We live close to my elderly father, in fact he lives just around the corner in a bungalow. We have always been a close family and dad will pop in all the time and always spend Sunday’s with this, especially enjoying a Sunday roast dinner with us.
Even though dad only lives around the corner he has to drive as he can no longer walk very far, but his visits to us started declining and I was very confused when he started making excuses not to come on Sundays for the dinner. Dad loves my home-made cooking, after several no shows I decided to visit and have a heart to heart chat.
I told him we were missing him especially the children. He he was embarrassed to admit he was having bladder problems and could no longer wait to visit the toilet. At first I was very confused, he went on to explain that he could no longer manage our steep narrow staircase to make it to the toilet in time.
What could we do about this, I did not want to have my dad excluded from family life but we live in an older property with absolutely nowhere for a downstairs toilet to be fitted. So as a family we started looking into other options and talked about having a stairlift fitted. But as none of the actual household needs a stairlift would this really be a feasible idea?
We visited Direct Stairlifts Showroom as a family and were amazed at the amount of choice. We discussed a steep and narrow stairs and that we only needed the stairlift for the times my father visited us.
The extremely helpful member of staff gave us an informed choice of stairlifts. We decided the Otolift Air stairlift was the one for us. It had the smallest diameter rail tube and it was specially designed for the narrow steep stairs. This stairlift takes up the minimum of space, leaving room on the stairs for other uses. A powered folding foot rest is included so when not in use the stairlift can be folded flat to the wall.
A survey was taken of our set of stairs and we arranged a date for it to be fitted. We decided the best course of action would be to rent the stairlift.
Dad is now able to take part in family life again and we see him much more now, it has been a great instalment into our home.
