Elderly mother has recently had surgery

[princessangi]

My son told me recently about the DAS. I am taking my mother to Disney next month. She recently had surgery where they removed a large section of her colon. As a result, she must frequently and unexpectedly go to the restroom. I think? she will qualify for a DAS, but I am asking for your opinions first. She is 75 and is very private. She is an extremely, extremely modest person and getting her to describe her issues will be embarrassing for her. Does anyone have suggestions for me?

 

[lanejudy]

Nobody here can guarantee your mother would qualify for DAS. I suggest you (or she) gather thoughts/ideas about how she would be impacted waiting in a standard queue environment. You can jot down notes if that helps. Then go to Guest Relations when you arrive and tell them your concerns. The first post of the WDW DAS thread has up-to-date info about the DAS.

Enjoy your vacation!

Moving this to the main disABILITIES forum for greater visibility and possibly others with similar situation.

 

[Christine]

My son told me recently about the DAS. I am taking my mother to Disney next month. She recently had surgery where they removed a large section of her colon. As a result, she must frequently and unexpectedly go to the restroom. I think? she will qualify for a DAS, but I am asking for your opinions first. She is 75 and is very private. She is an extremely, extremely modest person and getting her to describe her issues will be embarrassing for her. Does anyone have suggestions for me?

We just went to Disney a few weeks ago with my 78 y/o aunt who had a colostomy last year and now wears a colostomy bag. She has the same issues as your mother in that that the bag will *fill* at any given time and she never knows when it will happen and where she'll be. But generally, she does have about a 15 minute time span to get herself in a restroom. My aunt also has mobility issues and is overweight so doesn't move fast and was on an ECV. She ended up riding quite a few rides, but none of the ones she chose had excessive wait times. We didn't plan for her to stand in a lot of lines so never requested a DAS.

If you plan on your mother doing a significant amount of standby on attractions that have longer than 15 minute waits, then you should request it. But really try to think if you will need to. The colostomy bags don't "suddenly" fill and cause a problem all day long. In my aunt's case (and I know every *body* is different) she generally had a time once a day where that happened. Sometimes it was at 10AM, sometimes it was later in the day. But it was generally once a day. As your mother spends more time with her new situation, she will start to recognize her own patterns and it should be easier to work around.

I will say that my aunt has been mortified by the colostomy and it has really curbed her life because she is so self-conscious about. She really has limited her activities and didn't go out for any long periods because of fear. She was pretty happy after the Disney trip because she said it forced her to get out for long periods and learn to be efficient in a public restroom. The companion restrooms at Disney worked out well, but we weren't always close to one. But she managed and was really proud of herself.

 

[gap2368]

I would suggest she write down her concerns as it has to do with the lines ( do not give the CM a Dr note as they will not read it ) just a few points on her concerns for the line. Go to GR and let the CM know she had some concerns for the line that she wrote down ( she can even say she dose not like to talk about it out loud) and just go from there

I would also make a backup plan for either not getting the DAS ( your mom dose not want one or the CM says no) or you get the DAS but you are still having problems ( I know a lot of people that think the DAS will do everything and for some it dose not it help but the person still needs to help them self.