The First Bath

   At the end of the week it was time for Leah to be bathed. It would be her first time out of her iron lung in seven days. Leah was excited to try out the patient lifts, her cuirass ventilator, her transfer wheelchair, and her shower chair. She was looking forward to watching Sara manipulate her body. As usual, Sara inserted Leah's suppository before she left to clean up breakfast. When Sara came back she began to get ready. She maneuvered Leah's transfer wheelchair over next to her iron lung and readied the cuirass ventilator. Leah had gotten comfortable breathing with her iron lung and her lungs hadn't done any breathing without it since she had gotten in so they figured her diaphragm muscles might be a bit weak and of course she was also pretending to be completely ventilator dependent. Sara flipped the switch on her iron lung and the gentle whoosh faded away. Leah tried to draw breath and was surprised at how difficult it was, it felt like something was standing on her chest. Sara quickly unlatched the top of her iron lung and slide the bed out. She removed Leah's bra and fit the cuirass shell to Leah's chest and turned it on. Air began to easily move in and out of Leah's lungs again as the cuirass ventilator began helping her breathe. Leah relaxed; it was a bit startling at how much her body had gotten used to breathing with a ventilator.

   “We’ll do your manual bowel evacuation in the shower so we can just wash you up afterward. We’ll change your catheter after, ” Sara said as she unstrapped Leah from the bed. She used the person lift to maneuver her into her transfer wheelchair. Without the straps of her iron lung restraining her, Leah reminded herself not to help and just let her body be limp. After positioning Leah in her transfer wheelchair, Sara fastened the strap around Leah's chest so she wouldn't slip down. She strapped Leah's limbs down and fastened the strap around her forehead to keep her head steady. Sara rolled Leah towards the attached bathroom and as they passed the mirrored closet doors, Leah marveled at how her body looked secured in her transfer wheelchair.

   Entering the attached bathroom they were greeted by Leah's shower chair standing in the large walk-in shower. The design was similar to her transfer wheelchair with the same straps but the seat was cut to allow access to Leah’s anus and genitals for washing and manual bowel evacuations. Sara used the lift in the bathroom to transfer Leah to her shower chair. The cuirass shell had a long hose so Leah could keep it on. Sara strapped Leah into her shower chair.

   Sara began preparing for Leah’s manual bowel evacuation. Leah’s head was restrained by the strap across her forehead but the shower chair headrest was tilted far enough forward so Leah would be able to watch and, while she was still embarrassed, she found she was actually kind of looking forward to seeing the process of her bowels being manually evacuated.

   Sara removed Leah’s diaper and laid a disposable pad below Leah's shower chair. Leah could see the end of her catheter protruding from between her labia, and as she watched a small dribble of urine flowed out of it.

   Sara put on rubber gloves and began Leah's manual bowel evacuation. Since she wasn't working through Leah’s iron lung’s access port it was more straightforward for Sara since she had easier access to Leah's rectum in her shower chair. Leah watched in fascination as Sara's lubricated finger pressed against her anus and then slide into her rectum. The gloved finger inside her body begin the now familiar sweeping motion, beginning to work her feces out. She watched as Sara's other hand massaged her bowels from the outside.

   After completing the evacuation Sara removed her gloves and cleaned up the soiled pad. She turned the water on and got it set to the correct temperature. She washed Leah all over, removing the cuirass shell and washing her chest before quickly replacing it as Leah again struggled a bit to breathe. She then applied shaving cream and shaved Leah's legs, armpits and genitals.

   Having finished bathing Leah, Sara dried her off. Since she was going to change Leah’s catheter and they had agreed to never clip it off to maintain the simulation of complete incontinence, Sara worked a disposable pad under Leah as she sat in her shower chair. Unstrapping Leah from her shower chair, Sara folded the disposable pad around her to act as a makeshift diaper. She used the lift to move Leah back to her transfer wheelchair, strapped her in and rolled Leah back into her bedroom. After unstrapping Leah she used the lift to lay Leah back on the bed.

   Sara opened the dresser and got out a new catheter kit and a diaper. She snipped the end off of Leah’s catheter, releasing the sterile water on to the pad and deflating the balloon anchoring the catheter inside of her bladder. After Sara withdrew the catheter Leah felt her bladder spasm and a small amount of urine dribble out and run down her labia. Sara blotted the urine up with the pad. Sara opened the new catheter kit and wiped Leah’s labia clean. Lubricating the catheter, Sara spread her labia and deftly guided the tip of the catheter into Leah’s urethra. Leah felt the familiar sting as the catheter entered her urethra and the pressure as the tip of the catheter pressed against her bladder sphincter muscle and then slide in. Sara inflated the balloon inside Leah’s bladder, anchoring it inside. Sara carefully trimmed the end of the catheter leaving an inch or so protruding from Leah’s body.

   Sara put the clean diaper on Leah and strapped her back down. She then quickly removed the cuirass shell, put a new bra on her, fit the gasket around her neck and slide the bed back into her iron lung. She flipped the switch and Leah was relieved as the familiar whoosh of her iron lung started up. Leah had started to panic a bit at how hard it was to breathe without a ventilator and relaxed at the comforting feeling of breathing with her iron lung.

   As the next three weeks passed, Leah came to love being in her iron lung. Their daily and weekly routine became normal. Each week during her bathing sessions it became a little harder to draw breath without a ventilator. She realized she was relying on her iron lung or cuirass shell to do more and more of the work of breathing and and was using her own diaphragm muscles less and less. Her diaphragm muscles were actually beginning to lose their functionality. As a consequence of this Leah’s ability to speak normally began to be affected. It became harder and harder to speak against her ventilators and she had to begin to time her speech with the exhale of her ventilators. It made her sound breathless.

   It also became easier to remember not to move her body when she wasn't restrained by the straps of her iron lung, her transfer wheelchair or her shower chair. Indeed she noticed her toned limbs were actually beginning to look a bit skinny and realized that her muscles were actually beginning to atrophy as if she was really a quadriplegic. She was getting really pretty good at controlling her iPad too.

   Finally she found one of the things she was enjoying the most was not having to worry about or deal with any of her bodily functions. Wearing a catheter and being incontinent and just urinating in a diaper was so convenient. She liked never having her bladder fill or feeling the urge to urinate. She got better at not pushing during her manual bowel evacuations and was less embarrassed by them. It was just so easy to let Sara massage her feces out and not have to go herself. During the third week Leah had her period but that was also easy because her diaper just acted like a big maxi pad.