Portable shower for downstairs

[dldugan]

It is getting difficult to get upstairs. We have room downstairs for a bed, but there is only a half bath. Do you have any suggestions for a portable type of shower? Would want to take a good full shower/bath at least once a week. Should be able to wash up the other days.

 

[Firefighter58]

How about a stair lift to get you up to the shower? I have one and it works great.

 

[Nikki J]

I know we have had people report using a portable shower with success but can’t find a thread to point you to.

Like many things with ALS it will work better for some than others. I would imagine setting it up and taking it down is a bit of effort so would depend on the CALS and their capabilities.

Similarly a stair lift works well for some. My sister was able to use one until the end but she was petite and had a strong CALS who could help support her torso during the descent/ ascent. If she had been tall I don’t think it would have worked once her core went

 

[KarenNWendyn]

Assuming your downstairs has everything else you need for basic living — kitchen, bedroom, etc., then you might want to consider remodeling your bathroom. Make sure there is enough space around the toilet to slide a commode chair over the toilet. I ended up remodeling my bathroom to have a roll-in shower, tall bidet toilet with grab bars on either side, and sink that I could roll under with a wheelchair.

Do you have wheelchair access to the front door of the downstairs? I had to have a wheelchair ramp built.

A stair lift can be helpful to access the upstairs, but only while you have adequate core strength. You need to ask yourself what is upstairs that you really need.

Some people find it easier to move, if remodeling is too problematic.

If you can find a portable shower that works for you, excellent! You might want to check Amazon for ideas.

 

[affected]

If you have a room downstairs with a floor drain a portable shower is easy. Ours was simply a square, with blow up sides that the shower chair could roll over. I put up some shower curtains that I could pull around to stop water spreading too far.

We used this in the actual bathroom and it is not a big room, but it worked perfectly.

I can dig up some photos of the base if they are not already here. It simply drained through the floor drain.

 

[Katalin]

I did some research on this when I was looking for a portable shower for my Mum in her new apartment. If you google : Wheelchair Accessible Portable Shower Stall Standard Model, it will start to give you some results, which will lead you to the type I think Tillie is mentioning. Instead, Mum decided to just go with really good bedbaths. She gets one every night, from head to toe, then another good wash in the morning with warm water, soap, washcloth, for the peri area and whatever she can reach, and we wash hair with her either leaning over the basin of the bathroom sink, or with a bowl of water, and a series of washcloths to first wet, then to remove shampoo. Less exhausting. Mum found even tepid water in the shower to take the tar out of her. It's a bit of a shift in thinking, but we were raised without daily baths, but we were spic and span by washing with soap, water, washcloth, head to toe every night, then a quick wash in the morning. Good luck!

 

[Nikki J]

For hair washing someone here reported using shampoo caps with success ( google will pop up links for you)

 

[Katalin]

Nikki, my sister was recently hospitalized, and was offered a shampoo cap, and she LOVED it...will look into it for Mum, when the other method becomes onerous for her.

 

[Katalin]

Yikes! Re: shower cap...ONE cap, for single use (some peeps get two uses out of it), costs $25 CDN with shipping on Amazon. Washcloths and a basin: free, and pretty easy to use too.

 

[Nikki J]

For US people please note they are 2-3 dollars per cap. I did see 6 for 48 canadian just now but still too much unless you are desperate

 

[affected]

I found a couple of photos of our portable shower base.

Really simple and any good upholsterer could make one for very reasonable price.

The first photo shows the base on the floor with the curtain pulled.
The second shows my tiny bathroom with the base now upside down drying in the bath tub and you can see the shower commode where it was kept to dry after use.

The home modifications organisation kindly rented me that shower base for $50 total. They apparently paid about $100 to have them made. The raised edges are filled with a foam. Add cost of a rail and shower curtain and we added a longer hose onto the shower head so it could reach further and this made things very affordable.

For slow progression I am sure it is worth remodels if you have the money. For us, with rapid progression it was a perfect solution and we used it til the last few days when Chris did not want a shower anymore. It worked perfectly, was fast to set up and pull down

 

[KarenNWendyn]

Excellent point. Rate of progression should be factored into all decisions.

 

[affected]

Karen I agree rate of progression is a huge factor, not just for the $ cost, but the quality of life cost.

What I mean is, my Chris lived for 11 months after diagnosis. By the time home modifications teams were combing our house and figuring things out, it was worked out that we would have been lucky if they had started the work while he was still here.

Some of these things take months and months to put in place and get completed. Within a week they had that base made for us (all theirs had the drain hole in the middle, but they had to make one with the hole in a corner so it would work in our bathroom) and to us within a week.

If I had been showering him in here for some years, I would have considered major remodelling to make it all feel like a permanent solution.

We also simply converted the lounge room into his room as it is in the middle of everything, and big enough that we could have his hospital bed, recliner chair, hoist, PWC, wheelie walker all in use. I just kept piling furniture to the ceiling in an unused bedroom to allow room for equipment and his needs.

We actually tried to sell this place and buy a more accessible house, but after 3 months of trying he had already gone from walking unassisted to using a walker in the home and wheelchair the rest of the time, no speech, peg feeds and breathing deteriorating fast. We just stayed and converted what rooms were used for, added ramps and this worked for rapid progression. It was brilliant having him in the main area of the house for our situation.

 

[Turtals]

When my husband could no longer do the stairs, we considered the stairlift option (ruled out for reasons others have said), remodeling our downstairs (also ruled out due to disruption, timing, cost) and went with a portable shower. It works really well. It works off a regular faucet and sink for draining. We have a small sun room on our first floor where we have set up his room with his hospital bed and shower. We keep the shower set up all the time since his PCA gives him daily showers and we have the space but it is fairly easy to set up and take down if only using 1x/week. We also take it down occasionally to clean it outside and have taken it with us when we went to a vacation house this summer. Happy to send along the name of the company (incredibly helpful and friendly family-run business) and photos of our set-up if interested.

 

[affected]

@Turtals, please do give name and photos - it's so helpful to actually see the setups people use successfully!