The Shower Chair I Swore I Would Never Buy

I swore I would never buy a shower chair. I am Hal Brockman, 74, retired rural mail carrier outside Tupelo, Mississippi. Eighteen months ago I had my right hip replaced. Two weeks before surgery my physical therapist said six words I did not want to hear: get a chair for the shower. I told her I had been showering standing up for seventy-four years and I was not about to start sitting down like an invalid. She did not argue. She just looked at me the way she does and said, Then do it for Doris. That was the end of that argument.

I bought the Medline premium shower chair with the back and padded armrests about two weeks before the surgery. Wade, my son, drove over from Saltillo and set the height. The chair is aluminum, 7.1 pounds, with six height positions, a contoured back, rolled padded armrests, and slip-resistant rubber feet. The listing says 350 pounds capacity and a one-year limited warranty. I did not care about any of that at the time. I cared that my son was in my bathroom putting together something I had decided I would never need.

The first morning I used it, I sat down and felt foolish. Then I felt something else. Steady. The rubber feet sat flat on the shower floor. The armrests gave my hands somewhere to go when I stood back up. The back gave me something to lean against while I washed my hair. I had been doing that standing on one leg with my eyes closed for years, and I am here to tell you that was not courage. That was luck.

I am not going to pretend a shower chair changed my life. It did not. It changed my mornings. Before the surgery I showered standing. I had no bathroom aids. After the surgery I sat on that Medline chair every single shower for the first six weeks, and I have kept sitting on it every shower since. That is eighteen months now. It is still in the walk-in shower. I still use it daily. Doris says I am more relaxed in the mornings, and she is usually right about that kind of thing.

For the first six weeks I followed the surgeon's hip precautions. No bending past a right angle. No crossing my legs. The chair made the shower part of that simple. I did not have to balance. I did not have to reach down to wash my feet. I sat, I washed, I stood up with a hand on the armrest, and I got on with the day.

Eighteen months after surgery, that Medline chair is still in my shower and I still sit on it every morning. That is the whole review.

Here is what I did not expect. The chair is light enough that I can lift it out of the shower with one hand when I clean the floor. It is 7.1 pounds. I have stiff hands in the mornings, so that matters. The armrests are padded, which sounds like a small thing until you are pushing yourself up with sore hands. The back is contoured, not flat. It hits me in the right place. The six height positions matter more than I thought, because Wade set it once and I have not had to fool with it since.

I have friends at the feed store who will not buy one of these because they think it means giving up. I understand that. I felt the same way. But a shower is the one place in the house where you are standing on wet tile with your eyes closed. If you are unsteady, that is not a place to prove a point. My balance has been worse since the surgery, especially when I am tired or in the dark. The chair does not fix that. It just gives me one less place to worry about.

The bathroom in this house is a one-story brick ranch bathroom with a walk-in shower stall and a low lip, not a tub. I never owned a tub transfer bench. I do not have a tub I use. So I cannot tell you how this chair works for a tub. I can tell you it works in a shower stall. The footprint is 16.3 inches wide by 13.4 inches deep. The seat height is listed at 21 inches, and with six positions there is room to set it where your own legs want it. My physical therapist told me the seat should let my feet sit flat and my knees at about a right angle. Wade set it that way. It has stayed that way.

It is not perfect. The chair is not going to fold flat and go in a suitcase. It is not something I would carry to church or to the feed store. It lives in the shower. Also, if you have a very small shower, measure before you buy. The footprint is not huge, but it is not nothing. The manual that came with it is step by step, which helped Wade, but I would still have someone else set the height the first time. It is easier with two hands and a second set of eyes.

What I would say is this. I did not buy the Medline chair because I wanted to. I bought it because my physical therapist told me to and because my wife was worried. That is not a heroic story. It is just the truth. Eighteen months later, it is the one piece of gear from that whole season that I still use every single day without thinking about it. The rollator got me back to the feed store. The cane gets me to church. The shower chair gets me through the morning. That is not nothing.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to ask your doctor or physical therapist about fit and use before you buy anything. I would tell you not to wait until you are scared. I waited until two weeks before surgery, and I only did it because my PT pushed me. If you are standing in a wet shower every morning with your eyes closed and your hands full, that is not a character test. It is a risk you do not need. Get the chair. Set the height with someone who knows what they are doing. Sit down. Then get on with your day. If you are in Tupelo and want to see one before you buy, come by after church. I will show you mine.