Wheelchairs, wheelchairs

It's been a wheelchair intensive week. 

 The power wheelchair, an Invercare TDX SP2, was delivered on Tuesday afternoon, courtesy of the NHS. Laila's partner Michael made a temporary ramp for the back door over the weekend. The delivery driver walked the machine into the house using the ramp without stopping. 

 Once in, it took my sister and I nearly an hour to find the socket for plugging in the charger. We hunted through the user manual as well as the machine itself. Eventually I found it, hidden under the control panel.

 I put it through its paces, including raising the seat so that I was at normal head height and could reach the higher kitchen cupboards.

 Today Margie drove us to Aylesbury and Gerald Simonds. We met Nesad again who wheeled out the new Helio C2 manual wheelchair. He spent some time adjusting it to suit me and making it less tippy.

 This afternoon, we tackled two potential major potential gotchas:

  • Would the Helio C2 fit in the Topper?  On the first attempt it jammed on the hand rests. So we took them off. On the second attempt it jammed again, with one handle in and one sticking oiut. So I bound both handles tightly together with string. On the third attempt it successfully went home, but with very little clearance. Nevertheless it went in OK three times in succession.
  • Would the Invercare TDX power chair fit in the Stannah lift?  Going in forwards it wouldn't. So I took off the foot plates, which stick out a long way. It still wouldn't fit. So I went in backwards and it did just fit, provided foot plates were removed. I went successfully upstairs. However, once upstairs, the machine proved just too bulky to manouevre around the small landing, with the stairwell yawning beneath.
  • We know the Helio C2 will fit in the lift, as it's shorter than the Invercare manual chair, which just fits. Here is a photo of me using it to go up the ramp in the rain, leaning forward so as to prevent the chair from tipping over backwards. The car with its Topper is also visible. 

Comments

  1. Mark r Franzen3 February 2020 at 23:05

    There are mainly two types of wheelchair manual and electric. Aids 4 Mobility has both types of wheelchairs in their collection. You can visit their site and purchase. The quality of their wheelchairs is so high. Electric wheelchairs

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ceiling Hoist

Image
I now have a ceiling hoist installed in the bedroom. It's a Handimove hoist that goes anywhere in the bedroom. You can watch videos of it in operation https://www.handimove.com/products/ceiling-motor/ It uses a gadget called a Body Support that holds you firmly, avoiding the need for a sling. So it's quicker and easier to get into or out of. It has two large hooks that go under your thighs and two pads that grasp you round your chest. Here's a photo of it, showing the hoist motor above it. Over a couple of weeks, we've worked out workflows for the main operations: Getting out of bed and dressed Getting undressed and into bed Doing a loo run  It's quicker and easier than doing transfers with a board. It makes life easier for Sandie, particularly with awkward operations like getting trousers on and off. It works well in conjunction with the hospital bed. It's now in use several times each day.
Read more

Feeding Tube (PEG)

I recently had a PEG fitted at the John Radcliffe Hospital. It involved admission on a Monday evening, fitting on Tuesday, going home on Wednesday. Sandie drove me to the hospital, which was unusually quiet for us, it being an evening. I was admitted to the Neuroscience Ward in the West Wing into a 4 bed bay. I sat in my chair by the bed for some hours. Prof Martin Turner visited and we had a nice chat. Eventually two nurses came to hoist me into bed, but made a complete mess of it, nearly dumping me on the floor. Eventually they summoned two experienced nurses, who did the job in 10 minutes. On Tuesday morning me and my bed were trundled through long corridors and lifts to Endoscopy. I was accompanied by a trainee nurse, who wanted to witness the operation. After another wait I was wheeled into the operating room. I was lightly sedated, my breathing being compromised, which still made the 15 minute process easy to undergo. I was then moved to a recovery area. My heart rate went up
Read more

Floppy Head

Image
MND has reached its tentacles into my neck muscles, causing my head to droop forward. This is a common thing to happen to people living with MND. My first move was to buy a Head Up Collar, that was designed by Sheffield University, now made by  https://www.talarmade.com/products/headup-collar/ You get a velcro collar, shaped like a snood, and a kit of 20 or so plastic shapes, which you stick on the collar to provide support where needed. I later found out from health professionals that this device is not that popular with users and my experience confirmed that. It is complicated to customise and not that comfortable. But better than nothing. I then found that using the power wheelchair with backrest tilted backwards helped the floppy head no end. Then, fitting the headrest to it, with an attached elasticated band round my forehead, found it works very well. So I have stopped using my manual wheelchair in favour of the power one. The photo below shows the HeadUp Collar fitted
Read more