OK, I wanted to post new stuff periodically, but here (again) is something I wrote a few years ago.
January 19, 2002
While watching the TV show Friends, this past Thursday, I saw Chandler learning that a bubble bath can be a nice soothing way to pamper himself. On Saturday, like Chandler, I found myself lying peacefully in my tub. My favorite Classic Rock and Roll station was on the radio. Michael was at his Saturday morning Karate class. Mark was in his room watching one of his train videos. I was able to just lay there with the bubbles caressing my soft supple skin... feeling my muscles relax in the warm bubble bath. Wow, it has been such a long time since I was last able to take a long soaking bubble bath... I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed such pleasure.
Usually, I transfer from my wheelchair onto my padded, though not very comfortable, tub bench. Since I have no sitting balance, I have to hold on as I use my hand held shower. Indeed on this day, I transferred onto my shower bench to take my shower, when snap!... The back rest broke off and I fell straight back onto the bottom of the tub. Luckily, the part of my body that hit the hardest was my head... and we all know how hard of a head I have! LuAnne had just come into
the house from dropping off Mike at Karate, when she heard a loud crash. She opened my bathroom door to see me laying on the backrest in the tub, and my legs on the seat of my shower bench... what a vision. LuAnne asked if I got knocked out... if I did... I couldn’t remember... or... something like that.
Getting the backrest out from under me without cutting me on the jagged edges of the broken aluminum tubing, "rolling" me out of the tub, scooting to the bed, hoisting me on cushions from the couch, and "rolling" me into bed was a fun challenge that all quads should experience once in a while. But, I’m not sure that I’d recommend getting into a tub that way. All in all, I think
I’ll try to avoid the nice soothing bubble bath, and keep taking my boring showers.
postscript - After I broke several of the cheap aluminum bath benches, I started looking for better made ones... didn't find one. When we were kids dad often took our toys & other broken stuff to work & bring them home fixed. Dad even had a wheelchair lift made from "spare parts" at work. So my brother, Jerry, took "spare parts" from work & had some buddies help build a stainless steal bench for me (with adjustable legs & everything). Then he had a buddy who did upholstery stuff for boats make the padded seat & backrest. Now I have an awesome, durable & easier to transfer onto bath bench.
