| Subject: |
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Re: Re: Re: complicating handicaps |
| Name: |
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Rat |
| Date Posted: |
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Feb 15, 08 - 5:49 PM |
| IP Address: |
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71.116.37.18 |
| Email: |
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rizzorat@mailcity.com |
| Message: |
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Hi Carl
Well I hope you are getting a head of your self and will not need a chair full time but it is good to plan a head we sure are.
There are ramps you will need a way to hall your chair or to transfer into a car and transfer into a bathtub or toilet. All this is what makes being in a chair full time so hard.
Orion gave you some good pointers and things to look at. I use both a power and manual chair the power chair is more for outdoors but I have used it indoors or when we travel we don’t have room to take both power and manual chair with us. The funny thing the power chair is not as wide as the manual my power chair will fit through a 27in door and I have two big chairs. One is a Permobil 500 and I also have a Pride 1170XL both big chairs.
I am lucky I have not had to use a chair in the home for a long time but when I did it was hard now I use forearm crutches in the home to get around and very short walks like to my van.
We just put in a new walk in shower it is the size of a full size tub and higher toilets and planning on widening all the doors in our home to make things easer.
We have a two-story home so the main bathroom is of course on the second floor. We are looking at a lift so I can get up on the second floor when needed. But all this is down the road it takes a lot of money and maybe I won’t need it if I don’t get any worse.
I have CIDP and Autonomic Neuropathy which is a neurological disease basically my nerves are dieing. It is simmer to MS except MS is the nerves inside the spinal column and CIDP is the nerves that are affected are out side of the spinal column they both can do about the same thing to you in the long run but MS is the worst of the two.
I also had several small strokes making my left side much weaker than my right.
Clothing can make differences in comfort. You can spend a lot of money and buy Adaptive clothing made special for wheelchair users or go other roughs one sweets work well and are comfortable. Buy clothing one size larger helps or and don’t think I am nuts but women’s pants are cut wider in the hips which make things easer and more comfortable and it is possible to find some that look like men’s pants or jeans. It just goes to show you ho wears the pants in most homes.
If you have no or little use of your legs and use diapers it is difficult to change but it can be done. Most people full time in a chair go for the cath and leg bag. I use the caths but I hate leg bags.
If you travel you will find restrooms to be your biggest drawback. Some handicap restrooms just are not big enough for both you and your chair. The next thing that gets me mad is people that don’t need a handicap restroom will use it just because it is bigger.
We go to Disney World every year and most restrooms there are good for the handicap but all parks will have a family restroom man dose that make things easer.
If you would end up in a chair full time your doctor should send you the therapy. Here where I live there is a couple of hospitals that are dedicated in therapy for the handicap needs.
If you are thinking of a lightweight chair made of titanium most of these are one-piece chairs and will not fold. This means you have to have a way to hall it and they are very costly and most insurance will not pay for them.
Here again in my case I was refused a power chair through my insurance but they did pay for the manual and it is nothing special but still cost $1500.
I bought my power chair out of pocket I just bought the Permobil it listed for $27,500. I was very lucky the Permobil rep found me a demo three months old with only 55 minutes of run time on it I got it for $14,000.
Here again insurances usually will not pay for something like this. What they will if approved for a power chair will get something like an Invacare M91 or the lower price Pride.
The same will go for a manual chair they buy the basic chair unless there are special needs.
When I went for a power chair I had to go to therapy and they decided if I get one if I would need special feathers on it. Even though I had a prescription from my Neurologists I was still refused a power chair by the insurance Co., which took many months to fine out, but was approved a manual chair.
I have my wife ho supports me a wonderful daughter and fantastic grandson with a nether grandchild on its way there is not much more I need.
If you ever want to talk e-mail me I am usually here.
I hope everything goes well for you.
Lyle |
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