The Elephant's Condom (and other handy tips for showering with a broken leg)

So - you have a cast on your leg and you are desperate for a shower. What do you do?

For us, the options were limited, as we only have a small raised-plinth walk-in shower with sliding doors that leave a fairly narrow gap. The idea of showering with a friend is just laughed at in our house.  There really is only just room for one person, and then only if they have pretty short arms. With a 6'3" husband and 2 tall sons, I'm pretty much the only person who can shower without banging my elbows. So - no romantic pampering from my beloved - I needed to get in there on my own and balance on one leg for the duration of the shower without slipping or falling over, and all without getting the cast wet.

First order then was to buy what my friend Elaine fondly calls "an elephant's condom". This is a large waterproof rubberised bag with a neoprene cuff that you, or more likely someone else, puts on the leg. It needs to be pulled up high enough to be a snug fit, then it seems easy enough to use. There seem to be a few on the market, but they don't all seem to work equally well, judging from feedback sites. This is the one that I used, based on Elaine's recommendation, and I can say it performed very well (and no, they aren't paying me to say that!).

Of course there is also the problem of getting into and out of the shower without putting weight on the knackered leg, and balancing whilst in there without risk. We solved that by purchasing a pair of suction handles. Again there are a lot of different types out there, although they pretty much look the same. The brand we bought were called "Helping Handles" and seemed to do the trick. They will only work on a clean, smooth surface, of course, and they did need to be re-attached before each use to ensure they were strongly located, but they performed very well. I used them to take some of my weight as I stepped into the shower on the good foot, so I didn't take any weight on the broken leg. I could also hold on to one or the other so that I could lather up and hold the shower handset without risk of slipping over.

The final bit of kit was a stool with extending legs. This proved a godsend for all kinds of things, but was especially handy for going up and down difficult steps. For the shower, I just sat on the stool outside the shower then grabbed a handle on the wall as I stood into the cubicle. Getting out, I just reversed the procedure, though my beloved insisted on being there for the descent in case I missed the stool as he doesn't have a lot of faith in my acrobatic skills.