Tuesday Tip – Safety Bar Protection

Today’s tip comes out of necessity of protecting Emily’s arms from bruising while she is in her bed. Emily sleeps in a hospital bed because she can’t breathe when she lays flat. When she has a seizure, or even at other times she tends to flip her arms up and hit them on the safety bars. After we realized how her arms were getting bruised I tried stuffing animals next to the bars. But she could still flip them out of the way and in an instant with a startle or jerk she would come down hard on the bar.

As I thought about tying some sort of quilt batting over the bar I saw a news item on TV about insulating pipes for winter time. The insulation is a fairly flexible foam with a line cut through it so that it can be installed over pipes. Most hardware stores carry this insulating foam and it is very inexpensive. I bought two 6-foot pieces and cut them to fit.

After the top bar was covered in this insulation foam I had some left. Occasionally the foam needs to be replaced because it gets bent and tattered if we have been leaning over the side rails a lot. But it takes about 6 months to get to this point.

On the other side of Emily’s bed I had to use more dramatic measures because she not only hit the top rail but tends to lean to that side and would get her arm through the bars and bruised as well. As soon as it was in between the bars the spasticity would kick in and she would be stuck. And of course the more stuck she became the tighter her arm would get. If I wasn’t in her room to rescue her she would have a couple of good size bruises on her bicep and forearm. One day I was talking to her therapist about this difficulty and she suggested a large piece of foam between the mattress and the safety bars. And then she did the nicest thing, she searched out a piece of foam and had it cut for me.

Here are a couple of pictures of the foam against the bars.

We cover the foam with a fuzzy sheet that Emily lays on.

It works so well, and no more bruises!