Experiencing Some Shower-chair Problems

 

As my muscular dystrophy disease advances so do my difficulties to perform the tasks of daily living.  Taking a shower, for example, is no simple matter, and although I value the opportunity to get a shower I also need to feel secure while having one.  

As I said in a previous post, lately I have been using a PVC built chair.  I love the fact that the chair is well built and sturdy. But there are some things that I would like you to know about that chair before you run to buy it.

 1.-The opening in the front of the seat is too narrow.  The PVC chair is 17 inches wide from the inside distance between the arms and the opening to allow hand access to personal areas is only 3 1/4". A Drive aluminum shower chair is 19 inches wide from the inside distance between the arms and the opening for hand access is 4 1/2" which makes a huge difference.

 2.-When  the PVC chair was new it rolled perfectly. Now, pushing it is an effort for my caregiver because the wheels no longer roll smoothly.  I live in Florida where the water has high calcium/limestone content, which could be causing the problem. If anyone that reads this post knows how to get rid of the calcium/limestone, please leave your advice in a comment.

 3.-A similar thing happens with the sliding footrest. In the beginning, my caregiver gave it a little push from the rear and it slid forward easily. Now it's a big struggle.

And last but not least, the footrest table has a very sharp edge at the front underside edge which one time caused tearing of my skin in the Achilles tendon area. 

I wrote a letter to  Innovative Products Unlimited (IPU) the builders of this chair but has not yet received any answer. As soon as I do, I will share their reply in this blog.

 

ARE YOU THINKING OF GETTING A SHOWER CHAIR?

For some good 10 years after being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy I was still able to get in and out of the shower, but eventually, I realized that if I wanted to avoid accidents I needed to start using a shower chair.
So, I went online and ordered one, just like that. I did not check the dimensions, features, or specifications. Thank goodness, God must have asked my Guardian Angel to do it for me because the shower chair I got worked out well.  It was made of aluminum, had wheels, the height was right for me, the seat was soft and it had an opening in the front. I enjoyed using it for a couple of years until one of my daughters noticed a suspicious color in the water dripping from the chair. It was rust. Something was rusting, maybe the nuts or the washers.
What did I do to solve my problem? I ordered a new one. Exactly like the one I was discarding. Again, I happily used it for another 2 years. This time I did not notice any rust but my caregiver started having problems when rolling me into the shower; the chair was hard to push; at moments, it felt as it would crumble which gave us a feeling of insecurity.  The least that I needed was to hit the floor due to a collapsing chair! This put me again in the 'shower chair' market.
And, since nothing teaches a lesson better than lived experiences, this time I decided to give it some thought before ordering my next shower chair.
So, I searched and searched for 'shower chairs with wheels'…and so doing, I came upon PVC shower chairs. Eureka I thought, exactly what I need!
My PVC chair arrived in a huge box. My husband was delighted to see it was already assembled. It looked very sturdy, had its own sliding footrest and it rolled super easily. I thought it looked beautiful with its seat and backrest in blue. The cost though was higher. To be honest, double the price of the aluminum ones. Anyway, I was so pleased with it that I went ahead and took the first shower in my new chair.  Right then I discovered that my new chair was not perfect. The opening at the front edge of the seat is not wide enough to allow easy access for personal hygiene. It is very, very difficult to soap or rinses the groin area; this detail totally frustrates the goal of taking a shower which undoubtedly is to get clean. So, I have not yet solved my shower chair problem.
But I want to share my experience so others learn from it. With that in mind, my advice to anyone looking to buy a shower chair is to at least do the following:
1. DO NOT BUY THE FIRST SHOWER CHAIR THAT YOU COME ACROSS
2. TAKE THE TIME TO TAKE YOUR MEASUREMENTS SO YOU WOULD KNOW WHAT YOU WILL NEED. FOR EXAMPLE:
         -WHAT IS YOUR WEIGHT
         -HOW WIDE ARE YOU ACROSS THE THIGHS
         -WHAT IS THE LENGTH OF YOUR LEGS
         -DO YOU NEED A CHAIR WITH A FIRM BACK OR A MORE FLEXIBLE ONE.
4. KNOW THE DIMENSIONS OF YOUR SHOWER AS WELL AS THE DISTANCE WHICH YOU WILL BE ROLLED.
3. TAKE YOUR TIME TO TALK TO A SALES REPRESENTATIVE TO LET HIM OR HER KNOW YOUR NEEDS AS WELL AS ANY CONCERNS THAT YOU OR YOUR CAREGIVER MIGHT HAVE.
By now, after twenty-some years of living with muscular dystrophy, I know that handicapped people have all kinds of difficulties added to their tasks when looking to get their most important equipment for daily living such as wheelchairs, beds, shower chairs, lifts and vests to mention just some of them.  These items, despite being very expensive, can not be tried out and most of the time are non-returnable.  That is why we handicapped should share our experiences with each other, to learn from our mistakes.  That is exactly what I'm doing in this blog. And for that same reason, I invite you to leave a comment sharing yours.
Thank you for your visit!
Tags; Aluminum shower chairs, PVC shower chairs, Factors to consider when buying a shower chair, Personal hygiene.

A DEVICE TO FEEL FRESH AND CLEAN

Nothing makes a person happier than the feeling of cleanliness.

As my muscular dystrophy progresses, so does my difficulty to keep clean. For example, I can no longer take a shower every day. Instead, the person who helps me,  showers me once a week.
Going many days without bathing can make some persons uncomfortable. That was happening to me. 

But here is the good news! Thanks to my bidet-seat, I can easily achieve 

a good personal hygiene which allows me to feel fresh and clean the

rest of the day!

WHAT IS A BIDET SEAT

An electronic bidet seat is a fixture that combines a toilet seat with a washing facility. (Wikipedia)

There are many for sale on the market and they range from affordable
to expensive.

I have used both kinds and I guess I have been lucky enough because I had excellent results with both.

For more information, you can visit https://www.consumerreports.org/toilets/is-a-bidet-seat-right-for-you-and-your-bathroom/ 

SOME DEVICES TO TAKE ALONG 'MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY ROAD'

When I was diagnosed with Miyoshi Myopathy some 22 years ago, I was told that this was one of the most benign of the forty-some forms of Muscular Dystrophy. As the years have passed, I have learned the contrary!  The degeneration of my muscles has progressed gradually but unstoppably. 
The first 2 years after my diagnosis, my only problem was that my left foot would slightly drag. I did not mind that at all for it did not cause me any pain and after I quit using high heels, I was able to graciously hide it. 
Some 2 years later,  my foot was dragging so badly that my doctor prescribed me to walk with a rollator.  My friends were a little devastated with the news, but to be sincere, I was very happy because truly, it was getting very hard for me to walk. So, I quickly adapted to the use of the rollator. Since at that time I was still working, I soon got very skilled in folding and unfolding it. My arms, you see, had not yet been affected.
My first rollator was like the one in the picture below.

I happily and proudly used my walker rollator around the office as well as at the house. I even cooked sitting on its seat! Now I would not recommend anybody to do that. Really please DO NOT DO IT! 

This went on for some 4 more years, then, I had to quit working but I kept using the walker around the house, did some chores, was able to shower as well as to seat down on and get up from the toilet.
Fast forward 5 more years and I'll have to tell you about the night I fell. It was a very hard and very suddenly fall on my back, and on top of my right foot! This fall -which causes I can not explain-, marks for me a 'before & after' in my life. My husband picked me up from the floor and put me in bed. I had no broken bones, but ever since then, I experienced even more difficulties walking. So I started to use the wheelchair at home, I required help to shower, to seat on and get up from the toilet, and I had to be helped in and out of bed.  Still, I was able (with help) to stand up, grab the handles of the rollator and do a couple of rounds around our living and dining area as a  manner of 'exercise' until… my husband suffered a serious nervous breakdown. My children came to our rescue and I spent more than a year living 4 or 5 months with each of them.
By then, I could not stand up, nor walk and was wheelchair-bound. AND I had to make use of medical lifts to be put on and off the toilet as well as in a bed.     

   

A GOOD MATTRESS IS KEY TO A GOOD NIGHT SLEEP

Getting good quality sleep is a determining factor in any person's life -- not only physically but also emotionally.  This is especially true when applied to a person with MD! But, people with muscular dystrophy know how difficult it is to achieve a good night's sleep. Therefore, I think listening to personal experiences from our MD community is very important.  I will start by sharing my own.
Medicare provided me a very basic electric hospital bed.  That bed is far from being a luxurious one but it filled my expectations.  Since it is electric, it has a control that I can operate at will letting me raise the feet or the head whenever I need to. This gives me a sense of independence -which is highly emotionally appreciated among handicapped people. That is the positive comment. The negative one is that the mattress that came with that bed was a killer one. It was so thin that many nights I thought the middle rail of the bed -right where the bed bends-would also bend my body. And the vinyl cover soaked my back with sweat.
After months of sleepless nights on that original 'free' mattress, I came to the conclusion, that if I wanted to achieve a decent good night, I had to buy a thicker mattress.  An expense I did not want to do but I had no other choice. So, after a careful search of thick but 'affordable' mattresses that could be used in electric hospital beds, I bought one for around $500.00  At first, I thought I had hit 'jackpot'. The new mattress felt delicious in comparison to the thin mattress provided by Medicare.



Until...I realized that aside from not killing my back, it was not helping me much more. I could not turn on it or even move an inch. Despite using satin sheets -which supposedly helps to move- I could not move at all,  even if it was just slightly enough to let me achieve a better position, I could not do it. My feet, my legs, my hips, remained as if they had been glued to the surface of the mattress. A few months after trying to adjust to this second mattress, I knew that it was not going to ever work for me.
Again I was confronted with the problem which I am sure many muscular dystrophy sufferers have on their minds all night long: How to find out what mattress to get? Which one will be the one that helps me?  And of course, another big worry is how will I pay for it?
Searching the Internet in the hopes to find advice I came across the following article: https://www.mda.org/quest/article/one-good-turn  which I highly recommend reading. I read it many times and finally, I understood that for me, the best choice was the ALTERNATING PRESSURE MATTRESS. Unfortunately, it is also the most expensive. I did very serious research on this type of mattress and even tried to delay having to purchase it because it would literally cost a fortune for me to buy it.
Meanwhile, I was having terrible nights, not being able to sleep which also caused my poor husband equally bad nights.
My research had led me to a medical equipment supplier who was courteous and seemed very knowledgeable- my husband and I decided to invest a good chunk of our savings into a MA90Z microAIR Lateral Rotation Mattress w/ Compressor. This was 9 months ago. At first, I was disappointed because after a few hours on the mattress I would wake up feeling as if I had sunk on a deep ditch. But after trying different settings, finally, we discover the one good for me. Now I sleep more or less comfortably most of the night. The settings my husband uses when firing up the bed for me at night are: First button: POWER ON- Second button: TURN LEFT & RIGHT- Third button:10 MINUTES-Then comes to the firmness settings which he chooses #9.