Indulgence or Necessity? by Tamara Hogan

I’ve loved taking hot baths for as long as I remember, and they’ve long served multiple purposes in my life. As a lifelong Minnesotan, I have a well-honed appreciation for warmth. As a former competitive gymnast, my muscles slackened and relaxed as they slurped up the moist heat. And the bathtub’s always been my favorite place to read. As a young teenager, one of my favorite Sunday afternoon rituals was to take a bath with a book—usually a Harlequin Presents category romance. I’d lock the door, fill the bathtub with too-hot water, and carefully select my bubble bath from the row of colorful plastic bottles lining the toilet tank. I’d read until my skin was shriveled like a prune—or until one of my younger sisters picked the lock with a bobby pin.  

When I was a slightly older teenager, I got sick. Suddenly it hurt to eat, and my joints ached all the time, even though gymnastics season was over. I lost weight—a lot of weight. Family and friends kept me stocked with books during a long hospitalization, and I became a pro at wheeling my TPN infusion pump to the treatment room which was the location of the single bathtub on the ward. We finally figured out what was wrong. Crohn’s Disease.

With that diagnosis, I became a member of an invisible legion—people living with chronic illness. 

Fast-forward fifteen years. Between a long gymnastics career and the Crohn’s, I’d become so used to living with various aches and pains that it took awhile for me to notice that the full-body ache and nagging fatigue I was experiencing just wasn’t normal, even for me. While doctors and I tried to figure out what was going on, the pain increased to a point where my life simplified itself with ruthless efficiency: Work. Eat. Sleep. And very little else. Several years and a dozen doctors later, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition. Thankfully I had decent health insurance, and convenient access to a world-renowned pain management program. One of the questions they asked during my intake interview was, “Other than prescription pain medication, does anything help relieve your pain?” I blinked, realizing the answer was “yes.” Baths! Or as pain management professionals call it, "hydrotherapy." 

Pain is the body’s way of saying, “Slow down. Pay attention.” When the pain is chronic—when it never quite goes away—slowing down and paying attention becomes a way of life. To me, that's chronic illness's silver lining. I have to listen to my body, and most days, it's in the driver's seat. I've learned to say 'no' more often and feel no guilt about it. 

To some people, spending an hour a day in the bathtub with a book might seem to be the height of pampering, decadence and self-indulgence. Not to me. It's a happy coincidence that one of my favorite things to do just happens to be an essential component of my pain management toolkit.  No matter how crappy I'm feeling, and no matter how many other things fall off the day's "To Do" list, I know I can take a bath, and lose myself in another world. 

So, whatever the condition of your health, here’s Dr. Tammy’s prescription: Slow down. Take a bath. Read more books. ;-)  

Coincidentally, Taste Me's heroine, siren Scarlett Fontaine, adores baths too. There's a scene in the book where Scarlett sings a raunchy song in the tub, driving hero Lukas Sebastiani to distraction. While I couldn't reference the song lyrics in the book, the song she's singing is "I'll Have You All" from the soundtrack of the Broadway musical "Taboo." In the song, the character played by Boy George reveals some rather...intimate physical details about his lovers. ;-)