Oh Just Kilt Me Already!

That's right, I've decided to start wearing a kilt around the house. But before we get into talking about that, we need to make one thing clear first…

 

Okay, now that we've established the rules. Kilts are not dresses or skirts and exceptionally manly… Why am I wearing one? (As matter of fact I'm wearing it right now)

Kilts, in the traditional sense are supposed to be worn "commando", and although they are quite comfortable worn in this manner and provide good "air conditioning" its not exactly why I'm wearing one. Due to the illness, and the restricted movements of my arms I started finding it very difficult to go to the washroom on my own. Getting my pants and underwear off was not that big deal (it has become more challenging), but afterwards it's become nearly impossible to put them back on. For months, I would have to shuffle into my room in various states of disrobe, lie down on my bed and perform all sorts of gymnastics to get my pants & underwear back up. Then of course came the chore of doing them back up.

trying it on, fresh out-of-the-box

Of course, if you see my previous post about my status you will no doubt have noticed that I rate the function of my hands and arms in around 15% right now. Because of this, and the fact that I spend large portions of the day on my own, I needed to find a solution that provided a better "access" to prevent "accidents". So far the kilts solution is working out reasonably well. Much easier than dealing with pants and underwear. But the key to this is of course wearing them "commando". It's also for this reason, I wear them around the house only, kind of like pajamas. They are not intended to leave the house.

Sorry folks, a little bit more in the graphic details in this paragraph… Going to the washroom now is much easier. Especially to go pee. Because of the dexterity problems I do have to sit to urinate, this eliminates "accuracy problems". The kilt is very easy to keep out of the way when sitting. However, when I have to "drop the kids off at the pool" its a bit more challenging to make sure the kilt is out of the way. But with a little bit of effort, it is much more manageable then dealing with pants and underwear afterwards. So far I've not had any "misses".

So where do I get mine? I'm wearing a deluxe utility kilt purchased from http://www.utkilts.com/. Not the traditional wool type. A traditional wool kilts would be far too heavy and unmanageable (I used to have one for Halloween costume). The utility kilt is great and has some really cool cargo pockets on either side. There are surprisingly accessible and very easy for me to keep my cell phone in. They come in a variety of designs and colors and are fairly reasonably priced.

Before finding this website, I actually ordered mine from eBay from this company. Consequently I ended up paying a little more than I otherwise would have. If you order directly from http://www.utkilts.com/ it works out to be a little less expensive, saving you about $15. The kilts are shipped by the pound, with a minimum shipping cost of about $30. But adding more than one kills only adds about six dollars to the shipping cost, so if you are serious about wearing a kilt ordering more than one might be in your interest. As a matter of fact as soon as their stock is back in, I am going to be ordering two more deluxe utility kilts.

You can also check out http://www.utilikilts.com/ for more options. These people look to provide very good quality and I believe have been in business longer. They are however significantly more expensive. Don't be confused by the second, they're not the same company as http://www.utkilts.com/ 

Pros:

• very comfortable
• price for the kilts is reasonable. Ranging from $50-$80 depending on the design you choose
• makes "access" for nature's call much easier for me

Cons:

• you will no doubt have to deal with the jokes of it being a skirt. If this is a real problem I recommend the following kilted T-shirt as well
• can obviously be a little cold in the winter
• unfortunately shipping costs are little high here in Canada
• the fabric is a little bit stiff, even after the first wash. Making him a little bit hard to sit down comfortably and not on a wad of folded fabric
• pay extra attention to the sizing instructions! This is critical. They are not in size like regular pants

Conclusions:
very happy with the product, find them reasonably priced and work well as adapted clothing. I am buying more :-)

Help with the Dental Hygiene

but Elmo has no teeth?

These days it's becoming a bit of a challenge to brush my teeth. I've long since moved over to an electric toothbrush, but to get in the toothpaste onto the brush has become quite an adventure.

Whatever usually do is rest the toothpaste on the counter place my left hand on the to, and try to line up the toothbrush with my right hand and then squish it… Hoping it wouldn't get everywhere. It turned into quite a balancing act. Backspace and this was getting even more difficult as the to both Tuesdays with getting down to about half full.

So started to look around online for an automatic toothpaste
dispenser. Finding one was actually pretty easy. There are several types to choose from on Amazon. But I found a pretty good one for around about C$15. Unfortunately, this particular project does not seem to have a specific name in the boxes shipped in is all written in Korean. That said, you should double to find this particular item (left) pretty easily.

Yep, I'm not the
only one drooling…

The toothpaste dispenser is designed to attach to the wall/mirror using 3M double-sided tape. This works okay, but in my case I have a bunch of little glass tiles where I've mounted it and sticks less well to those. Probably also because my three-year-old likes to pull it off the wall…

Anyway, is designed to work by screwing in your tube of toothpaste from the top and is a little lever in the whole that you push with toothbrush. This squeezes the tube of toothpaste and opens a valve dropping a portion of toothpaste (hopefully) on the brush. The first week or two, this didn't work out too terribly well. I found the amount of toothpaste delivered insufficient and often it was quite messy. In part because the toothpaste was either not dropping properly or because of my shaky hands would dump it all of the dispenser.

However, I seem to have gotten the hang of it… I guess there is apparently a bit of a technique for people with shaky hands and is working quite well right now. It does however still create a little bit of a mess.

Me and my boy!
… No, not really…

Also, if your hands are about as functional as mine. Meaning you have difficulty holding her hands up, I found that sticking it to the wall, flush to the counter works quite well. This makes it easy for me to use both hands, sliding them first the dispenser. This also makes it much easier for me to press the lever at the back of the dispenser. Thus getting a more appropriate amount of toothpaste. This also stabilizes the shakiness of my hands, so I make less of a mess.

Pro:

• much easier than the toothpaste tube/toothbrush balancing act
• reasonably well controlled portion of toothpaste

Con:

• can be a bit messy
• double-sided tape can wear out and limit what you can stick it to. My options were the glass tiled wall or the Wood Cabinet. I'm pretty sure it would've ruined that

Cost: I paid about C$15 with shipping. Pretty good price.

You can check out an example of it in action here. This is just an example I found on YouTube, this is not my house ;-) Honestly though, given the cost it's really well worth the try.