Just bought a wheelchair, hints and advice..

[jbcl]

Hi
I have need crutches to walk. I know there is no way I can manage the distances round the parks, I struggle getting around supermarkets!
I have actively avoided wheelchairs in fear of losing strength in my arms and shoulders for using the crutches.
We have a trip to Disney booked for feb (I have a huge grin plastered to my face just thinking about it!) so I have at last bitten the bullet and bought myself a self propel wheelchair.

If anyone can give me any hints and tips on how to make using a chair easier, it would be greatly apreciated.
Any suggestions for carrying my crutches on the chair?
Many Thanks in advance
J

 

[peemagg]

If you do a search for wheelchair accessories, you will find a crutch bag that hooks on the back of your chair. I don't think they are that expensive. This is what I am going to do to carry my crutches as soon as I get my chair.

 

[Dan1]

Also consider using a back pack for your incidentals and place it on the back of the chair.

My daughter uses a manual chair and when we are in the parks that is what we do. Pretty much any typical back pack straps meant to be used to hold the back pack on your back will easily do same and fit on a manual chair's handles.

As my daughter uses a manual chair I'm not sure about the configuration of your self propelled chair.

Do be sure to get the Disney Disabilities Guide so you can plan out which attractions have special entrances for chairs.

I hope that helps!
Dan

 

[krisnme]

I think you may be underestimating how much arm strength is required to propel a manual w/c all day. you should still be able to maintain the conditioning of your upper body without using crutches. you should spend time using the w/c before you go to disney, be sure you are able to use it all day. you may still want to consider renting an ECV once you are at the parks. a backpack is a necessity when at Disney, and most will fit easily over the handles of your chair. if you google w/c acessories, there are a lot of very cool, handy things to make life easier with the chair. A fav for DS is an umbrella (actually made for a lawn chair) that he can clip to the arm of the chair to keep off sun and rain. got ours at Kmart for $8.00. He finds that a drink holder is also a must. check out childrens stores as the kind made for strollers often fit and adjust well and are much cheaper than those online. good luck!

 

[jbcl]

Many thanks for the suggestion.
I am very good at accessorising my crutchs. I have a small bag with a wrist strap, the wrist strap fits around the hand grip then the bag clips onto the stick, this one holds my mobile phone. On my other crutch I have a camema size bag, the shoulder strap wraps through the belt hook on the back of the bag around the handle and upright of the crutch. My purse and first aid kit have permanent residence.

Thanks to your suggestions I'm off to a baby store this afternoon. I intend getting an understroller sling type bag and the clips to hold net bags.
By the time I'm finished the chair will probably weigh twice as much.
My boys have all offered taking it in turns to push me as long as I offer them a ride when they get tired!
I'm going to look at wheelchair accessories for ideas but over here the choice is slim and the prices tend to be prohibitive.
I'm testing a homemade cruch holder, a 2 litre drink bottle with the top cut off. Hole punch holes in the sides. Using toy ties (the long wire coated metal wire ties used to hold toys in their packaging) I tied it to the frame, hung low at the back. Still working on the top holder. I tried a velcro band across the back to tuck them behind but I'm not happy. I'm going to look for one or two large carabiners that will clip them in place.
At this rate I might go for a rifle style holder if my present method doesn't work!

I'm just hoping the wheelchair uses different muscles to the crutches so I can alternate without my shoulders complaining too loud - looks like I will have to do more weight training before the trip, my shoulders are already too big!!

Do I need to take a bike lock to make sure the chair is still there when I return if I use the pushchair parks during the day?

Any other hints and suggestions will be gratefully recieved!

J

 

[SueM in MN]

Many thanks for the suggestion.
I am very good at accessorising my crutchs. I have a small bag with a wrist strap, the wrist strap fits around the hand grip then the bag clips onto the stick, this one holds my mobile phone. On my other crutch I have a camema size bag, the shoulder strap wraps through the belt hook on the back of the bag around the handle and upright of the crutch. My purse and first aid kit have permanent residence.

Thanks to your suggestions I'm off to a baby store this afternoon. I intend getting an understroller sling type bag and the clips to hold net bags.
By the time I'm finished the chair will probably weigh twice as much.
My boys have all offered taking it in turns to push me as long as I offer them a ride when they get tired!
I'm going to look at wheelchair accessories for ideas but over here the choice is slim and the prices tend to be prohibitive.
I'm testing a homemade cruch holder, a 2 litre drink bottle with the top cut off. Hole punch holes in the sides. Using toy ties (the long wire coated metal wire ties used to hold toys in their packaging) I tied it to the frame, hung low at the back. Still working on the top holder. I tried a velcro band across the back to tuck them behind but I'm not happy. I'm going to look for one or two large carabiners that will clip them in place.
At this rate I might go for a rifle style holder if my present method doesn't work!

I'm just hoping the wheelchair uses different muscles to the crutches so I can alternate without my shoulders complaining too loud - looks like I will have to do more weight training before the trip, my shoulders are already too big!!

Do I need to take a bike lock to make sure the chair is still there when I return if I use the pushchair parks during the day?

Any other hints and suggestions will be gratefully recieved!

J

I would be more worried about the things you have on the bag - like backpack, than the wheelchair itself.
If you want to lock it, you can. You need to make sure that you are ot locking it to anything and that CMs can still move it if they need to. They do move around strollers ( pushchairs) to keep the area orderly, so it may not be in exactly the same place when you come back.

I don't have a lot of time right now to reply, but suggest you check out the disABILITIES FAQs. There is a lot of information about touring with a wheelchair, including information about the special WDW park maps for guests with disabilities. One post also lists the wheelchair entrances for attractions - which are most often the same entrances as everyone else. There is also attraction information in posts 18-22 on page 2 of the disABILITIES FAQs thread.

 

[jbcl]

I would be more worried about the things you have on the bag - like backpack, than the wheelchair itself.
If you want to lock it, you can. You need to make sure that you are ot locking it to anything and that CMs can still move it if they need to. They do move around strollers ( pushchairs) to keep the area orderly, so it may not be in exactly the same place when you come back.

I don't have a lot of time right now to reply, but suggest you check out the disABILITIES FAQs. There is a lot of information about touring with a wheelchair, including information about the special WDW park maps for guests with disabilities. One post also lists the wheelchair entrances for attractions - which are most often the same entrances as everyone else. There is also attraction information in posts 18-22 on page 2 of the disABILITIES FAQs thread.

Thanks. I have been going through the FAQ's. I must admit there is so much on there it is taking a bit of getting through but the advice and information is invaluable.

I'm trying to make the additions to be easily removable to take them with us if the chair is parked up, if anything stays on it will be water shoes and rain gear type stuff. When my sister and I travelled with the pushchair we worked on the theory 'out of sight, out of mind', we survived without incident but 'better safe than sorry' is my attitude to missing transportation!


Re Cup holders and other add-ons, I went to a bike shop this morning and hit lucky. Two bicycle mounts will nicely allow the cruches to be fastened on. The drinks holder has a simple clip fasten, all in for less than £10 (around $16 I think)

J

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks. I have been going through the FAQ's. I must admit there is so much on there it is taking a bit of getting through but the advice and information is invaluable.

I'm trying to make the additions to be easily removable to take them with us if the chair is parked up, if anything stays on it will be water shoes and rain gear type stuff. When my sister and I travelled with the pushchair we worked on the theory 'out of sight, out of mind', we survived without incident but 'better safe than sorry' is my attitude to missing transportation!


Re Cup holders and other add-ons, I went to a bike shop this morning and hit lucky. Two bicycle mounts will nicely allow the cruches to be fastened on. The drinks holder has a simple clip fasten, all in for less than £10 (around $16 I think)

J

Sounds like you found some great parts. I was trying to think of another place to try besides baby equipment shops, but couldn't think of the right term - sporting goods didn't do the trick.

We've gotten good things over the years in the bicycle department of stores. Things for bikes usually work well because the size of the frame pipes on bikes are the same as those in most wheelchair frames.

 

[Nanajo1]

You might consider gloves for you and your sons. There can be wear and tear on the hands with a lot of pushing. I think the fingerless type work best.

 

[jbcl]

You might consider gloves for you and your sons. There can be wear and tear on the hands with a lot of pushing. I think the fingerless type work best.

Thanks for the suggestion. Even after a quick test run today I came to realise I'll need to dig out all my old gloves I have collected over the years from using the crutches. I have used crutches on and off for the last 27 years, permanently for the last 18, so I have pretty hard hands (and more pulled shoulder muscles than I care to recall!).
I'm tempted to go down the 'get the bisters over and done with now' so they are healed and hardened for the trip - salt rubs here I come!

Anyone got any suggestions for hardening the hands in advance apart from the obvious!

Thanks Sue for all the feedback, the bike accessories are so much cheaper than the tiny, overpriced range of wheelchair stuff I found. Between baby, bike and discount stores with a bit of DIY thrown in I think I can cobble together most things that will make my life easier as a part timer.
I still have a clip-on sun shade from my ds's when they were small. I don't think I'll need it in Feb though!

What accessories has anyone else found to make a major difference?

J

 

[krisnme]

What accessories has anyone else found to make a major difference?

J

DS can't push himself far (low muscle tone) so for me a set of "bar tenders" was wonderful. they are easily removable but make pushing with one hand or for a long period much easier. Also just thought about lights. we have "frog" lights. I use white ones low on the front of his leg rests pointed forward like headlights so I can see anything in the sidwalk or road ahead. then I put flashing red lights on the spokes of the wheels to alert vehicles that may not be able to see us. The lights stay on the chair but we only use them at night. At WDW it seems to help prevent people from tripping over his legs at the mad crush to exit after fireworks.

 

[jbcl]

DS can't push himself far (low muscle tone) so for me a set of "bar tenders" was wonderful. they are easily removable but make pushing with one hand or for a long period much easier. Also just thought about lights. we have "frog" lights. I use white ones low on the front of his leg rests pointed forward like headlights so I can see anything in the sidwalk or road ahead. then I put flashing red lights on the spokes of the wheels to alert vehicles that may not be able to see us. The lights stay on the chair but we only use them at night. At WDW it seems to help prevent people from tripping over his legs at the mad crush to exit after fireworks.

I don't think I'm light enough to get away with anyone pushing me one handed but dh could have used something like that when the boys were still in pushchairs! Having me on sticks and 2 other boys to herd it would have been useful!
I had never even considered lights. I just bought ds2 some clip on lights for his bike - I think I may be 'borrowing' them back again. Do you think I'd get away with amber flashing warning lights fastened to the top of my crutches while I'm in the chair?! My dad has one on a pole for when he uses the quad bike on the road after a large truck ran straight into him.

I really like the idea of some form of light to help prevent anyone accidentally bumping into my foot as it is hyper sensitive.
Many Thanks for the suggestions.