Managing any health condition is not simply limited to medication and rest. It also involves making your surrounding environment more positive and clean, which affects the mood of the person being treated, and makes the management task much easier.
*Anup Thakur, a 45 year old man living in Jaipur, learned this the hard way last year. He was suffering from urinary incontinence, due to which he used to experience frequent urination urges. After consulting his doctor, he found out that it was light, which means he could manage it at home with some kegel exercises, bladder training, and adult diapers. However, it was not under control even after trying to manage it for 3 months. The doctor noticed Anup had a bacterial infection around his anus, which occurred due to lack of proper care at home, where he lived alone. After many anxious discussions with his doctor, he realised that his surrounding environment was not ideal for his condition. 2 weeks after he was readmitted into hospital, he finally got rid of incontinence and realized how important it was to keep his house continence friendly, in order to continue to manage his condition properly.
Everything around you plays a crucial role in managing your health condition. Often, people opt to move into a proper assisted-care space, which is relatively better for them. But, when it comes to managing incontinence, it is not a necessity, unless your house is not continence friendly. Making your house continence friendly allows you to be more self-sufficient and move around freely and without worry.
Managing Incontinence: How to Make your House Continence Friendly
Here are some changes that you should consider making to your home environment, to make it continence friendly:
1. Get rid of the clutter
Take the time from your schedule and go through the clutter in your house, in order to remove all the redundant items from your living space. This will make your house cleaner and more spacious, thereby allowing you to move around freely.
2. Remove unnecessary furniture
Find out which parts of your bedroom furniture can be removed and arrange them somewhere else, so that there are no obstacles on your way to the toilet. That, in turn, will give you free access to use the washroom facilities, whether at night or in the day.
3. Improve lighting in and around the toilet
Other than ensuring that it is easy to get yourself on the toilet as well as off it, you should also check whether the lighting outside the toilet as well as within it is bright enough. If not, then you should improve the lighting of your restroom.
4. Protect useful furniture
Since managing incontinence can be quite a messy task, it is essential that you keep your bed and chairs clean by protecting them with incontinence underpads. Better safe than sorry, we say!
5. Choose adjustable clothing
Since managing incontinence involves changing clothes, undergarments or diapers frequently, it is beneficial to choose clothes that are not only adjustable but also easy to wear and take off.
All the changes suggested above will make your house continence friendly and give you more space, and that too, with no obstacles that might lead to falls or injuries. This will ensure that you manage incontinence without any hassle and enhance the quality of your life. So, if you want to manage incontinence the right way, consider making your house ideal for incontinence management, as the primary step.
