I have been to numerous care facilities and seen the trials of getting patients in and out of clothing to change their briefs. It always seemed quite cumbersome, awkward really.
As I was putting together the products on the Breathing Spaces website, I thought about the things that were needed, made life easier for Mom as well as myself or those caring for her. I came in contact with a woman that has developed an amazing pair of pants that have solved a problem that confronts so many people.
I asked Molly from CareZips to share with you how she came to producing the pants and the benefits of them:
“Many adults have to wear adult diapers – and some relatively early in life – like an MS patient who is still working but embarrassed when she must take 30 minutes in the bathroom to take care of herself. Or men who must wear catheter bags, often they don’t want to leave their homes because they fear leakage.
My mother with Alzheimer’s who died three years ago was young-ish, and this had been going on for a long time. It is the pits, just the pits. Upon moving her into a fully-skilled nursing home, I knew I needed to know how to change her diapers in the event I ever needed to do it and no one was around. Her caregiver was lean and thin and struggling; my mother was grimacing not from pain but just the indignity of it and the openness of it. An important sidetone is that caregivers are underpaid, over worked, and quiet deliverers of compassion and empathy. We need to applaud and appreciate the adult caregiving in this nation. It takes a very, very special person.
When I saw what my mother was going through and the struggle of the caregiver changing the diaper, I decided there has got to be a better way. In another instance, I saw the man beautifully dressed in the wheelchair….plaid dress shirt, belt, trousers, socks, lace-up shoes, yet his zipper was wide open with his shirt tail pulled through and sticking out.
Knowing the circumstances of it all I thought there had to be a better way, so I took out my over-30-year-old sewing machine and turned our dining room into a sewing room. My poor husband had to look at it for six months at a time. First steps – some days I set my alarm for 5:00 am and was at the sewing machine by 6:00 am. I self-imposed deadlines and I met this challenge with determination. I bought simple patterns; I took baby clothes apart to figure how it was done. If I met someone on the street and the conversation turned to anything relative to sewing, fabric, stitches, I asked their opinions. I tried seersucker fabric, knit fabric, big snaps, velcro, zippers. I knew the pants had to open fully and frontally; you can’t just lift the adults’ legs like a baby – from a dignity standpoint – much less physical standpoint. I continually tried my attempts on my mother to no avail yet the nurses would say ‘you are on to something keep going.
Finally, CareZips® – the pants – a creation from the need to be efficient yet compassionate to address adult incontinence from both the caregiver’s standpoint as well as the adult. I want independent adults to feel comfortable and confident as well as my mother who was dealing with Alzheimer’s. CareZips® now patented incorporates a unique design with three zippers: two side zippers and a strategically placed 3rd zipper. The three-zipper system provides easy access to change an adult brief (for those unaccustomed to adult incontinence that is what you call an adult diaper). The pants will be available in a range of sizes (XS to 3X) and colors.
CareZips® is a solution for long-term fully skilled nursing or temporary postoperative care or free-moving catheter bag wearers. Individuals who are wheelchair bound are finding in a real advantage in wearing CareZips®. Caregivers will find it easier to tend to the needs of multiple adults in their care and in a timely manner. Independent adults dealing with incontinence will also find that CareZips enhances their freedom.”
You can find CareZips available on the Products page of the Breathing Spaces website.
Be well,
Cyndi