We took along many accessories that helped Mom remain independent and left me to rest or work out other problems. These included things like her dressing stick, a plug-in nightlight, her water bottle (for during the night), and the folding commode. At home, she has a terrific set up at her bed. There's just enough space between the side of her bed and the wall, for her to wheel up to her spot on the bed. There's a grab bar on the wall and the commode is at the head of the bed, so she's facing it, when she wheels up there. Once she's standing, there's no way for her to end up on the floor. She'll either fall to the bed, back into the wheel chair, on the commode, or onto the wall. And with the grab bar to hold onto...all of that is unlikely. We couldn't put a grab bar on the hotel room wall, obviously, but we took the commode and figured we'd do our best. (more on how it all worked out, in Section 9.)
Travelling with the commode was a big concern. We really didn't want to just haul a commode through an airport or hotel lobby. From a bicycle shop, we obtained a discarded cardboard bike box. We cut it down to the exact length we needed and it nicely handled the commode AND the bucket. (We got a shorter bucket than the normal ones with most commodes.) The bike box had nice hand holds on each side and worked perfectly. I left it open, until we got to the airline baggage checkin, so the people could see that it was just a "handicap accessory". In retrospect, I should have crossed out the name "Voodoo" on the side of the box. I noticed that the younger crowd was eyeing the box...probably thinking it was a bicycle, and thinking of stealing it. Wouldn't THEY have been surprised if they took it? :)
In general, we looked at all the accessories Mom used at home, and asked ourselves, "Is it more trouble to take it? Or is it more trouble to be without it?" Bedrails lost. They stayed home. But many of the smaller items came along and we were so glad to have them.
