Hospital bed VS NOT the hospital bed.

Heads up: wrote this the other day just forgot to post it.

 Soooo, it's been a pretty uneventful few days to start the new year but that's mostly due to the fact that I'm waiting on appointments. Patience, I've waited this long a few more months isn't going to kill me. Patience, patience, patience.. Its funny how when it comes to learning how to redo daily activties I can have all the patience in the world but tell me to wait without doing something and I'll go nuts.  Today in particular started with a hiccup, after I got dressed I decided 'Hey, bump this I got nothing to do today I'm going back to bed'. Ha... I definitely slept much longer than I intended to and... Definitely had to take a piss when I woke up, WAY overdue. And in my haste to get out of bed I got a pretty strong spasm and fell halfway out of bed, like hanging off a cliff with weights on your feet haha. Maybe I should slow that down, as lame as that might sound.. it was a thrilling twenty minute life or death struggle, haha. I somehow managed to grab my phone while holding on like jack in titanic and called my sister. She didn't feel good and was sick in bed. YES!!!! Wait, what? hahaha, lucky break. Oh yeah, I made it to the bathroom.

The kind of bed you own is pretty important if you're a quadriplegic. Many of us have little to no feeling below the chest so you have to think of many things that a non injured person doesn't have to even think about. Out of the gate you're going to be in a hospital bed but it doesn't have to stay that way. Here's a few things to maybe contemplate if you want to change the type of bed you own to suit your independence.

HOSPITAL BED

Well this bed is great for Lower injury quads you're able to control it so you can sit yourself up with assistance and also control it to bring your legs close to your chest. Not to mention they're super comfy. A lot of these beds also have pressure relief controls so it shifts your weight without you having to move. These two things are great when avoiding pressure sores, of course laying down for extended periods of time still isn't safe for the skin. You can raise and lower the bed so if you need or choose to have a caretaker they can help you without hurting their back. Did I mention they got wheels? Baller. You can then lower them to do a transfer or use a manual lift which easily slides under the bed. They're also great because usually your insurance company will cover it.

There really aren't too many downsides to having a hospital bed besides the 'hospital bed' stigma. I guess I would say the size bothered me a bit, and I'm not even a big guy... I lost a lot of weight with my injury and still felt very claustrophobic after a while. I guess it's something you get used to, it's kind of lonely. I also found that doing solo transfers was harder on a hospital bed, at least learning to do them was... They're just so air-y and soft, It is possible though. The size just wasn't good for what I was trying to accomplish... To each their own.

OLDSCHOOL BED

To tell you the truth getting a normal bed is fine but don't take my word on it. I only use them on trips to see family or hotels but I haven't had any problems with sores in any of these occasions. Just make sure it's the right height for a transfer or bring a transfer board. No mechanical magic in this one. And no longtime experience.

SLEEPNUMBER BED

The sleep number bed I feel is great for any quad with a level injury of c5 or lower that's looking to get out of the hospital bed. It has an adjustable air mattress so while you're still getting used to transferring you can make it firm and then loosen it up to best fit your body and avoid sores (you won't need to make it firm for too long and after some practice). What I enjoyed most about it was that you could get a size bigger than a single. You have room to roll over lay on your stomach, get up and stretch your legs by yourself .(stretching is key), get dressed comfortably, invite or have room for a significant other (talk about the next thing that pops up... Okay, awful joke) and just sprawl.. It's also nice having a bed that doesn't look like its going to turn into a decepticon in my honest opinion. If you want you can also get the spiffy base that to sits you up via remote, very fancy (costs an extra 1000$... Ouch).

There are some cons to this bed though. You're pretty much on your own when it comes to getting in and out of bed unless you have the money for a roof lift unless you want to do assisted slide board transfers. The manual lift won't fit underneath. If you have caretakers... They're going to be breaking their backs if you dont learn how to sit up by yourself and transfer because they don't lift. The special base might help but it's soooo expensive so keep that in mind.

Hope this helps, take it easy people, tomorrow is my birthday so.... I will probably write a bladder post after the weekend seeing as how I'm probably going to be taking in more 'liquids' than normal. And by 'liquids' I mean alcohol. Hahaha, im turning 23 so all you underaged kids reading... Go back to shool or something educational.

Where the magic happens.