good slippers with solid sole?

[Laura in CA]

I hope its okay to ost questions here but I think PALs will know best. I am a CALS (part time, well, full-time right now my dad is staying with me for eight days).

He wears his slippers most days and we shower him once or twice a week. His massage therapist cleans his feet twice a week when she works on him. But his Old Friend sheepskin slippers stink really badly. We've used all kinds of deoderizers. He needs something with a stron rubber sole because when we transfer him from chair to his lift (before bed or for shower), he "stands" while holding onto the walker. He can't do this barefoot, he needs some grip on the floor.

Any suggestions? We love the slippers but can't just keep buying new ones every time they get stinky. I'm hoping for a removable washable insert but didn't find anything like this on Zappos.com Would appreciate any you've found that work! Thanks!

 

[abbas child]

Would socks with sticky soles be enough? Until I needed to slide along the walls barefoot, sticky soled socks were my normal foot attire indoors. They do grip well. I'm speaking of the kind with the dots on the soles. I believe Amazon sells them, and hospitals send patients home with their own personal socks...

 

[kelly]

Funny that you mention the socks from the hospital. When I was in for a very minor surgery..I was slightly drugged up and weepy and asked the nurse if I could take some extra socks for my hubby. THe lady was so sweet and threw 4 pairs in the bag. They really help my hubby while he is in bed to grip his feet on the sheets to move them. Good luck with the slippers!

 

[Laura in CA]

Thank you both for the suggestion! We actually have some of those socks but they're not enough at this point. He really can barely stand at all, with two of us holding him up(I don't want to think about what we'll do when he can't stand at all anymore - no more showers I guess?) He just needs that heavier support, I think he'd slip around int he socks. I did email zappos.com and I got a reply with some suggestions of washable slippers.
Thank you so much for helping! Laura

 

[abbas child]

Laura, it sounds like you need to look into a lift system. The ALSA often has loaners (look up "hoyer" lift, for an idea). Mine is the hydraulic hoyer type, but made by Invacare and can be used to lift me off the floor... where I have landed too many times. My girlfriends use it as well as my husband, and a woman CAN handle a man by using it. Phil and a caregiving friend both have used it to place me on the bench in the shower... but there's no "lip" or short wall. The base of this kind of lift has got to slide under or around the shower and toilet... and bed.

There are ceiling mounted and wall mounted lifts also, but either you pay big $ or, like Joel in this forum, "do it yourself" to install them. Ann

 

[Laura in CA]

abbas child question re:lift

Thank you abbaschild! We actually do use a lift for all transfers - the invacare one. But he still needs to stand at one point - i.e. in the morning we use the lift to get him out of bed and into transport chair (small non-motorized wheelchair) then we use a strap to get him standing with the walker helping us to stabilize him, while we drop his pants and put the commode behind him. Then after using the commode we change his diaper, pants and shoes around his ankles, then stand him up again to pull the pants up and put him into his big chair for the day.
I guess my question would be, when one can no longer stand how do you change clothes or even pull down pants for commode? (We do have the lift with commode cutout and use it for showers so we can get to his butt to clean him up).
I'd appreciate any suggestions on simplifying this or avoiding standing him up, it takes alot out of him even though its only for a few moments, and its becoming very difficult for him to do it.
Thank you!

 

[abbas child]

Oh. Well, you quit using pants, lol. On another forum kilts were suggested for men. However, there's a place called "Silverts dot com that sells pants with the back open (velcro used I believe). Also, there is a great website if you want to use current pants and just alter them, written by an RN who has ALS, Diane. The site is living-with-als dot com, and when there look at the "toileting" section. With these altered pants they don't need to be pulled up and down.

One more important addition for ease of transferring... if you don't have the sling model with straps to wrap around legs, do get one. The "hole" in the sling is not so easy to use. The one you want is shown at Diane's site and called a "toileting sling", and not to state the obvious, but make sure it has a head rest--that it's high enough to support his head.
If a woman should see this thread and wonder about us, try slitting a skirt up to the elastic waistband, zig-zag both new edges, and pull over the head while on the wheelchair, draping it around you. Or if, like me, you can't be bothered while in the house, just use a "throw" over your lap... mine totally covers me down to my boots, gets caught under the wheels while I'm moving and then leaves my lap.:roll: Other than my father I have few male visitors. If visitors are here you can believe I'm really careful... and don't do a lot of rolling around.