How to Empty a Bedside Commode One-handed

One problem I worried about before my knee surgery was stress incontinence.  While waiting for surgery I learned sudden knee pain can start a small urinary leak that turns into a flood after about 60 seconds.  This set off alarm bells.  I regularly get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and was worried about losing bladder control if I felt sharp knee pain.  I was freaked out about having to clean urine from my carpet.  A bedside commode would solve my problem but I live alone so who is going to empty it??

I cannot carry the bucket in my sound hand because I need that hand to hold a cane.  I was saved by serendipity.  Before surgery I put a laundry basket where it was easy for me to put dirty clothes in it.  The bottom of this basket is so smooth that it slides over carpeting like it is on ice.  This gave me an idea.  I asked a friend to put some water in the bucket and put it on top of the dirty clothes.  Instead of the liquid sloshing, the bucket was cradled by the clothes as I slid the basket into my bathroom.  My sound hand carried the empty bucket to the shower for cleaning.  For safety, I slid the heel** of my affected hand along my bathroom counter to keep my balance.  I put the bucket on my shower chair and used the shower hose to rinse it rather than risking a fall by leaning down to put the bucket under the water spout.

I never needed the bedside commode.  Yet I felt triumphant because so many health professionals have told me to get a bedside commode.  I also felt humbled because I arrived at the solution through sheer dumb luck instead of my OT degree and clinical experience.  homeafterstroke.blogspot.com

** heel of hand = palm of hand near the wrist

Making a Bed One-handed

I love the feel of clean sheets so I wanted to learn to make a bed.  Putting a fitted bottom sheet on the bed is easy to do one-handed.  I slip my sound palm into the corner of the sheet.  Then I shove both my hand and the fabric down under the mattress.

It is harder to put flat linens on the bed with one hand.  First I have to make several trips around the bed to make sure the top sheet and blanket hang down equally on both sides.  I lift a corner of the mattress with my sound hand so I can hold the corner in the air with my hemiplegic forearm, and then use my sound hand to tuck the flat linens under the mattress.  When a queen-size mattress got too heavy for me to hold in the air I switched to a single mattress.

I cheat by letting the pillow sit on top of the bedspread.  Leaning over to neatly tuck the bedspread under the pillow is too much of a balance challenge for me.  I also cheat by not making multiple trips so the bedspread hangs down evenly.  The black line at the edge of the mattress shows the bedspread is crooked.

In 16 years I have never thought I should go to a long-term care facility because my bed looks like it was made by a child.   homeafterstroke.blogspot.com

What I Learned About Splints as a Stroke Survivor

When spasticity from a stroke holds muscles in one position, muscle become short which restricts motion.  Lannin (1) concluded "splinting has little or no effect on the loss of range of motion"

(p. 113).  However, Lannin told therapists to stop passive stretching and restrict active hand exercises to 10 minutes a day.  So the data does not tell us if a resting night splint is a useful addition to standard therapy.

I wondered what would happen if I did passive stretching and active hand exercises, but stopped wearing my resting splint at night.  After a month of not wearing a splint I could feel my thumb getting tighter.  I resumed wearing my splint and the next morning I woke up with a wicked ache in my thumb.  Closing my hand all day makes my thumb tight by bedtime so my splint has not eliminated spasticity.  Yet I believe my splint has prevented a painful permanent contracture.

I love my new SaeboStretch resting splint that I wear at night.  The new soft straps do not cut into my skin the way the old plastic straps did.  This version also uses a new kind of "Velcro" that does not have spiky hooks that scratch my bare thigh.  There are two thumb straps and three finger straps. The third strap that is hard to see holds down the little finger.  The cover zips off so it can be washed.  homeafterstroke.blogspot.com

1.  Lannin N, Cusick A, McCluskey A, Herbert R. Effects of splinting on wrist contracture after
     stroke. Stroke. 2009;38:111-116.