[Hikkakaru]

State has cut off my once every 2-3 days caregiver, and now I must be totally independent.

Have good trunk support, mostly full upper body except for my right hand is somewhat tone-limited, so treat me as a para for the most part =D

Anyone have any good suggestions?

-Sam

[Ches]

What are you needing to know? Where to get a bench? How to bath with holding on for dear life or what?

[Hikkakaru]

Ches, on Dec 18 2008, 09:23 AM, said:

What are you needing to know? Where to get a bench? How to bath with holding on for dear life or what?

Haha, Well I am pretty sure ill just order it from a Sammons/Preston catalog or something similiar, I was more or less looking for actual suggestions as to what product to try and get, if anyone had any favorites, tip when buying, etc etc.

[Hapahowlee]

Hey there,

My husband is pretty much independent too. When I met him, he only had a cleaning women who came once a week. He used a padded transfer bench and when I moved in, I installed my hand held shower massage, which at first he didn't like, but he figured out it was good to use to get all the soap off the body and the bench.

In our new home, we have a jacuzzi tub and a shower next to it. So we opted to get a fold down bench in the shower, which I really don't recommend. A transfer bench is much safer when doing transfers and in our old house, we just left it in the tub. I was able to use the shower without moving it and sometimes when I was really tired, I'd use it. Whatever bench you get, I recommend getting one with slats so the water and soap drains and you lesson the risk of slipping while transferring.

When we had the fold down bench installed we were given 2 options; an unpadded one with slats or a padded one that was all one piece - no slats. Hubby tried both and the unpadded hurt his ass and the padded one made him slip a couple of times and we switched back to the unpadded and I rigged some pads for him. He still uses a hand held shower massage so he can rinse well. Good luck.

[edlee]

If you have a shower that will accomodate it, I would suggest a shower wheelchair like the Mariner. It can be used over your toilet for bowel program, them rolled into the shower for cleanup.

It has 20 inch wheels to make transfers easier and the padded seat can be rotated to allow room for your hand/arm for D.S. or washing up.

I have one similar to it, but designed for the V.A.,,,,They both work well,,,, if you can get it in the shower. I have a roll in shower,, so have no problem... If you can,, you should think about getting both. The Mariner runs about $500 on the internet and a roll in shower, prefab unit will run under a grand, plus install.

Either way,,, you will enjoy the independence,,,, once things get sorted out.

Good luck
ed

[Ches]

I'll bath you... ;)

Ha, ...

I've got just a padded bath bench, with a handle on one side. It works great..it was only like 150 on some medical supply site. I dont have a roll in shower or any fancy adaptations.. the bench is stable and easy to jump on once you learn how. ( I learned how to do it alone, by just GOING FOR IT)

No potty suggestions, again I dont have any fancy adaptations.. in fact I have a fairly low toilet, if it werent for the counter to my left and bath bench to my right I probably couldnt lift myself to get back in the chair. It kinda all depends on your set up and efforts.

[Nichole]

I just have one of the cheap padded benches like Ches. I just have a regular bath tub/shower so I just leave the bench in there all the time, unless I'm feeling really adventurous and have the energy to crawl in and out of the tub to take a bubble bath.

I would definatly suggest you don't get any of those ones that fold down from the wall. I used one of those at a hotel once and almost killed myself. First of all it was wooden, with no padding, so it hurt my ass the entire time i was sitting on it. Secondly, the damn thing was trying to fold back up while i was still in the process of trying to get up!

[AndrewB]

God damn, ya'll fancy, i just lye down in the tub like a mangy ol' dog.

[edlee]

I could get in the tub,,,, gravity being what it is, after all,,,,, but no way can I get out again, alone.

I used one of the fold down, style,,, it was padded and was very stable. Worked well, but since worker's comp paid for the remodel,,, I wasn't about to refuse the bigger shower.
ed

[russ1]

In oder not to repeat myself here's a recent thread on much the same topic along with pictures of my shower seat/bench and my bath.

The shower seat is great for a quick wash down but there's nothing better than a long hot soak lying in the bath.

[edlee]

How do you get in and out, Russ?
ed

[russ1]

Getting in - park up next to bath, put one leg in tub, transfer across onto bath side, put other leg in and then lower myself in. One long hot soak later arms on bath side and lift myself up onto triangular bit at back of bath, then bum over onto cushion. That's the difficult bit as can't get all way onto chair with legs still in bath so move legs over before moving onto chair fully. It's more confidence and balance than strength. I'm 45, in good health (other than being T2 complete) stay fairly active and have decent balance but I'm a long long way from being a paralympic athlete and could certainly do with spending more (actually any at all would be an improvement) time in the gym.

If I was to do another bathroom I'd make a wider edge at one end to make the transfer easier and allow me to get legs out of bath before moving onto chair but it's not too bad as it is. The lift from in the bath to the edge is actually very easy as the shape of the bath and the wet slidy surface help While the (corner) shape of my bath and the tiled edge make things easier I can get in and out of a standard tub with relatively little difficulty.

Like Ches I use a standard toilet but I use only the toilet seat and the chair as locations to push off for transfers - this means that as long as I can get my chair at 90deg to a loo I can pretty much use any bathroom anywhere. It's taken a while to get really confident with all of this but now as long as I can get into a bathroom then the actual adaptations once in the bathroom are pretty much irrelevant which makes travelling a whole lot easier.