J. CLOTHES – GETTING DRESSED
My advice
Learn how to do it yourself so you don’t need anyone. This means you are free to come and go as you wish. You can do this by avoiding garments you cannot get on or off by yourself, or by getting things modified so you can get them on and off easily.
My experience
I dress myself entirely and have done ever since mid – 1986. I found the key problems were socks, buttons, and shoe laces. So I don’t wear socks, I don’t unbutton shirts, and I don’t use lace up shoes.
I get dressed on my bed in the morning. I sit up leaning against the bed head. I put my shirt on over my head, then put my trousers on over my feet. Then I move down to the end of the bed and lie down. As I lie down I hook my thumbs in my belt loops and pull my trousers up. Then I roll on one side to pull up one side of my trousers, then the other side. Then I roll onto to my side to tuck my shirt in, then the other side.
I use a number of things to help with this process:
- I don’t wear socks
- I wear boots with zippers up the side not shoes with laces
- I use a button hook to pull up the zippers on my shoes, pull up my fly, and do the button up on my trousers
- When taking my shirt off I only undo one button, usually with my teeth, and leave all the other buttons done up. This means I can take my shirts on and off over my head like a t-shirt. I use a button hook to do up the button when I put it back on
- I have velcro sewn into one part of my shirts and a matching part of my trousers to stop my shirts from coming untucked. i have found that my Quad belly makes it likely that my shirt will come untucked throughout the day so the velcro is critical
- I put jackets on and off the same way as I do shirts, over my head
- I get my ties made into clip-ons because I can’t do a tie knot.
All of this takes about an hour.
Pictures:
Shirt
Trousers Part 1
Trousers Part 2
Trousers Part 3
Shoes – see shoe page
Here’s what the experts say
CLICK HERE for a study that found many quads think its ‘too much time and too much effort’
CLICK HERE for Guy 1 who does it very differently from me
CLICK HERE for Guy 2 who does it differently from me
spinal hub – the experts say it is possible – maybe
rehabteam – these experts say it is not possible
Rule number 10 – Get clothes altered for convenience and fit
The Independent Quad (C6) 
Hi,
Been going through these pointers again. Noticed that when I had a look the first time I didn’t see the videos when I browsed via IE. Now via Chrome I’m able to see them.
So question on this section is…I noticed your pants are very “loose”, don’t they fall off or pull down when you transfer off your bed or in/out of the car?
Also, are they adjusted at the back to make them higher?
Since becoming a quad I’ve only worn tracksuit pants – so much easier to get on I think. I’d like to wear some proper pants again though…with the boots, etc..
you certainly are eagle eyed – i currently wear loose pants because i only rarely get in the car so the coming down thing is not an issue for me. they do come down a bit when i transfer so if i’m driving i usually wear pants that arnt too bad from that perspective. when i used to drive a lot i did wear tighter pants. most quads wear tracksuit pants. good luck with proper trousers, they look so much better that even if they are more effort i hope you will think its worth it, and maybe you might find them as easy to get on as tracksuits