I bought a transfer bench for my Mom to take a shower. The shower is a full bathtub/shower combination. She was sitting on the side of the tub and swinging her legs in, then standing, but we're hoping she can sit and shower, now.
I have the bench in the tub with it right under the shower head and I realized that I don't quite know how to arrange the shower curtain.
With the transfer bench, there, I can't pull the shower curtain along the tub to keep the water in as we did when Mom just took a shower.
Or, to soak it up from the floor? Or, whatever ideas you have on this are helpful.
Before someone suggests a fancy bathtub, this is what we can afford AND we need something, right now for her. So, waiting to install a fancy tub isn't ideal plus there's just not the money for something like that.
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Get a solid color shower curtain ( I used a medium weight white one from Wal-Mart). I like it because it has magnates, suction cups and medal gourmets.
Also get a 3/4 inch sticky back roll of Velcro at least 2 times the length of shower curtain.
Assuming the shower head, hand held or water spiked is mounted on the side of the shower(shower head wall), and the other side of the shower is the back wall. Measure the distance between the shower head wall and the first bench rail, the distance between the rails and the 2nd bench rail and the back wall.
Now here is the tricky part. You need to cut the shower curtain into 3 panels. The first panel (panel A) goes between the shower wall and the first rail. The second panel (panel B) goes between the rails and the 3rd panel (panel C) goes between the 2nd rail and the back wall.
Now using proportions and assuring that you don't cut through a medal gourmet calculate the length of each panel such that panel A over laps panel B by 1 inch plus the width of the Velcro (1 3/4 inch in my case). Also make sure that the overlap is not covering a gourmet and each panel has at least 2 gourmets. Panel B needs to overlap panel C by 1 inch plus the width of the Velcro also.
Once the panels are cut attach (using the sticky side of) one side of the Velcro on the outside of panel A offset from the edge by 1 inch on the entire length of the panel. On shower head side of Panel B attach the other side of the Velcro on the inside panel B edge (you can overlap the shower head edge of Panel B if you want but I have found that this makes fixing the Velcro more difficult). On the back wall edge of panel B, attach one side of the Velcro on the outside of panel B offset from the edge by 1 inch. On the shower head side of panel C attach the other side of the Velcro to the panel C edge.
To install hang panel A and B and press the Velcro together the length of the curtain. do the same for panel B and C.
To use , undo the Velcro on panel B a couple of inches above the bench rails. Put panel B between the rails and pull it down with a slight tension. Refasten the Velcro being sure to press the area just above and below the rails securely. Adjust the curtain as necessary.
To remove panel B and move the curtain to the side grasp the curtain and jerk up with enough force to undo the Velcro under the rails.
One other fact that I have also found helpful is to set the outside of the bench slightly higher than the inside so that the water that gets on the rails runs inside the shower and not outside the shower.
I haven't tested this method with a non circular rail but I think it will perform much better than the Bench Buddy would in these cases.
If you need more width feel free to use more than one shower curtain.
Patented slit design keeps water inside the tub for maximum safety from slips and falls
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I know the whole story about washing while sitting on a shower chair/bench - it's not easy, especially if they are a larger person or unable to reach to clean "parts" due to disability. Mom doesn't do as good a job as she should and won't let me help (thus my occasional posts/rants about odor), and quite often, I have to clean up the shower chair *after* her shower. I keep trying to get her to understand there's nothing wrong with letting me help her get those areas clean so she doesn't get an infection or sores, but she still won't let me. I know it's a pride/dignity thing...just wish she'd let me help her so she would be cleaner. I did have to finally bring a towel out of the bathroom and show her the unpleasant remains on the towel from her getting out of the tub and sitting on a towel on the closed toilet seat to dry off. She was folding those towels up and putting them back on the shelf...which led to me grabbing the next available towel to dry off when I took my own shower - and finding myself face-to-face with the nastiness left on the towel where she sat on it. Thankfully, she's still coherent and alert enough to understand why I had a problem with that, and now she puts her towels - all of them - into the clothes hamper when she's done.
Also, now that we've had the transfer bench for awhile, Mom loves it, plus her occupational therapist thinks it's the right choice for her, so we really do want to make it work in every way possible. It allows her to shower 100% independently. It took a visit to the occupational therapist to get it out of her how she washes her bottom as she doesn't like to talk about it, but she kind of scootches around and pushes her butt up a little by grabbing her bench.
One solution is to cut the shower curtain so that a portion of it slips down between the crack in the transfer bench into the tub, with the remaining portion hanging normally. (Hope that makes sense.) This may allow a small amount of water to hit the floor, but not much.
The other solution, and the one that we use, is to simply bunch the shower curtain liner up and kind of stuff it into the crack on the transfer bench - no water hits the floor - ever. Mom *does* use a hand shower, but I use the same shower and use the shower head mounted to the wall - either way, no water gets on the floor. But then again, mom does not need assistance showering at this point.