Life Stories and Beyond

If anyone had told me my new best friends would be a bedside potty and a knee scooter, I would’ve said, “No way. My best friends are electricity and running hot and cold water.”

I learned to treasure those essential buddies from too many hurricanes and their aftermaths. Now I must add to my list of essential treasures.

After falling in a hole in the lovely leaf-covered woods, I was able to curse a little and call God a lot, yet unable to stand or even move my right leg. Nearly passing out repeatedly, I knew I was in trouble. After being rescued and carried out of those woods by two of my adult children, each one holding a leg, I learned Sarah and Sam are as strong as oxen. Sarah and I spent the next seven hours in the ER and learned the X-rays showed a broken fibula (basically, the anklebone). Not just a bad sprain; I was in worse trouble than I thought.

These strong kids had to hoist me up the front steps to get me into the house where I finally landed in a rolling office chair for a ride to my bed.

Sweet relief to be home faded as I realized there would be a need to potty now and then. Oh Lordy. The rolling chair wouldn’t fit through the bathroom door. I had to hold onto my husband Dan and hop like a lopsided kangaroo to the porcelain chair.

I’ll skip the private details but will admit my modesty left with childbirth so I accepted hubby’s help as I propped and bent, and hung on to my britches which kept wanting to fall down to the floor. Meanwhile I was balancing on one foot and hurting like the dickens underneath that massive splint.

Hop, hop, hopping to the rolling chair outside the bathroom door, I plopped down on the seat without hitting the floor, and I was wheeled to the table to eat for the first time in forever.

Fast forward: The next morning, after a horrible night of non-sleep, Dan appeared with accessibility supplies from our church swap program. He brought a wheelchair, a shower seat, a bed transfer board, and a bedside potty chair. I promise you, I heard the Angels singing.

Here’s the gist of the situation. The wheelchair is helpful but awkward to get in and out of the bathroom. On the bright side, that beautiful potty chair sits at the foot of the bed and all I have to do is run people off, put down my left foot, hold the damaged leg in the air and swivel to sit down independently. No help required. Heavenly.

There is a special secret to using the bedside potty. Put plenty of bags in the bottom of the container and pour in some kitty litter. You heard that right, kitty litter. Cats have the right idea. All that they need is a human willing to clean it out and restock it, ready for use.

My other best friend I mentioned is my cute little pink knee scooter. Since my injury is low on the leg, I can put my injured leg’s knee on the scooter and get all over the house. Currently because of the healing process, I’m pretty tired so I don’t go too fast, but my grandson does. He’s a beast on that thing.

If anyone wants more advice as I find helpful hints in this recovery process, I’m happy to share. But I’ll reiterate, that bedside potty and kitty litter is the bombdiggity. Maybe y’all could use one for potty training your kids. Just a thought.