Safety first!!

[Mdaisy]

Good Afternoon Everyone,

We all know how living with Fibromyalgia can make simple tasks around the home more difficult. Most of us at one time or another have mentioned falling, experiencing altered spatial awareness,clumsiness, jerky movements, feeling faint and many other symptoms.

So safety around the home is something we all should be thinking about.

How many of you are furniture walking?

Which means, are you leaning on things around the house to get around?

I must be honest and say I did at first but it is very unsafe if your hand were to slip you could have a serious injury. I realised quite quickly I needed crutches or sticks and I even had one of those four wheeler walkers which was really helpful.

Your local Occupational Therapist (OT) can assess your home for adaptations to help you like bath rails, extra stair rail, shower chair, for instance. I personally had a perching stall, bath board, extra hand rail up the stairs and a stick to grab things with.

Here is a link about Occupational Therapy from NHS choices,

nhs.uk/Conditions/occupatio...

Usually if you speak to your doctor, local social work department or nurse they will be able to provide you with information about how to contact the OT. As far as I am aware the referral system may differ between counties , some places you can refer yourself and others a Healthcare Professional must refer you.

I wonder how many of you would benefit from some of these mobility aids.

If we all were to look at the ways we are doing things at the moment, do we need a little help?

Could some of these actions be causing increased pain and/or fatigue maybe?

Something to think about maybe .......

A while ago a member called Amanda posted a thread called 'In Case of Emergency' (ICE) and I personally think it contains very important information. So I have included the link as I am talking about safety..

Please do look at this link below, Thank You Amanda

fibroaction.healthunlocked....

Do any of you have a lifeline?

I know for some it is not necessary and others will immediately say it is too expensive.

Well if Lifeline is not for you and you need something like this for emergency assistance, there are phones now that have an SOS button on the back. It can be set up to phone 3 numbers that have been registered. When pressed in an emergency, it will automatically call your family member and if there is no answer from the first number it will continue to move down the list until you get an answer.

Also do any of you have a main carer?

What would you do if something happened like they had to go to hospital for an emergency operation maybe? Could you manage or would you need help?

Social services referrals take a while to process unless you already receive home care in which case they can usually increase it quite easily.

So what would you do if you were in need of help in an emergency situation?

Don't worry The Princess Royal Trust for Carers can usually help.

I would assume all branches have the same support networks. Certainly in our area the Support Worker can visit you after a self referral and an emergency plan is agreed with you & your carer. This emergency plan allows for 48hr Emergency Care for you until something else can be arranged. Or maybe this may be enough time for the situation to have resolved itself & your carer might have returned home.

This is the link which explains the service and this is the website for our area;

carercentre.com/emergency-p...

If this is something you are interested in discussing with someone from The Royal Princess Trust for Carers. You could either contact Carers UK for information of your nearest branch or use Google to see if there is one local to you. If this service is available I would consider taking advantage of it.

Here is the Carers UK link,

carersuk.org/

Other safety issues recommended in a household are the installation of smoke alarms at the top of the stairs and in the hallway but you are probably aware of this already. It is advised to have a Carbon Monoxide alarm also of you have a gas boiler.

I thought I would mention about all aspects of Safety and about the services that may be of help to you.

Have you any other top tips on safety around the home, any wonderful gadgets or any ideas for making day-to-day tasks easier ?

I look forward to reading your comments

Emma

[Fibrofoggiest]

Thank you so much for all this very useful info, I would just add that Carbon Monoxide monitors are now installed by regulations apparently, to homes with woodburners as I know from the events of last week with mine.

Foggy x

[Ginsing]

Furniture walking I have some expertise at this my kitchen is designed so I can get about with out my sticks. However I have stocked at front and back door ready for me. Yes I am unbalanced but not all the time. Thank you for this made me think and consider how I can make my life easier. I do have double stair rails Tec. Thanks for your help gins