What’s in a Bathroom?

What do you do when it is snowing, and there is a blizzard outside, and spring won’t seem to arrive?  I guess you write about an unusual topic.  So here it goes, have you ever wondered how helpful a public handicap bathroom really is? Why would we think about this? Public bathrooms. Gross, right?

My concern with all of this started when I needed to rely on handicap bathrooms.   Well, I was one of the lucky ones my condition was a temporary one.  Although it was twice.  I had both of my hips replaced.  I guess until it happens to us, we naturally don’t think about it. When you have your hip replaced, there are certain restriction, one of them is not  bending past 90ᵒ.  So of course this includes using the bathroom without bending past 90ᵒ (leaning forward) at the waist. This may not sound too bad, we can all sit at 90ᵒ, well the problem is when you are trying to reach the toilet paper near the ground.  To be honest, I still have trouble reaching the TP sometimes in these handicap bathrooms.  How about you?  What’s that all about?  It’s truly ridiculous.

The bars in the public bathrooms seem to be mostly adequate because there are written requirements about how to install the bars. but the location of the toilet paper holder, not so much, so much of the time the TP is impossible to reach. Imagine if you will, trying to reach this toilet paper without bending past your 90ᵒ at your waist.  You can reach the TP if you think about it before you sit down.  You can use a golfer’s ball pick up move, if you have the room and the balance.  Unfortunately, many times if you really need a handicap bathroom you are not steady on your feet because of recent surgery or because may be that’s just how you are all the time.  Not fun.

I know being upside down balancing on one leg to get toilet paper out of the holder is one of my favorite past times, not.  If you forget to take care of your business by getting your toilet paper ahead of time, forget it.  You’re stuck.  Gross, right?

I looked up requirements for a handicap bathroom there were lots of requirements, but guess what, no mention of the location of the toilet paper holder,  I guess that’s why the toilet paper holders end up all over the place.

We all google a lot these days, so I looked up some statistics about how many people actually need handicap bathrooms and the bottom line is that by age 65, over 30% of that populations has some type of disability and most commonly it is an ambulatory disability.  So what is there to do?  I’m not sure. I guess I just need to get it off my chest.

Below is one of the better set ups I’ve seen.  Or may be I should say at least someone was thinking while they installed the toilet paper holder.

Good Luck! May the flush be with you.

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