One thing to know about caregiving, you can’t really plan for it and you really have to think on your feet. Automagic love needs to surround you everyday. In fact you need to douse yourself in the pool of Automagic so that you have creativity oozing out of ya . Hmm maybe not oozing. Also, you need to be surrounded by a family of creativity. Luckily spouse and child are pretty smart which helps a lot.
We knew dad had to stay with us. He was falling continuously. We even bought a house so he would feel comfortable, but a month before move he fell and we knew he was coming to our inaccessible 2 story house. So we tried to come up with ideas like staying in basement with stair lift and creating a makeshift shower however solution was simple. Here is what we did:
- We sectioned off a corner of the first floor by using a humongous thermal curtain from amazon. This gave him the needed privacy
- We got a Dyson heater. Dad loves to surround himself with super crazy 28 degrees. When the curtains are closed, the heat is contained. This saved us from cranking up the furnace 😉
- Wireless doorbell as a call bell. I heard this idea from lifehacker. Sorry I can’t find link, but it is such a great idea. The range is great and inexpensive
- Bed rails with pockets. We put in all dad’s essential medication, IPad :), phone and wireless doorbell.
- CCAC does sponge bath. I thought sponge bath would be temporary. However, it is not inferior to a shower. He is cleaner than he has ever been and in fact not as tired. I wouldn’t have thunked ;).