirty work, whilst I lie on my sofa watching TV. I am lying on the sofa as I type this whilst the cleaner cleans. She’s two metres away from me making a vigorous scrubbing sound by the kitchen sink as I snuggle into a cushion tapping into my iPhone. I should really move into my bedroom now, but my back hurts, so I am multitasking, working up the courage to stand. She does not know why I am on the sofa snuggling into a cushion. What must she think of me?
A fortnight ago I made a point of taking my medication in front of her, and left a few boxes of drugs out in my room, so she could guess there was more to me and my story than a fat, lazy and inept housewife. That is what having a cleaner makes me feel like, apart from the housewife part. I am no a housewife, as the rotten vegetables in the bottom of the fridge are a testament to.
There are days when I would love nothing more than to be able to clean my own flat. I am in no way exaggerating. I am not saying I enjoy the act of cleaning, I would just like to be able to do it. For well over a month I have needed to adjust the valence sheet on my bed, it is a task I yet to complete because it involves lifting my mattress and I struggle to lift up my Le Creuset. Consequently, I feel like my bedroom resembles a squat with it’s exposed divan and collection of syringes.
Life is tough. Real tough.
My cleaner does not know that I get up early before her visits to make sure things are as tidy as I can make them, that the bedding is clean and dry and the dishes are put away, nor does she know that these activities tire me. She does not know that I do a disproportionate amount of dishes in my flat to make up for the fact that I cannot empty the kitchen bin.
Nobody tells you that this is a side effect of myeloma; uselessness.
I do feel quite pointless right now. Thank goodness I know that I make the mess and dirt in the first, otherwise I would be lying here questioning my very existence.
I just want to get under a blanket and snooze. Goodness knows how I am going to manage this in a fortnight’s time when I am crashing on my steroids and unable to get out of bed. The experience would be so much worse if I am in my pyjamas. There is nowhere to hide.
What is the etiquette when nature calls when it does not call that often? Heavens above.
On the plus side, for all the awkward and critical feelings I have right now, I know that in an hour’s time, my bed will be changed, my flat will be clean and there will be a lingering smell of bleach.
Before that happens, I have to get over the embarrassing issue of payment. I believe some people would refer to my concerns as a ‘first world problem’. My riposte would be, ‘myeloma’.
EJB x
