Anybody have an electric lift seat on a power wheelchair?

[sandynd]

My DH will be needing a wheelchair soon and does not like being so low - it makes him feel helpless. Anybody have a seat lift on their powerchair? Would this work for somebody who's bigger? His weight varies wildly with the success of his dialysis, but at his lightest he's 300 lbs.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Lower is safer. The higher the center of gravity on a wheeled vehicle of any sort the easier it is to tip over.

 

[sandynd]

Appreciate the reply, CF, but he is so resistant to using the chair at all I'm afraid he will choose not to be mobile rather than be in a regular chair. In fact, that's what he's been doing for the last two years. You would not believe how limited our lives have become because he doesn't want to use the mobility devices he's tried. I'm desperately seeking ways to help him feel less "disabled". He would probably be willing to trade some safety for a little normalcy - after all, he's a biker! He was a risk-taker before he got so sick, and now I think he feels very diminished by all of the "safety" features being forced on him.

 

[WheeledTraveler]

I don't know if any wheelchairs with seat lift will roll with the seat raised up. Also, most insurance companies and for sure Medicare/Medicaid won't cover the cost of a seat lift (people I know who have them paid the cost of the list themselves while insurance/Medicare/Medicaid paid for the rest of the care). They only cover medical necessities. They also usually refuse to cover things that would only be required outside of the house.

I'd suggest asking this question on a board that's more directly wheelchair related (my best suggestion would be the message board on wheelchairjunkie.com since it has both users and manufacturers who read/comment).

I don't know what your DH's condition is, but is there any way you could convince him to go to some sort of therapy to talk about how he feels about what's going on and to help him with some coping techniques. With how active you says he was, I suspect it's not just the impairment from the condition he has that's a problem (self image if he's gained a large amount of weight, for example, could be another part of it). Also, I'm 27 and have been a wheelchair user since I was 20 and would be willing to talk to him about my experiences going from "perfectly healthy" to being a wheelchair user. He may not be ready for that sort of interaction yet even online, but I don't know if using something like e-mail would feel safer to him than talking to someone in person. I probably don't have a condition that's at all similar to his and I'm female so I'm not sure if I'd be too different for him. At the very least I can be honest with him about the pros and cons of each step I've taken from runner/hiker -> walking without aids but not being able to do the physical things I could before -> cane -> crutches -> manual wheelchair -> powerchair. I talk on here about being a manual wheelchair user because my housing situation changed in such a way that I can no longer user my powerchair even though my doctors would rather have me using it than the manual chair. I've also gone through things like needing to quit work because of my health, which is incredibly difficult to deal. If you think he'd be interested (or if you're interested in hearing my views) PM me and I'll send you my e-mail.

 

[sandynd]

WheeledTraveler, I will be PMing you. I doubt he'll be receptive to talking to anyone about it, but I sure am! We're in Canada too, so I doubt we'll be getting much financial help with the chair at all. But I have savings set aside for this - I just don't want to buy the thing and then him never use it - as we have with so many other devices to help him. Our home is littered with stuff he passively-aggressively agrees to and then refuses to use once the money is spent. (this is my DH, not my son, although sometimes it's hard to tell the difference these days - so frustrating!) So I could definitely use another perspective on what he's going through and how I can help him without becoming prisoners in our own home.

 

[peemagg]

There is a chair out there that is called a standing wheelchair, but I don't know if it will roll in the standing position. I'm sure there is something out there that will help.

 

[Nanajo1]

I have an Invacare Pronto. The seat raise about 7 inches to make certain tasks easier. You are not supposed to move when you are elevated but your DH could be elevate until he had to move. I know what is like staring at butts all day!

 

[sandynd]

Thanks for the product name, Nanajo1! I also, after much much googling and results about wheelchair lifts for cars, found something called a Bounder, which seems to be a custom-made chair with a lift, and also outdoor nubby tires. However, the price is very intimidating - about $25,000 for what he would need! I get that I am replacing legs, which is very expensive, but I didn't think I'd pay enough for a car Also, I don't know if they're sold in Canada - I might have to do a little cross-border shopping if this is the way we have to go.

I will look up the Invacare Pronto. You don't happen to know the weight limit on it, do you, or whether they have a heavy-duty model? I don't think he'd care so much about sitting lower when moving, but if he could raise up to talk to people when he wasn't moving, that would make things so much less condescending, I think. I've noticed that many people treat chair users as "lower" than them - I wonder if it's a physical response because usually people that much shorter than us are children, who we treat as needing protection, and we assume we know what's best for them. And yes, butts are not a fabulous sight day after day, even if he is a butt man