HAPPY NEW WEEK!
Everyone have a great week!
HEATHER - DON'T DO IT! You must NOT use towel rails for grab rails. Grab rails and their wall fixings are made to be weight-bearing, towel rails are NOT strong enough! Consult your local council's Occupational Therapist for advice - and maybe even provision of any aids you need installed!
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
OG - These particular towel racks are fastened into the wall joists in the same place the medical ones were. They have been certified safe for use as grab bars and are the same as in the showers and bathtubs. I think designers have realized that we want both safety and aesthetics.
Heather - I had a hydraulic lift for my OH which was a portable one that I could move from room to room. I do not recommend a hydraulic lift now as they are physically demanding to use. They have electric ones now which are much easier to use and which I will get for my daughter. I had to get one for my OH as he was falling frequently but not injuring himself. He just needed help getting back up and like your OH, usually in the middle of the night. The lifts are not prohibitively expensive or I would not have been able to afford it.
Thank you, bjane and OG. I will be very careful to get something safe. Appreciate your input, so much.
Just read this........you can get advice about these things, and also sometimes qualify for the Health Service to arrange for grab rails and other aids to be provided and installed, free! My mother had several.
So pleased for Andy Murray. He's worked really hard.
Watched Strictly, it's going to be sad now, whoever goes, as they're all so good. Except for Ed Balls - but he's been very entertaining!
Linda- yes, you are right on your side of the world. Heather should definitely check into that. Unfortunately, we do not have a National Health System and usually must pay for these things ourselves. I will say, that our Medicare did pay for an electric wheelchair for my OH, but when he needed a manual one, they would not cover that or a lift or grab bars. etc. When he went into hospice, they covered everything and the day after he died, they came and took it all away (not that I wanted any of it) it was just odd how quickly they came.
LINDA- Not NHS responsibility here in Scotland - it is local council Occupational Therapy. I know this as I have been taking advice for improving access into our house. I have to pay for shallower steps (recommended over ramps) but they will provide rails for me alongside!
I know it's odd, OG -- some things are free, others you have to provide yourself. My mother's rails and other aids were installed whilst she was still in hospital, then she was placed in unsuitable accommodation for convalescence, in a respite care home where she was given a room too small for her to negotiate with her walking frame. Subsequently she fell in the doorway of it, and cracked her hip. Back to hospital.
Eventually it was decided that she would never cope alone at home and she went into another care home to recover, where she had a further stroke and never went home again. She had never been home to even see the work done, and I offered them back, but they said no need! What a waste.
(I never got the chance to see if she could have lived with us, as it was possible as my Eldest had left by then, but sadly her subsequent strokes were so bad that we could never have coped. She had to have 24 hour care for the rest of her life).
OG - Hope you're feeling better. Did Eagle Eye catch your cold?