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Well, this drawing is kinda old, but just getting around to posting it. There seems to be much bathroom talk here, but don't worry, I will spare you all the gory details. We never seem to recognize the most mundane routine of our day to day - until it stares us in the face and commands utter and complete attention.
"Look at me, look at me!!"
There's been many times where I have found myself stuck on the toilet pleaing and crying to my body to, "please get up". Throughout my days I absolutely dreaded the Porcelain God and that nagging urge to peepee. I would literally be in FEAR of this routine act.
As my progression has evolved the style in which I rise from the toilet has evolved over time.
I always remember that day in Dr. Seidel's office in 2002 when he asked me, "Can you get up and down from a seated position?" as he filled out my chart with checked boxes and notes.
"Ummm, well yea, why wouldn't I be able to?" as I arrogantly demonstrated getting up and sitting down on his office chair without a blink, without assistance, without even holding onto the arm rests.
Over time that has obviously become more apparent and my getting up and down slower to non-existent.
I've adopted the style of using my hands, arms and legs to push myself up from a chair to literally throwing my body onto a table with my face squished onto the surface and then slowly, and ever so carefully, pushing myself up consciously utilizing every muscle available.
Even thinking about using a public bathroom alone has become a nightmare. A year and a half ago I could use the public bathroom at my work. If I am familiar with the surrounding, I can wiggle and create a magic routine until my body gets used to the situation. My left hand grabs the handicap bathroom rail, my right hand resting on the toilet seat pushing my body up at an angle ad as soon as I feel my hip lock, with every muscle I had left I did my best to push myself up slowly with an assistive and constant mutter, "please don't fall, please don't fall."
Nowadays, going to a public bathroom alone is non-existent. However, my home is a place I can have a little more control over and outfit to fit my body's changes. Every new bathroom I must take in account the size, what I can grab on, what I can lean on...before drafting a plan.
My last bathroom in San Francisco was pretty small, which was a good thing, because I relied on the wall and the door that was situated right next to the toilet to assist me up.
When I first moved into that place, my bathroom style was; grab doorknob with left hand, put right hand on toilet, wedge foot in between the door and wall, that way I could pull the door closed while lifting, and my foot the barrier that I could push my foot against the door and use as an extra weight to push up on.
This was shortlived. The toilet too low for me to get up by myself. Plan J.
Then I bought a plastic toilet rise that gained me an extra 6 inches of height = less height for my legs to push up to. This worked for a very short time. My wrists had gotten weaker, along with my legs, and I would find myself stuck on the toilet, alone...crying to myself and to my little Pippi in the most broken hearted sob. I had alot of downtime to think in the bathroom...I created stories in that very quiet space imagining the bathroom tiles, the light peering through the window, the walls, as something more than what they were.
I soon put a wood stool in front of me, so I could push my body onto it and lift with my legs and arms while having a sturdy table beneath me. This became a tricky scenario and each time I prayed I wouldn't fall, making it up each time by the skin of my teeth.
My latest bathroom style is this very wonderful electronic toilet lift. I didn't know it existed. I push a button and it propels me up towards the heavens in a very slow, yet breezy, adventure. Weeeeee! It's called the Neptune Toilet Lift, but here are many different versions that do the same thing, and I seriously fell in love with it when it arrived in a great big cardboard box. I wanted to hold hands with it, I loved it that much. It became more than a piece of equipment, yet a doorway to some independance and I personified him into "tushpush.2000". Christmas in July, indeed. I thought I was pretty neat stuff rising and lowering in the air. Where there is a will, there is way. Don't ever give up...
I don't look quite as graceful completing the deed as this fine elderly woman that is demonstrating it, but hey, doesn't matter how you get there. :P
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