Here are five home showering hacks in caregiving: three cheap, one reasonable, and one expensive!
Expensive one first: we had a tub removed, and a “walk-in” shower installed. It has a waterproof faux brick pre-fab enclosure and a chromed showerhead on a hose (shower installation seen in the background above.)
The space and access has made a tremendous difference for safety, thoroughness, and efficiency. We had used a shower stall previously. Needing to use a shower chair in a narrow stall was a nightmare. The showerhead on a hose is great.
It really did take only one day for the walk-in installation, as they promised….but it was a long day before the nice craftsman could go home, hauling the debris. They do sell “kits” in a hardware warehouse store, but glad we could afford a professional installation…using one of those oft-advertised “discounts.”
The item of reasonable cost was a combination commode / shower chair seen above, necessary for some disease stages or conditions. It was harder to find (especially with wheels) than just commode chairs or just shower chairs, which are separate styles.
Medicare Advantage helped offset some of the cost of the chair as a “durable good,” purchased mail order through a drug store chain. [The big mail order house had a different brand that wasn’t quite right.]
Cheap hacks: The chromed showerhead is slippery to manipulate with wet and soapy hands, which brings up the cheapest hack. A few rubberbands can give your grip a boost:
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Next, the prefab shower has a 3″ lip to keep water in, but the chair had to be lifted over it. To facilitate transfer of the disabled person in the commode shower chair with wheels into the shower itself, and to help CareGivingOldGuy’s back, a ramp is useful.
Yeah, the ramp is duct tape ugly and crude but functional. It was inexpensive, made up of two layers of wooden wedges found at a hardware store, each 1.5″H X 3.5″W X 12″L. About 24″ W together, 14 wooden wedges total (lazy CareGivingOldGuy couldn’t find a commercial one that would fit):
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The last hack, the blue pool noodle seen above, might even be a bit controversial…we consider it a safety support rather than a restraint. Yes, one understands there are restraint laws for institutions, but this is a home setting, and it serves a specific safety need, and is used only for several minutes with total supervision.
The pool noodle is adapted to help truncal support and safety. Surprisingly, the lumen or channel along the length of the noodle is narrow; one can see the securing cord and knot we used. The important thing is that the noodle seems to help!
Pool noodles may not be lifesavers exactly, but you can have fun choosing a color, and they can do you a job. Watersports…with safety!
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