Help Please- Anyone With Any Experience With Wheelchairs Has More Than Me, Help A New Guy Out A Little Please?

[user27357]

A little research and I am good on the inside chair. I found that you can spend as much on a chair as you want, the sky and the bargain basement are within range. The price point I decided on was based on the dealerships near me and parts availability. I found a good used one that could be modified and set up with all kinds of features with most of the parts available on eBay or locally. Used chair-75.00. Being able to get to the toilet and back to the couch using a chair that has arms that fold back out of your way-Priceless!
I am intrigued by a parts list that would enable the chair to lay back flat with what the drag car guys call wheelie bars to keep you from tipping over backwards. It could be used as basically a recliner on wheels, skip the couch. Theres another pretty spendy setup that will go to a stand-up position with great possibilities for humorous experiments in velocity but we probably won't get there.

 

[Tinyflame]

Dear @enough , I'm sorry I haven't read all the posts, so not sure as this is helpful, speaking only from the perspective of someone who's used this equipment for 1000's of people over 20 years, and some personally, much depends if this is a permanent purchase or a temporary (recovery/ recovering) one. Transfer chairs are much 'flimsier', most of the bells-and-whistles/ drink holder etc are good only short term, though they pack in vehicles easily, good for say- transporting across a parking lot. Much like mountain bikes, aluminum-content frames or ones noted as 'easy glide' are hugely easier to push (or self-propel); tires are one of the largest consideration, especially outside. Cushions are one of the largest determinants of keeping skin integrity, unfortunately they can easily run up to 10000$ (for the cushion alone)- much depends on weight and time in the chair.

You mentioned gardening- if it's for eg a hip replacement (vs knee) there's no bending at 90 degrees; something like a reacher can be useful, or long-handled gardening tools (depending on arm and hand or shoulder mobility and strength), most can be twigged. Most other add-on accessories usually are not useful irl, with the exception of those designed for people post-stroke (IMHE). The reclining chairs are for those normally bedridden and requiring a hoyer for every transfer (though a hoyer is normally required any time one can't weight bear consistently); or for example quadriplegia; there are also sit-stand lifts etc (with sufficient strength to sit up and femur strength, they can be rented out here). Or conversely, there are commode wheelchairs, but also simply commodes, if one has trouble getting a wheelchair in to a bathroom (use a commode with locking feet only). Used wheelchairs (and walkers) hands down usually need the brakes fixed but are often on a great deal, esp when barely used. Most of all however the more time spent in the chair (if there are other options still available) the more quickly one loses muscle mass and increases the risk of bed sores (decubitis ulcers), more quickly if the person is of greater weight and not kept completely dry, whether caused by sweat or incontinence.

(Ideally, get a professional to measure your wife for one, even if just to compare against used available chairs, also remember the height of the back and if you need a headrest- likely not if your wife could garden, but you/ she knows).

ETA, remember with removable arm rests she won't be able to 'push off/up' to transfer or stand if she can, may in general need support bars in bathroom or otherwise; also there are non-permanent poles or arco-rails that can be installed quite easily beside or over a bed.

Hope that is useful! Good luck!!

 

[user27357]

@Rosebud It's all useful. thanks! Right now we don't know but hope this is not permanent. I have been learning constantly since we found out last thursday that her hip prosthetic would have to be removed and because of some other underlying conditions the "place keeper" might be in place as long as six months. thats long enough to invest in chairs at a mid to low level, but even with a complete fusion she will be able to get in and out OK. For the healing process we want her moving, but not bearing weigjht on the interim prosthetic that is now in place.
For an outdoor chair I am thinking about removing the tines from a used rototiller and using the transmission and rubber tractor tires only. It would be much easier to incorporate a 12 volt motor than an electric start gas engine so a real basket case c'list tiller with a blown motor is in the plan. That could be used to tow a "sulky" that would be easy to build and modify and cheap to totally scrap and start over if necessary. Probably a rotating seat like a boat seat so we could get her on from the side and she could use her good leg to spin as necessary, and height adjustability with another 12 or 24 volt actuator doing that work. I have a few available. Steering would be like an articulating hot dog vendor bicycle, two rubber rototiller tires up front and one small caster tire in back, right in front of or even under the seat, with an articulating joint between the sulky and the tiller frame and a straight handle bar attached to the front tiller section. Batteries above the tiller section for traction, and a big giant kill button next to a cell phone to call me for help in easy reach somewhere. Our land is as flat as can be, mud is the only worrisome obstacle and a runaway is the worst that might happen. Again I say: Big Giant Kill Switch.

Sounds simple and clunky, no? Something to do besides watch TV and cuss. Hopefully never to be built, percolating nicely for now.

 

[Tinyflame]

Ow wow @enough - amazing!

 

[user27357]

A lot will depend on how comfortable she is going to be sitting and reaching with her knees straight, it gets harder with age anyway as I can attest based on my slow evolution away from kayaks to canoes and now to kneeling in canoes with post landing pain from my hips to my toes. Bigger boats you can stand in keep me afloat now.

Hope she can join me on the rivers again soon. There are these great big smiles that flash on her face when the eagles fly low overhead or a particularly large agate is spotted on a gravel bar.

A really basic useable way to get in the flower beds might just be a pile of beanbag chairs and moving pads on a half sheet of plywood sitting on wide caster wheels that I can pull from place to place as needed and then have a seat next to her for moral support and pleasant conversation over cool drinks. We can dream about being able to just flip a switch and steer over to the shady spots when the sun moves.

 

[Friday]

A lot will depend on how comfortable she is going to be sitting and reaching with her knees straight,

Pester your engineers for a counterweight swing/sling thingmy.

My uncle built one for my grandmother out of sail cloth back in the 70s/80s. The lever raised and lowered it from a meter off the ground to inches off the ground, and then it spun around a pole/yard arm in the middle of the yard.

We kids cranked it up high, laid on our bellies and used it to “fly” (or on 1 occasion “surf” for which my backside still smarts, fine fine I won’t stand on it)... but my grandmother used it to garden.

My ex-husband thought I was NUTS for putting zip-lines in our yard (which would be another option with an altered seat instead of a harness that’s all hip-squeezy)... but I grew up with this shit. Why walk when you can wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!

 

[user27357]

DOH!
I could of had a chair covered by insurance. To appease myself, I asked if it was a high-quality chair and they said they didn't know anything about it but based on my co pay I would guess that it was a low level chair. That might explain all of the inexpensive chairs on craigs list. Some even brand new still in a box. I don't know but I imagine people get the chairs prescribed, pay the copay and then sell the chair if they have one already. I could have done just that.
@Friday I like the counterweight/fulcrum idea. Growing up with that shit must have been great! I want my grandkids to have go-carts at grandpas house, maybe a sling on a fulcrum to fly in.
I saw a film about a guy that had daughters with the same condition that gave them very little muscle strength in their arms and legs. The powered chairs they had needed to be able to raise so they could sit at an adult height dinner table and he designed and built seats that pivoted up and forward. His kids figured out that in the up position they could get the chair bouncing and it would tip forward just enough to let their feet touch the ground, balanced by the weight of the chair. he started seeing their footprints in the mud for the first time in their lives. The purpose of the film was to teach that we as designers should always have our eyes open for serendipity. what starts as a shortcut becomes the main path if you help it along, today's work-around is tomorrow's SOP.

 

[notsurewheretoturn]

My mum was in a chair for the last 18 months of her life. I found that people tend to be more forgiving of people either in or pushing chairs, but that could just be my experience. It had four small wheels as opposed to two small front and two large back wheels.

I found when I was going down gutters it was easier to go down backwards, it meant I could control the chair more and I wasn't tipping mum forwards while trying to balance on the front wheels.

Also, take care when hanging things on the handles at the back, I had a friend who is permanently in a chair, fall backwards in a shop because he'd under estimated the weight he was putting there. Plus the chair will tip when the occupant stands up and it's so easy to hurt yourself when you automatically move to catch it.

 

[user27357]

@notsurewheretoturn
the chair you describe is called a "transfer chair" here. It would be very handy for getting from a car to a bed or for visiting places that don't have the door width necessary for a full on wheelchair, but I bet you found it very unwieldy on rough surfaces and as you say "going down gutters'. I asked if my insurance would cover one of those and they said no. I may try to find one, it would be especially handy in places like my daughters home that is nearly 140 years old (our state has only been a state for 162 years, it is a very old home by our standards) it is also lighter and would lighten the load if we needed two people to carry her up a stair, all good things.

 

[notsurewheretoturn]

It's a standard issue chair here if the user can't self propel, it wasn't too bad on rough ground, it was more to do with me being less than 5ft tall and not in the best of health myself. I found I couldn't see what was directly in front of the chair as the handles where chest height on me.

 

[Tinyflame]

A lot will depend on how comfortable she is going to be sitting and reaching with her knees straight

^^ Probably not very, but you'll need good lumbar support.

Another thought- you can get 2 sliders (should be inexpensive)- slippery bed-like sheets, wherein they go under the person on the ground or under their cushion (even like a dog bed, no offense intended!!, just useful). Then, you don't pull the sheet with them, but rather pull the sheet using the slipperiness to the other sheet to move their body over (outside in this case). Can move 200+ pound person that way. But you would be at ground level to do it from what you've described.

Hope that makes sense!

ETA I think from what you've described I'd just use a power chair arrangement to get there and transfer to a regular supported rigid chair with cushion, use long-handled instruments and enjoy the company together.

 

[Tinyflame]

Meant to just say @enough , not sure how this garden is arranged, if it's 20' or 10 or 1/2 acre, veggies or flowers, grass, mud or concrete-bordered. But it is very difficult to self-propel or push over grass or uneven ground, and obviously mud.

Also, if she is sitting on her bum with her legs straight, there still would be (if there is now) the rule against bending over 90 degrees to prevent dislocation of the hip (think of not putting on socks, shoes, but same issue if sitting low with legs extended). So basically the (her) torso would have to be upright, no over-extension.