Handicapped Bathrooms Are Badly Designed

Handicapped bathrooms in hotels I have stayed at since my stroke are poorly designed.  

The most common error is placing the towel rack on a wall ten feet away from the tub.  It may be dangerous for a companion to turn his or her back on a disabled person and walk across the room to retrieve a towel.  I solve this problem by dragging the luggage rack into the bathroom.  I place my towel and bathrobe on the rack where I can reach them while sitting on my folding shower stool.  In a regular room I place my towel and robe on the lid of the toilet seat which is often super close to the tub. In a handicpped bethroom the toilet is far from the tub to make room for a wheelchair.

I ran into two unique problems at one hotel.
1) The shower curtain was so short and hung on a rod that was so far away from the edge of the tub I could see a speckled beige bathroom tile floor when I looked down.  A wet floor is a Fall Hazard.  Before I got in the tub I put a bath towel on the floor to soak up the water that fell through this gap as I showered.  A cheap solution is to purchase longer shower curtains that can be tucked inside the bathtub.

2) When I detached the shower hose to use in sitting, I had to turn off the water while soaping up because letting the nozzle hang free let it point outwards to spray water on the floor (photo on left).  A wet floor is a Fall Hazard.  

These negative experiences taught me to stop asking for a handicapped bathroom when I travel.  homeafterstroke.blogspot.com

What Therapists Do Not Know About Falling

I recently heard a doctor on TV say elderly people should not look down when they walk.  He said using vision to prevent falls weakens the balance system.  Yet stroke survivors look down because even tiny obstacles can be dangerous.  Here is an example.  I had a terrible fall while walking on a slate walkway.  I fell after I stubbed my toe on the edge of a tile that was tilted up about an inch. Thank God I did not fall forward and smack my forehead on the slate sidewalk.  I instinctively dropped my cane and threw my sound arm forward to try to catch myself.  This sudden arm movement rotated my body slightly to the right so I fell on the grass.  I hit the ground so hard I had dirt and pieces of grass caught under my glasses after my face hit the lawn.

Therapists may not know how violently stroke survivors can fall.  Human subjects committees would not allow researchers to put test subjects on a tilt plate that can cause a sudden fall without first putting test subjects in a safety harness.  PTs have to be conservative when they walk stroke survivors because they cannot have anyone fall on their watch.  homeafterastroke.blogspot.com

Tiny Habits

Fogg explains how to make my life easier after a stroke (1).  He says Behavior = Motivation + Ability + Prompt (MAP).  Motivation is unreliable because it comes in waves that vary from day to day, morning to evening, and even minute to minute.  Motivation also fails because it is usually attached to outcomes like saving $500.  An outcome is not a behavior I promise to do.  Finally, motivation can be highjacked by the "go big or go home" philosophy.   

A is for ability which is how much skill the task requires.  Stroke survivors and caregivers can find ways to make a task easier by reading blogs and books written by stroke survivors (see About Me page and my Blog List on the right side bar).  Although I am an OT sometimes I need help solving a problem.  However, an OT or PT evaluation never identifies all my concerns.  I start every new round of therapy by walking in the door with a list of problems I want them to solve.

P is for prompt.  Prompts like to-do lists and calendar alerts on my iphone are SO easy to ignore.  Fogg and I believe in the power of established routines to trigger a new behavior.  The tricky part of using an established behavior to prompt a new behavior is finding what Fogg calls the trailing edge of an old behavior.  For example, I kept forgetting to put drops in my eye after eating breakfast.
I did not succeed until I discovered the last thing I do after breakfast is rinse my cereal bowl.
Now I rinse the bowl and think about using eyedrops to rinse my eye after my recent cataract surgery.  "After breakfast" was too vague.   homeafterastroke.blogspot.com

1.  Fogg BJ.  Tiny Habits.  New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 2020.

Applying Make-up One-Handed

Applying eye liner requires the ability to close one eye while you keep the other open.  I can only blink (close both eyes at once).  So I use mascara instead of eye liner to give my eyes more definition.  My affected hand can squeeze tubular shaped objects between my index and middle finger so my sound hand can open the mascara in the photo.  But I had to change to a non-irritating brand of mascara that comes with a funky handle.   

I kept dropping the curved top of the mascara.  This left dark stains on my rug.  I used too much carpet cleaner which left white spots (see black circle).    So I put a bandaide that has texture around the top of the mascara to give me better traction.  I have stopped dropping the mascara.

My balance is too poor for me to lean over to be close to a bathroom mirror.  Years ago I put florescent lights on the mirror over my dresser and put a mirror on my dresser.  Leaning my sound elbow on the edge of the tall dresser gives me control when applying eye make-up.  A food container keeps make-up organized.  A small round container holds vertical objects upright.  It does not fall because it is clipped to the square container with a metal binder clip (white circle) from an office supply store.

A piece of non-slip shelf liner stops eye shadow and face powder from sliding when I sweep side-to-side.  I did not know age would rob my lips of pink color.  They are now the same color as my face.  It is easy to apply lip gloss with a hint of color because I do not have to draw a precise outline like I do with lipstick.  Now I see lips on my face when I look in the mirror.
homeafterstroke.blogspot.com