Thursday, May 26, 2011

A look at the most challenging part of my day

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When it comes to the most challenging part of my day I’d have to say it occurs every morning when I start getting ready for the day. My regular morning routine starts just like everyone else’s day in the bathroom. My issues begin the second I have to climb into tub to take a shower. It always starts the same - my main concern is getting in and out of the tub as I am always worried that I may end up slipping and falling. The biggest issue is that I never know when one of my legs is going to give out, it actually happened once when I was stepping out of the shower and this resulted in a nasty looking bruise on the upper part of my leg. But what I am mostly concerned about is falling while taking a shower. The one thing you should know about Becker Muscular Dystrophy is that when we fall there's no way for us to stop ourselves. Unfortunately if we were holding onto a safety bar all it would do is get in our way or we might even rip it out of the wall. The main issue you with taking a shower in a tub is that they are so narrow and that there's really no room for us to move around and if you slip and fall who knows what could happen. Just today while taking a shower I knocked  the shampoo bottle over and where did it fall straight to the bottom of the tub. This is a place I call a no go zone since bending over to pick it up would probably result in one of my legs giving out or my hand slipping off my knee which I use for support. So what did I end up doing using my foot to work it back up onto the side ledge of the tub a much better place for me to pick it up from. Honestly this is probably not the best thing for me to do and I am very thankful I didn't fall.

This would be much better
So as you can see taking a shower in a narrow bath tub is a major problem, this is why I really wish I had was a place that was properly set up to address all my specific needs. When I was younger I was lucky enough to live in a place that had a very large walk in shower which made my life much easier. Eventually I ended up moving out of that place since the rest of the apartment was simply too small. At that time I wasn't really having any major issues related to living with Becker`s Muscular Dystrophy. At this stage in my life though it's a different story, today I really wish I lived in an apartment with a walk in shower as it would help to make my life so much easier. My advice to anyone living with Becker's or any other condition that limits you physically is to do your best to live in a place that suits your needs and includes a walk-in shower. Especially one that provides you plenty of room to move around in. That way you won`t be stuck living in a place that makes taking a shower the most challenging part of your day.


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