[LBP]

Sara,
one more thing, there are things you may or may not need at home after discharge. For example, I absolutely needed: a raised toliet seat, bed rail, pillow wedge, 2 grabbers, and fabric "basket" and cup holder attachment to my walker. I also purchased a shower chair and grab rail for the tub.

My ins covered the walker (obtained while in the hosp). During my hotel stay for recovery, I had to walk down to the continental breakfast. It was very helpful to have my little basket and cup holder because I took the food back to my room. I wasn't comfortable sitting. Later when I started to walk for exercise, I liked having the cup holder on my walker to carry water and basket to carry my cell phone. I needed my hands free to hold the walker. I was getting calouses on my hands from holding the walker so tight.

I wouldn't necessarily buy all these items ahead of time but it is helpful to scope out your local drug stores and/or handicap supply shops to find out what they have in stock and prices. A day or two before discharge you'll have a better idea of what you'll want at home and then you can send someone to puchase and assemble these items.

I still recommend getting a study grabber before going into the hospital. I had 2 because if I dropped one I needed the second one to grab the dropped one, otherwise I was screwed. I was in a hotel for 3 weeks before flying home. I was alone in the that hotel room for 2 of those 3 weeks. So I kept one grabber in the bathroom hanging on the back of the door and the other one I kept in the main room.

The grabber can help with shaving too! I cant stand unshaven legs so I figured out a way to rubberband a razor to the end of the grabber. I used the grabber to hold a sponge in front of the razor to apply soap to my legs, then released the sponge to CAREFULLY shave my lower legs. Afterwards, I used another sponge with my grabber to apply lotion to my lower legs.

OT/PT might recommend a special sock tool but I figured out how to put footsie socks on with my grabber.

Look at your shower at home. Do you have a shower caddy to hold shampoo/soap? You don't want to be bending over and reaching for these items after discharge.