Last but not least of the ‘tools of the trade’ of home caregiving is the shower. Not only am I trying to squeeze this in during the waning hours of National Family Caregiver Month but the shower can be the most dangerous of places in the home for both the able and disabled.
Not being Kennedy’s we have never been able to afford the more incredible shower chairs that are out there on the market. At Patti’s care facility they have such state of the art stuff that a home caregiver can just stand and dream like a kid in a candy shop.
Additionally Patti has never been able to use transfer type seats that some people can use between a wheelchair and a tub. She is unable to move sideways.
Believe it or not the safest and most effective (and certainly most affordable) for Patti has been a plastic patio chair. Of course here again it takes muscle to transfer her from wheelchair to lawn chair and back again, but fortunately and God willing I can still do it.
A reader forwarded along a suggestion the SHOWERBUDDY. I personally have no experience with it but it sure seems to cover all the bases and is quite similar to the high tech machines available to Patti at her care facility.
I did have to smile at the picture of the “first ‘showerbuddy’” especially compared to Patti’s current shower chair pictured in our accessible shower. Didn’t someone once claim that necessity is the mother of invention.
Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer
hey... whatever works!
ReplyDeleteJackie
Wow....that would work! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteLisa
very nice:)
ReplyDeleteDeb