Bathroom Remodel For My Mom

My mother Melinda is the most extraordinary woman I will ever know. That is not coming from the bias of being her son. That is coming from witnessing her power through the struggles she faces on a daily basis, for 31 out of her 50 years on this planet.

Those that have been blessed to know her and talk to her, can attest to the amazingness that is...her. She has been through so much in her life. Joy, sadness, and pain on the emotional and physical levels. Her hardships would make a normal person give up quickly, and that's not even taking into account the really, really, bad things that have happened to her. 

Her life has never been easy. 16 years ago, it got even harder. After a mental breakdown, she started developing many different ailments, to add on to the ones she already had growing up. 

Now, it's to the point that every single day, she has to fight to not end up in the hospital due to accidents a young adult like herself, should not be forced to have to deal with yet.

Over the years, my mother's health has declined to the point where she can't move about the house safely, and confidently, let alone outside, or even drive. The main culprit for her reduced mobility is Sjögren’s Syndrome.

For those that don't know what Sjögren’s Syndrome is, it's an auto-immune disease where the White Blood Cells attack the moisture-producing glands of the body.

From www.sjogrens.org:
"Although the hallmark symptoms are dry eyes, dry mouth, fatigue and joint pain, Sjögren’s may also cause dysfunction of other organs such as the kidneys, gastrointestinal system, blood vessels, lungs, liver, pancreas, and the central nervous system. Patients may also experience extreme fatigue and joint pain and have a higher risk of developing lymphoma."

As a result from this condition, she has severe joint pains from the lack of moisture in those joints. It's essentially bone on bone contact in every joint of her body.

This has caused chronic pain in both shoulders (which has produced multiple surgeries to try and help the pain, but has further reduced the mobility in her arms, as she can no longer raise them past shoulder level), chronic upper and lower back pain, chronic pain in both hips, as well as in both knees. 

These pains leave her highly unstable on her feet. She is at a very high risk of falling at any time from the pain, mixed in with the permanent Vertigo she has from a Stroke she had 5 years ago. Her unsteady gait from the pain, mixed with the Vertigo, means she has to walk with the assistance of a cane, walker, or myself.

She pretty much stays within the confines of the armchair in the living room for the entirety of the day. She'll go to the kitchen when she gets hungry, or thirsty, and she'll go to her bedroom when she's ready for bed.

Which brings me to the point of this campaign.

The worst room for her in the house, is the bathroom. It's not a small bathroom, but it is very tight. She has fallen over 20 times in the bathroom, 2 of which times resulted in a trip to the hospital.

What we want to do, is a total remodel of the bathroom to make it easier for her to get in and out, use the sink, as well as make it a lot easier for her to take a shower.

The shower is the highest priority for her. We have a standard bathtub with a fixed shower fixture. It's almost impossible for her to get in and out of the tub without losing balance, or falling. We have a mounted hand rail on the side of the tub, but it's only about a foot and a half high, which makes her have to bend over to get in and out. The pain and vertigo make this extremely difficult for her. There is a portable shower seat in the tub for her to sit on while she showers, but her joints tend to lock up when sitting, which makes it that much harder to get out.

We want to remove the tub and install a walk-in shower that has handrails, and a fold up/down seat, gripped flooring for extra stability, and a detachable showerhead for ease of use while sitting.

The sink is short, requiring her to bend over to use it. We want to replace it with a taller sink, and replace our old vanity with a new one with more space for her medications and toiletries, that also make them easier to reach.

In order to do the shower and sink/vanity, we need to tear off the tile on the walls and floor, as well as the drywall. Re-drywall the room, new floor, and paint.

We have already got in-touch with contractors and the bulk of the price is doing the shower.

I wish I was in the position in life to be able to afford to do this for her, but I am not. She is on a fixed income, and has been moving her money around to attempt to afford her health care, medications, hospital bills, utilities, credit card bills, etc.  While doing that, she is trying to move money around so that she can pay for this remodel herself, which will end up majorly complicating and compromising her other bills.

The total remodel cost is roughly $12,000. All we are asking for is $9,000 to help alleviate the burden. At the least, this will get the walk-in shower installed, which will illiminate many falls for her.

Your donations will help her out tremendously, and you will always have our unyielding gratitude for helping ensure her safety in her home.