After struggling for too long with bathing and even getting into our bathroom, we are finally turning our bathroom into a wet-room.

I am a wheelchair user and the bathroom is the most difficult room to use. Everything is designed for someone who is able-bodied. I have lots of mobility aids; like a bath board, shower chair, handgrips and rails, which have made a difference, but it is still just far too difficult.

The problems we have at the moment.

• The furniture – the toilet and the sink are in the wrong place.
• I can’t easily get into the bath which has a shower over it.
• I can’t roll my wheelchair properly under the sink as the pedestal gets in the way.
• The bathroom cabinet goes above the sink – but it just too high.
• The toilet is too close to the wall at the side.
• The controls for the shower are too high.
• The bath takes up so much room, and this means that there is so little space left that I can’t turn my wheelchair around once I am in the bathroom.
• The door is only just wide enough for me to roll through.

I am hoping the new wet-room and adaptations will help with the following:

• A wider door will let me get into the room more easily.
• A completely flat floor, will mean I can just roll under the shower.
• A sink with no pedestal will mean my wheelchair will fit underneath comfortably.
• A toilet that has plenty of room all around it will help me with transfers.
• Sensible grab-rails that are in the right place for me will make a huge difference. Not only so I keep my balance in the shower (when I shut my eyes I feel dizzy, so being able to hold on to a grab-rail with one hand while I wash my hair will be invaluable) but also so I can transfer to the toilet more easily..
• No bath – so there will be so much more room to move.
• Shelves and storage that I can reach will be so helpful.
• Shower controls that I can operate myself will be an obvious but important help.

I am looking forward to the new wet-room. Instead of asking for help all the time, (or worse, not being able to wash myself) – I will get my independence and dignity back.

Once the building work is done, I will write another article reviewing how good (or bad) the new wet-room is.

It’s bad enough that I need to use mobility aids – but why do they so often have to look so ugly?

I am young (I’m in my 30’s) and I need help in the house. I have done for 3 years, and about 2 years ago I decided it was high time to stop struggling and do something about it.

I had two choices.

I could get a carer to come in and do loads and loads of things for me. This was not practical – the cost would be huge and my dignity, self respect and independence would have gone out of the window.

I could get some mobility aids to help me do the things that I  needed to do, but had difficulty doing on my own.

Really, I had no choice. I had to get some mobility aids. However, when I looked through magazines and the internet for equipment I needed – I was depressed and shocked. I didn’t want to live with such ugly equipment around me. Just because I have a disability doesn’t mean I don’t have taste.

Everything seemed to be so basic, have absolutely no design qualities and often was made out of ugly grey plastic. OK, they probably did the job. You could argue that mobility aids don’t need to look good they heed to help people get more out of their lives. I wasn’t satisfied with that though. I wanted choice. So many choices had been taken away from me. I wanted control over how my house looked. I didn’t want my Fiancée living amongst such awful aids either. Just looking at some equipment made me feel very old and disabled. No one should be made to feel like that by a piece of plastic. It’s so unnecessary.

My advice is shop around for mobility aids. Sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised. Chrome seems to be cropping up more and more. Manufacturers seem to be taking more care in how items look, not just what they do. I read that 1 in 3 people in the UK are disabled or are close to somebody who has a disability. [Source: Office of National Statistics Census 2001] And that the 10 million disabled people who live in the UK have a combined annual spending power of over £80 billion. [Source: DWP 2004] No longer do we have to make do with aids that other people say we have to use. We have the power to say no, and that we want better.

Some people will just need 1 or 2 mobility aids to make a big difference in their life. Others need so much more. Sometimes social services will help, sometimes not. My advice is always shop around for what is best for you and what you are happy using.

A year ago my world turned upside down. My husband had a stroke and was hospitalized for months. Every day I visited him in hospital. He wasn’t the man I married. Even though I knew him so well, I couldn’t understand what he was saying. He couldn’t walk, eat by himself, or dress himself. It was so demoralising for him, I could see it in his face. I could barely watch him.

I never thought that he would make the recovery that he has. Intensive physiotherapy has helped so much. Everyday it looked like he was being tortured, but in reality the wonderful staff were helping him regain his life back.

Today, he has been home for a couple of months. He can walk a little. I can understand what he is trying to tell me. He still has huge problems, but he is so much better than I thought he could ever be.

I am glad it is getting warmer. I bought him a mobility scooter, which he loves. He tends to just go to the park, which is only about a mile away. He sits and watches the world go by. He says he prefers it to his electric wheelchair. He says he feels safer and more in control. He says he feels more like it is a vehicle that he is riding and not an extension of him, which is what the wheelchair made him feel like. I go with him sometimes, and can easily walk beside him. I would get on my bicycle and go with him but to be honest there is a hill on the way to the park. It’s easy in his scooter, but I don’t fancy cycling up it!

Things at home are not easy. He has a carer that comes in to help twice a day. She helps him get washed, dressed and up for the day. Our house now has more mobility aids than I care to count. All of them help him do the everyday things that he and I used to just take for granted. From beakers with lids to drink out of, and cutlery that is specially designed to help him not to drop and actually eat his food. We have a bath lift for the bath and he relies on the grab rail on our bed for help getting in and out. His tablet dispenser is simple but it helps him take his own medication instead of me always having to remember what pill to take when.

All in all life is totally and completely different to a year ago. Our priorities have changed. Now we live for every precious moment. My only worry now is that he doesn’t use his scooter to go to the pub to watch the World Cup!