Sliding Sheets? How to Use, How to Move my PAL with One Person

[lgelb]

"XL" or "extra long" or "twin long" sheets will fit hospital beds and allow them to go up and down. We tried cotton jersey and cotton blends before settling on the pima (in warm weather; in the winter I should have noted that we used flannel).

We didn't use a draw sheet since Larry couldn't be rolled, just the slip sheet (low friction like your tube) for pivoting. We did not need to use it for pulling him closer to the head of the bed because he did not slip. I do think the foam overlay was critical to his body's being able to settle in. The tradeoff might seem to be pressure injury risk especially for someone with less padding (fat), but position shifts and transfers if/as they can be tolerated are good for many reasons, skin integrity being only one.

 

[Katalin]

Thanks all. These anecdotes really help. And I'll be extra careful of downunder

This Present Moment, that sounds like a very special bedding setup for your dad. I've unfortunately been spending a LOT of time at hospitals and rehabs with Mum, and I've never seen anything like what you described.

And good to know about the sizing for the sheets, and for the overlay advice. I agree with you Laurie, it makes sense about the foam. What good is the space age mattress that prevents ulcers, but is so uncomfortable, the PALS is in misery. AND when you said earlier that if I've got her "on the "chucks" all the time, assuming you meant an incontinence pad with handles? Not familiar with that term.

Well. Going shopping now for poly-tafetta for the sliding tube. And some more egg-crate foam. We're getting mattress number 4 delivered next week, which will have cells running lengthwise. It's what we asked for, and we were sorry to see they just sent us another with side to side cells again. It's more comfortable though. I accidentally left the other piece of foam I inserted on top of the really uncomfortable mattress *inside* the mattress and it went back to the ALS closet. She'll need another piece of foam in THIS mattress over the weekend to get her over the hump till the (hopefully!) more comfortable mattress comes. Very exciting.

 

[lgelb]

Yup, that's what I meant, Kathy.

Yes, you sound like you have way too much excitement in your life right now, playing spin the wheel on beds! But this is a big challenge and it will get done.

Best,
Laurie

 

[Katalin]

Spin the Wheel on the Beds, The Pillow Dance, and a new fun way of losing weight for myself: The Caregiver's Diet, LOL, basically, no time, little appetite, and some stress. I haven't looked this good in years.

My husband recently asked if I got The Caregiver's Haircut. Very observant of him. Yes. Yes, I did. I took the scissors to my bangs with, well, questionable results.

It'll get better. Things will settle down for a while And the bangs will grow out.

 

[KarenNWendyn]

Katalin, you go girl!

 

[affected]

Wonderful sense of humour - good on you for finding the silver linings! :lol:

 

[Katalin]

...and a hat will fix any bad haircut... Yup, six weeks and a hat.

 

[affected]

With the cold you would have there being winter you can keep your head covered easily :lol:

 

[Katalin]

This was the best video on how to use a Sally sheet with one person, and no log-rolling. He took about 2 1/2 minutes to do it, while explaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8uLl-G2xh0

 

[affected]

I like how he shows how very slippery sally is, and how it works when you pull the bottom layer. Also good talking about friction as this is something to really avoid. You could see how easily that person would move with the double slippery tube underneath.

It is something I totally dislike about the other slide sheets I've seen shown that are sheets with handles - they still take muscle and they can still create a lot of friction. sally rocks

 

[lgelb]

The SlidEase sheets are very slick, more so on one side than the other so you can customize the setup. In fact, we used ours under a fitted sheet (popped the corners in the morning) and on top of a mattress pad/foam overlay, under a 250# guy, and it still pivoted fine while still being comfortable enough to sleep on.

Of course, the tubes are for above-sheet use. Still, for safety's sake, having a slip sheet underneath is worth considering. And they machine wash/dry.

I haven't adequately clarified the differences between hospital beds. When you have an eight-button control, one pair should control the head, one the bed height, one the feet, and one for Trendelenburg (head down, body up, used for surgery patients)/reverse Trendelenburg (head up, body down, great for a guy using a urinal).

So the important point is that using all four sets of buttons together, you can get someone very stable, and as upright as they can tolerate, so you shouldn't have to keep pulling them up once they are settled. Careful positioning, which often includes foam blocks, a foam belt securing the legs, and/or pressure boots, can also aid breathing and reduce edema in the arms and legs.

A standard Medicare-reimbursed home hospital bed doesn't have the "cardiac chair" (reverse Trendelenburg) functionality, i.e. has six buttons instead of eight.. But it's well worth getting justification written on the order to get what you can/paying extra for what you can't. Considering the time that PALS spend in it...

Unless there are pre-existing risks for pressure injury such a history of smoking, weight loss distribution that has created bony prominences, etc., starting with a foam overlay and moving up the technology ladder if/as needed rather than going straight to air cell overlays or mattresses gives more flexibility in the overall setup. That was why I made the earlier comment.

So just to be clear, our layers were:

1 Fitted sheet on top
2 Then the SlidEase with handles
3 Mattress pad (to protect the overlay and also reduce drag on the SlidEase)

[these first three were what went in the wash]. Then under those, the 3 we never touched:

4 Foam overlay
5 Low voltage heated mattress pad (IMHO, every PALs could benefit from this unless you live in an always-warm climate)
6 Medical grade foam mattress (ours was 36x84 since Larry was 6'1")

Best,
Laurie

 

[Katalin]

Tillie, I think this is a great video. I'm sewing up my Sally today, using just polyester taffeta. It won't have the silicone coating, but it should still provide a lot of slide, without being too slippery. I can move her alone with the chuck, but I know it's not smart, for reasons of potentially hurting my own back, and for her, skin sheering---her skin is not fragile at this time, but could be at any moment. I like that this is the first person I've found doing it ALONE.

 

[affected]

I'm excited to hear how your home-made one works out.

I did everything for my Chris alone. I did have carers that came to the home, but the way things work here is that I was not allowed to work with them (a safety thing for them

They were only allowed to do certain tasks because many things I did alone were considered '2 person tasks' and since only one worker came and could not work with me ...

I was lucky my OT was very experienced both in equipment and manual handling and understood (or quickly learned) the issues for Chris as a PALS.

What she could not do, alone, with slide sheet either in a bed, a recliner chair or wheelchair were not worth bothering about.

We had a hospital bed, but no Trendelenburg function, with an alternating air mattress. The electric hoist, slide sheet and the biggest collection of pillows you can imagine, totally enabled me to look after Chris as a one person job.

The thing with possibly sheering skin is that it doesn't need to be fragile to start with - just one injury and the fragility can begin. So you are being smart to be aware of avoiding this from the start.

So many of us mix and match many things that those who have gone before have tried out until we each find the suite of tools and techniques that work for us.

 

[Katalin]

Home-made slippery sally transfer tube, made out of polyester taffeta: sadly, fail. Not slippery enough. Tried it with the PSW, and she tried it with me this morning. Didn't budge. Sigh...I had great hopes for it. I'm having a mad moment of wondering if a large heavy-duty contractor's garbage bag would work: just slice open up the bottom: you'd have a tube that was slippery. I might try it on my favourite PSW tomorrow morning. Obviously you'd have to be careful, but nothing much to lose.

 

[affected]

Dang!
Can you put a silicone spray on it?

I'd be concerned about garbage bags breaking.

I'd just consider buying a sally tube as the cost is so reasonable - even with shipping to the US. The tubes in Australia are only around $20 AUD.