“He hasn’t had a single fall since you got his new house all set up!”
I love getting updates on how my Parkinson’s patients are doing after they come to see @MelanieLomaglio on their 6 month followups @StarsRehab in St.Augustine.
It really does take a village to find the best mix of treatments needed to live a full life with Parkinson’s disease since each person’s presentation is unique.
This is where our 25 year friendship and now partnership as PT + OT have really made a difference in the lives of Parkinson’s patients on the First Coast.
(If you missed our unique origin story, check it out — it’s a fun story I posted last week!)
For this patient, I was asked to do a consultation as they were selling their home and buying a smaller place that would be their forever home.
They wanted my help to figure out how they could best use their remodeling dollars to produce the safest immediate environment as he had a history of frequent falls.
What did our priorities end up being? Read on to find out!
It was decided that installing grab bars, choosing shower seats, improving lighting and path of travel needed to be on the short list.
The bedroom also got a facelift with plans to widen the door and solutions to stop him from rolling off the bed and hurting himself.
Having a plan for future construction projects saves so much time, energy, and money. When you know where you want to end up, you make better decisions that cost you less in the long run!
This is why we also discussed what options would be important to consider in a kitchen remodel down the road.
We looked at the lanai as their leisure space and batted around on several potential safety solutions, depending how they would end up using the space eventually.
Finally, we considered ways to bring in more storage options that would still give them flexibility.
Their new house is now a safe space to be independent in self care now and I’m so happy everyone is breathing a sigh of relief to get past that first hurdle.
There’s so much more to life than just living so I’m looking forward to hearing when they are ready to pick out some fun options to build out their dream kitchen space so they can party!!
