My grandparents are getting up in years. Both their late 80s now, and they live alone ( but within a mile of my parents ). While they are both in reasonably good health, they do have some difficulty getting around. My grandfather broke his ankle many years ago, and it’s never been quite right since. He got along OK when he was younger, but not it’s catching up with him. As a result for compensating for a bad ankle, he now has bad knees to go with it. Unfortunately, when you are pushing 90, knee replacement isn’t much of an option.
While they normally don’t have too much trouble, one challenge is getting in and out of the bath tub. My grandfather has difficulty with this, and has had to be rescued from the tub at least once. At Christmas, my grandmother asked me to do a little research into bath lifts.
I did some looking, and there are a number of very cool products on the market. Transfer benches, mechanical lifts, hydro lifts and battery powered electric lifts are all available. Problem is I can’t find one product review for any of them. Personally I think this is one of the great downfalls of the internet as we know it. There are zillions of products out there, and if you are looking for the latest gadget, phone, TV or game console, there are tons of reviews. On the downside, if you are looking for something that’s not a techy item, reviews are much more difficult to come by. I suppose 90 year old people aren’t much for writing reviews, and physical therapists are afraid putting this kind of information on line will probably devalue their overall expertise, but it’s still a problem.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but I would encourage everyone out there, if you purchase a product, not matter what it is, write a review and post it somewhere. Oh, and if you know anything about bath lifts be sure to leave a comment. I would be interested to hear what you have to say.