Toilet Talk

I know I said I was not going to do any more projects for a while but this one was a necessity. 

Antonio wears diapers.  He can not tell when he has to use the rest room.  He was born a micro preemie at 23 weeks gestation.  He went thru a lot.   When he came to live with us at 6  years old no one had been able to potty train him but I gave it a try anyways.  They were correct.  He was not able to hold or even know when he was urinating.  But…..and this is huge….he could his bowels.  I would much rather change an adult sized child of mine, for the rest of his life, in a tee tee diaper than the other.  So praise God he can use the potty and get all his BM’s in the toilet.

Antonio has Cerebral Palsy and his tone is very spastic and tight.  He arches his back and he uses his whole body to speak or he does not have enough strength in his diaphragm or breath control to talk.  He uses his tone to expel the air to speak in quick burst.  His muscles from contracting all day long are rock solid.  When he gets excited or startled he jumps so strongly his whole chair rocks and bounces off the ground a little and his chair is very heavy.  He has been in various therapies his whole life and we weekly pay a pediatric massage therapist to come out and do massages on him to try to stretch him and relax his tone some.

All these years he has always had a potty chair/shower chair we have just loved.  It saves us so much time and energy in morning toileting and showering.  Using this chair we can get him up and out of bed and into this chair.  Easily push him over the potty and then once done there wheel him right into the shower to be bathed.  Great and functional chair.   It is called the Blue Wave by Rifton.  It has been very functional and a great chair all this time, until now.  He has gotten so heavy and strong that when he talks while sitting in this huge plastic potty chair he breaks it.  Pops the back right off if it.  It is cracked now and if we replace it the same thing will happen.    When he does this we are having a terrible time to safely get him out of the chair as he is belted to the back and seat part.  It takes several people working quickly and all lifting him to get him undone.  It is just dangerous.  I have researched and looked high and low for a solution.  I have found a few sturdier shower/bath chairs that might work for him but they will either not fit in our bathroom or offer his body enough support.  :(  We have a very narrow space on each side of the potty in his bathroom for the chair to fit and the rifton was the only one narrow enough. 

 So I prayed.

I knew I needed to come up with a solution quickly as what we were using could be dangerous and decided to build one to fit the boys bathroom commode myself.  Now I don’t know how to build a handicap potty chair.  But I serve a God that knows everything.  So I prayed, drew up some plans and went to Home Depo. 

I prayed 

and cut 

and glued 

and drilled. 

 I was having trouble with trying to find out how to attach a seat and a therapist friend of mine had the solution!   

And my husband came up with how to do the backing.   

Praise God, it turned out well.  I am so grateful.  So very grateful.  I am going to use the Velcro belt straps from his other chair to belt him in.  I am just amazed at how God helps me every day in EVERY way.  Even with building a toilet!  At a fraction of the cost it would be to buy one too!

Daniel 2:22-23  He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.  I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter.

May the Mighty God in heaven help you with the details of your life as you live and grow in Him.

susan