| No one wants to find himself naked and injured, yet many of us neglect the one place in our home that could lead to such an embarrassing circumstance: the bathroom. I never even considered the importance of bath safety until I experienced it with my dad's fall. At the young age of 65 he began to notice the ever increasing effects of age: slower reflexes, weaker muscles, and more brittle bones and unfortunately, because he did not plan to protect himself, he fell and injured himself in the bath. Thankfully he is recovering nicely. But I want others to understand the importance of injury-proofing their baths. A number of products that will protect anyone from the age of 10 to 90 exist. One major item would have saved my dad from my injury: safety decals. These sticky decals stick to the bottom of a tub and create the necessary friction for standing in the shower or just getting up from a long soak in the tub. They come in a variety of colors and shapes. Those with kids will enjoy picking out some of the fun shells, fish, or marine life-shaped decals in fun colors and more importantly, they will be protecting themselves and their loved ones from a painful fall. We should also pay attention to the placement of our shower curtains. Make sure your shower curtain, the part that is supposed to be inside the tub, indeed stays the tub. A shower curtain that lurks outside the tub will lead to extra moisture on an already slick floor. A bath mat outside of the tub will also help prevent injuries. Make sure that you always have this mat to step on and soak up any moisture that leaks out from the shower. It will save your floor and your bones. Bath mats come in a variety of colors and textures, from short sheared rugs to fluffy, furry ones. You can easily accessorize your bathroom with this mat and save yourself from unnecessary injury. Finally, consider a safety bar. You can mount this metal bar on the side of your tub. It will help you get out of the tub easier by giving you something to hold onto to steady yourself, and you can grab onto it if you do feel yourself falling. It could easily save you from an injury-causing fall. I hate that my dad fell. I am sure it was embarrassing and frustrating, and moreover, it physically set him back. I now have to help him nurse an injury that could have easily been prevented. Now I know better, and with these additions to my own bath as well as my dad's, I have lowered the chances of injury incrementally. Hopefully you can do the same. |
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