Financial support to build an accessible bathroom

Hi! My name is Mugabi Byenkya. As some of you reading this may already know, I suffered two back-to-back strokes in late 2014 that have led to a myriad of health complications over the past seven years. I currently manage a chronic pain disorder, chronic fatigue, and a seizure disorder due to the strokes.

 

I find some day-to-day tasks difficult or impossible, like bathing. I wrote about my struggles with bathing in an essay published by Skin Deep in 2020 [https://skindeepmag.com/articles/ode-bucket-baths-accessibility-bathing-meditation/]. As I say in the essay, "Bathing is often painful, exhausting and inaccessible for disabled bodies. It serves as a reminder that we live in an able-bodied world where so much is outside of our control". I stopped being able to take the accessible bucket baths I described in the essay in 2021 as it exacerbated my scoliosis, and I was dependent on my mother to bathe me once more.

 

In February and March of 2022, I travelled with my mother and sister Tina to Bumrungrad International Hospital for further health care. I had been largely bed-bound for 2020 and 2021, facing deteriorating health with no real answers from all doctors I consulted with - the response I got from them was that I was too complicated or that they were too busy to see me. While at Bumrungrad, I had a full medic al workup and was put on a new medication that helps reduce my seizures. I also learnt how to better pace my activity levels through a graded physical therapy regimen. Our five-week stay in the hospital was expensive, but we were grateful to have the assistance of health insurance and generous financial contributions from family, which helped cover the costs.

 

Upon returning home to Kampala, we had to make various changes to make the home more accessible to me - this includes constructing an accessible bathroom. I have had numerous friends offer financial assistance over the past two years while I have been struggling with worsening health, but I have turned them all down because I had no financial need at the time living in my mother's home. However, I now have financial need and would appreciate all the assistance I can get in helping construct an accessible bathroom so that bathing is not as painful and inaccessible for me.

 

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