Preparing to Age in Place

Tomorrow is my last day in a boot. The achilles tendon transfer was successful! I get to wear a PAIR of shoes and long pants for the first time since the first of January. For a month, anyway. Then I'll have surgery on my left achilles, and start the long recovery process again.

A few years ago I made a stout railing on the front steps. I designed it so that it can be lifted out of its brackets to be able to back up to the steps with my pickup - or an ambulance. When both of my achilles tendons ruptured at Christmas, I was in the hospital for 9 days, and during that time our newly retired carpenter/neighbor built a ramp. I was non weight bearing for 3 months, in a wheelchair, until I was fitted with carbon fiber orthotic braces, and could walk again with a walker. I requested a walker that had larger wheels than the standard issue, so I could move around my yard. After surgery, I used a standard knee scooterl but I fell every time I went outside, and sometimes in the house. So, I found an all terrain one on eBay, with disc brake, shocks, and a much more cushioned knee rest. No more crashes.

If anyone uses a walker or a knee scooter, and wants to be able to move around on uneven ground, I highly recommend getting the largest wheels. They're better inside, too, especially if there are sills in doorways. Much safer!

This week I'm going to install a grab bar inside my shower. I haven't used the shower since Christmas, so the bar wasn't needed urgently. I've considered a fold down seat, but the ones I've looked at have poor reviews.

Having a flashlight within close reach is another thing that can prevent accidents when the power goes off, which it's been doing quite regularly this summer.

Gotta stop and go cover the tomatoes and peppers because it's going to be close to freezing tonight.

Jim

I'm installing two more grab bars in our bathrooms.
Call them "secondary" grab bars as they might help getting to the main grab bars.
Or they may never be needed.
Meanwhile they can serve as towel racks!
I wonder if I'm going overboard with my "preparations," but I remember five years ago questioning the need to install the walk in shower with multiple grab bars, but we went ahead and installed them.
Then my wife had surgeries which left her very wobbly for several weeks.
These are things we need to prepare now, while they are not needed, because even a temporary disability is an emergency.

I'm continuing with critical reorganizing of my office closet with the goal of effective aging-in-place. Here's what my closet is teaching me:

1) One of the dangers of aging in our homes is that we become curators of our lifetime collection of mementos and leftovers of past careers, hobbies, family events, etc. These passive leftovers take up space. The space of our homes becomes more and more occupied by this collection.

2) The space available for current active living is crowded and cramped by the passive collection.
Our identities may be caught up in our collection, but unless we have unlimited space we must make difficult judgements between our need for memorabilia and our need for ease of meeting our current needs.

3) These decisions can be exhausting and they are not going to get easier. In a time of illness they could exact a real cost of limited life energy.

4) For my office I want to discard things which I really don't need anymore and keep things which have a reasonable chance of being useful over the rest of my life. The ones I will need and use now should be as front, forward, available and easy to reach. I need to value easy-to-use space and avoid crowding.

So I'm still working on my closet and bookshelves. Three shopping bags of old papers are thrown out. Two file drawers are emptied and all file cabinets are easy to access. Now I need to reorganize the file drawers to best serve my current life needs.

Exactly Ed! We installed grab bars in place of towel bars 10 years ago, foreseeing future needs. I get periodic vertigo, and it can be a lifesaver for me.
When we remodeled our winter tiny home bath, we did the same. The contractor thought is was such a great idea he includes it in all his designs now.

Once can buy suction-affixed grab bars on Amazon.

Strong and did not damage the shower walls

Joan-
This morning on our walk we saw a neighbor looking at the church garden. Hazel was interested and I remembered your message, so we detoured to say good morning.
She was enjoying the plants and also the bees and butterflies.
For the first time we had a little conversation. We both know Fred, our neighbor who is a butterfly census taker and knows lots of butterfly species.
People who love plants, bees and butterflies are people who love living things. When you care for a plant you give a little bit of your heart to the plant, hope that it will live and grow.
And it is always good to spend a little time with someone who loves living things, plant or animal!
Thank you!