2 July 2012
As a result of the introduction of the sling hoist yesterday and all the ensuing chaos that it caused, we had the whole of the A team here this morning at 7.30. First of all the two Paulas from Ross Nursing turned up to give me my shower, dress me etc. Hard on their heels came Harriet, the boss of Ross Nursing and she brought with her a delightful lady, Anava Baruch, an occupational therapist (OT), the managing director of an organisation called Design for Independence. Anava’s main function was to sort out the most appropriate commode . Having been told by our own OT that there was no commode specifically designed for the male. Harriet, like me, is not a person will accept a ridiculous situation, who went into battle to find me a suitable commode, after I had met a dead end, with my own OT. Certainly Anava was not only knowledgeable and extremely helpful over the type of commode/shower chair I required, but also came up with one or two other very useful suggestions concerning my reclining chair and other details of equipment designed for the individual patient to lead an independent a life as possible.
In the middle of these four ladies milling around, Doctor West arrived to inspect the soreness in my groin. Having examined it. she expressed her satisfaction that it was clearing up nicely so she left. I went through the usual process of showering dressing, and ultimately being deposited in my study chair. This was all done using the sling hoist as opposed to the standing hoist that we have used for the past year. The point about that hoist is that as a strength in my arms weakens and my legs had given out altogether, I was seriously close to slipping through and out of the hoist altogether . Apparently a number of my carers had told Harriet, that they were not prepared to go on using the standing hoist.
The problem with the sling hoist his it is almost impossible to put trousers on and remove them, unless. you are prepared to do so. by lying on the bed. As I can only lie flat if I had my respirator on this made the whole business time-consuming.
As we are only given 2 1/2 hours a day care, there had to be some give on our side. Accordingly I have had to agree pro tem, not to wear trousers. There is always my kilt and the Velcro cotton wraparound that I had made for me in Thailand. All, of these goings-on made the morning visit of the carers a little later than usual but left me feeling a bit happier that we had good people on the case, in whom I have great confidence that they will achieve success in producing one or two new pieces of equipment, within a reasonable time span.