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When thinking about adaptations to the main house it is a good idea to have a plan of what is needed when. This helps you to focus on prioritising what to do first so that you are safe.
One of the first things would be to put grab rails everywhere such as by the front door, at the bottom of the stairs, in the bathrooms and any other strategic place. An occupational therapist (OT) could advise you as to the best places to put them.
Everyone is different in how they respond to the disease so you may find you need some of these adaptations in a different order depending on individual needs.
Turning a bathroom in to a wet room I would say is essential. When they need to be in a bath chair you will need extra room to wash them and take them to the toilet. This can take a long time so worth doing at the start. You need to get quotes, find someone who can do it in a reasonable time scale as well as perhaps apply for funding if that is required. I would also say it is a good idea to get an OT to advise on the layout of the wet room to make sure there is enough room either side of the toilet for the lifting equipment and room to manoeuvre into the shower etc.
Fitting a ramp up to the house and into the garden to allow easy access is essential. Even if you are not yet in a wheelchair it does make getting in and out easier if your walking is starting to be affected. You will definitely need it when in the wheelchair.
If the bedrooms are upstairs an easy option is to convert a downstairs room to a bedroom or partition off part of the living room with a curtain. In the short term a stair lift would allow you to go upstairs for longer. It is possible to rent these rather than buy them which is a cheaper option and it can be removed easily when no longer needed.
Another alternative is to have a through floor lift fitted allowing you access to the upstairs and hence your own bedroom. This isn’t cheap and does require the space to do it. You can however get reconditioned one that are slightly cheaper. These come in different sizes but you may have to have a large one if the electric chair is being used, as this is heavy and requires a certain load bearing lift.
I hope these suggestions are useful. We sort advise before making any changes to make sure that we were doing things correctly. We had not experience of MND previously and weren’t really sure of what we would need. We were so glad we had expert advise to guild us.
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