wheelchair accesories

Savvy_Sue

soccermom wrote: »

He does have to undergo a risk assessment though that is why we thought the plywood option was a no go really.

I'd ask them. And I'd also see if there was anyone at school who could give sensible advice, if it's already 'genned up' on access etc.

FWIW I can't see why a suitable prepared piece of plywood, suitably secured, would be any more of a problem than a proper leg rest. The end result is the same: there is a leg sticking out in front of the chair, it is a trip hazard, and there is also a risk of excruciating pain if not further damage to your son's leg if someone DOES fall over it, or even bang into it!

Your son might need to move around the school five minutes before or after each lesson ends. And some kind friend might need to take notes for him of anything he misses!

sunnyone

I dont see a need for a wheelchair for a fit and healthy 17 years old with a short term impairment, my husband broke both his legs very badly in the accident that croppled me and was on crutches 14 days after surgery with a full lengh cast on one leg and we managed, I crutches for well over a decade without ill effect and using a wheelchair causes other problems that can be life threatening as well as allowing his other leg to suffer muscle loss etc.

For transport we used a 7 seater estate with the middle row of seats removed, this was before todays people carriers where most can accomadate a full lengh cast.

soccermom

sunnyone wrote: »

I dont see a need for a wheelchair for a fit and healthy 17 years old with a short term impairment, my husband broke both his legs very badly in the accident that croppled me and was on crutches 14 days after surgery with a full lengh cast on one leg and we managed, I crutches for well over a decade without ill effect and using a wheelchair causes other problems that can be life threatening as well as allowing his other leg to suffer muscle loss etc.

For transport we used a 7 seater estate with the middle row of seats removed, this was before todays people carriers where most can accomadate a full lengh cast.

He's not going to use the wheelchair all the time and he is walking to the corner shop on his crutches with his dad but what is normally less than a 5 minute journey is currently taking 30/40 mins so walking to school is going to take well over an hour.

If he can use a wheelchair for that part of the journey that would be ideal. Unfortunately we do not own a 7 seater estate or people carrier and cannot take the middle seats out of our car we have a focus and a friend who he goes to school with only has a 3 door car.

If a wheelchair can enable his life to continue as normally as possible and continue in school in his final year of A levels I will do everything in my power to aid this. He does not intend the wheelchair as a replacement for getting back on his feet just as a part time tool to aid his recovery.

If the physios and OT's are saying he needs a wheelchair who am I to disagree with the professional opinion.

He is working towards a career in sports rehabilitation and is aware of what he needs to do to facilitate his return to fitness so he wont let other muscles etc degenerate.

The wheelchair will help I feel with his moods as well at least he can get out and about with his mates and continue to use his season ticket at the match.

Thanks Savvy_sue. He has already spoken about the leaving lessons earlier I think he will do anything to get back to school as soon as possible The 6th form part of the school is away from the other years so will probably be easier to navigate. In school he will probably use his crutches he is keen to be upright and mobile.

sunnyone

soccermom wrote: »

He's not going to use the wheelchair all the time and he is walking to the corner shop on his crutches with his dad but what is normally less than a 5 minute journey is currently taking 30/40 mins so walking to school is going to take well over an hour.

If he can use a wheelchair for that part of the journey that would be ideal. Unfortunately we do not own a 7 seater estate or people carrier and cannot take the middle seats out of our car we have a focus and a friend who he goes to school with only has a 3 door car.

If a wheelchair can enable his life to continue as normally as possible and continue in school in his final year of A levels I will do everything in my power to aid this. He does not intend the wheelchair as a replacement for getting back on his feet just as a part time tool to aid his recovery.

If the physios and OT's are saying he needs a wheelchair who am I to disagree with the professional opinion.

He is working towards a career in sports rehabilitation and is aware of what he needs to do to facilitate his return to fitness so he wont let other muscles etc degenerate.

The wheelchair will help I feel with his moods as well at least he can get out and about with his mates and continue to use his season ticket at the match.

Thanks Savvy_sue. He has already spoken about the leaving lessons earlier I think he will do anything to get back to school as soon as possible The 6th form part of the school is away from the other years so will probably be easier to navigate. In school he will probably use his crutches he is keen to be upright and mobile.

If he really needed a wheelchair the hospital would have provided one before releasing him, even if they didnt have a leg raiser they give you the chair and try to get a riser if one is returned, my wheelchair became a bird bath because I refused to use one for over a decade despite having the professional saying I would never be able to crutche due to my injuries.

He will get used to the crutches and he will be better off persiverering instead of taking the easy option, it dosnt take long to get used to them and it will be much better for his health, he could get breathing, bladder/bowels problems etc. using a wheelchair even for short periods which is why the hospital dont hand out wheelchairs for broken legs unless like my husband you break both legs, things havnt changed because my sons BF badly broke his leg in the holidays and hes at school already on his under arm crutches and the school isnt disabled friendly.

soccermom

So what you are saying then is that I let him walk for an hour and half to school on his crutches there and back. So 3 hours a day until he "gets used to it"

Let him catch 2 buses to the hospital once a week because my car is not big enough to accommodate him safely or comfortably. Regardless of the fact my husband needs it for work.

The hospital told us to get him a wheelchair from Red cross as they don't provide them a consequence of people not returning them. They only provide them to the chronically sick

They are not telling him not to use the crutches. I never said he wouldn't use the crutches, it took 2 physios to help my son get on his feet because the pot is so heavy so I don't think walking 2/3 hours a day just to school is really going to help.

They have also told him not to use a wheelchair without the raiser so waiting til one has come in does not help my son.

Why do you seem so against him needing a wheelchair for only a small part of his day.

I do not have transport so a wheelchair for transporting him to school where he can use his crutches is not an indication that he is going to use it all the time or is taking "the easy option"

He is not going to get bladder or breathing problems for using a wheelchair for such a small amount of time.

I came on here for some advice not a lecture in why my son is using a wheelchair as an easy option. If you knew me or my son which you don't then you would know that is far from the truth.

Maybe you aren't meaning to sound as harsh as you do or so patronising, but that is how it is coming across.

sunnyone

soccermom wrote: »

So what you are saying then is that I let him walk for an hour and half to school on his crutches there and back. So 3 hours a day until he "gets used to it"

Let him catch 2 buses to the hospital once a week because my car is not big enough to accommodate him safely or comfortably. Regardless of the fact my husband needs it for work.

The hospital told us to get him a wheelchair from Red cross as they don't provide them a consequence of people not returning them. They only provide them to the chronically sick

They are not telling him not to use the crutches. I never said he wouldn't use the crutches, it took 2 physios to help my son get on his feet because the pot is so heavy so I don't think walking 2/3 hours a day just to school is really going to help.

They have also told him not to use a wheelchair without the raiser so waiting til one has come in does not help my son.

Why do you seem so against him needing a wheelchair for only a small part of his day.

I do not have transport so a wheelchair for transporting him to school where he can use his crutches is not an indication that he is going to use it all the time or is taking "the easy option"

He is not going to get bladder or breathing problems for using a wheelchair for such a small amount of time.

I came on here for some advice not a lecture in why my son is using a wheelchair as an easy option. If you knew me or my son which you don't then you would know that is far from the truth.

Maybe you aren't meaning to sound as harsh as you do or so patronising, but that is how it is coming across.

I have many years experiance of disability, both mine and many other people and I have had advice of thousands of professional who deal with disabled people and wheelchairs, Im sorry if you dont like my post, Im Aspie so I can come across as diffrent but Im giving you good advice.

He will get used to the crutches very quickly if he persiveres, he could get serious health problems due to even short term wheelchair use, maybe you havnt heard of people taking ill on airoplanes etc. just from sitting for a couple of hours (thats a scinario you might have heard about since you dont understand what can happen to wheelchair users)

Full size wheelchairs are not in short supply in hospitals in Newcastle, we go to the Royal Vic all the time (for our son mostly) and the orth ward didnt have a problem providing a friend with a wheelchair on discharge if its really needed as a medical need, I am under the wheelchair services NE and my powerchair/wheelchair came from Newcastle so I have experiance of this.

Public transport has improved and crutches are a dam sight easier to use on a bus that wheelchairs, driver drive past wheelchair users at bus stops because they cant be botherd to get the ramp out or a chav mother will be in the wheelchair space and she will refuse to move even though the law is on the wheelchair users side you still get left at the bus stop for hours as bus after bus goes past you or the ramp is broken (which is legal outside London). These are situations wheelchair users are used to getting day after day.

Savvy_Sue

Leaving aside the arguments about whether or not he should or should not be using a wheelchair at all ...

so the friend he normally travels to school with can't accommodate the pot. Will the school send out an SOS to other students to see if there is anyone who would be willing to get him? Would a few judiciously used taxi journeys help? Can his dad juggle his hours any days to get him there (early if necessary)?

I think too that if he's a fit and healthy young man (as he clearly is) that he will speed up on his crutches too! Can you fit a skateboard to the pot to help? (joke!)

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I think too that if he's a fit and healthy young man (as he clearly is) that he will speed up on his crutches too! Can you fit a skateboard to the pot to help? (joke!)

You HAVE to see this if you haven't before! (1:16 onwards in particular)

http://youtu.be/WZmgZN1umsM


Offspring has to use crutches (and a brace) now due to a nasty dislocation of her knee. She wasn't pleased about it until a) They were Gothed up with ribbons and flowers and b) until she got to see a few videos like this on YouTube.

Although, this means that I have heard her trying to reenact some of them in the back garden :cool:



Mind you, she has to walk half a mile up a very steep hill to get to school from the bus stop. And she is presently non weight bearing a lot of the time (their advice is to keep off it when you can, but make a point of putting your foot down when the ground is level). So when she moves, she is potentially more at risk of damaging her knee again than if she had been plastered up - which they would have done had the brace not been small enough for her (they didn't have any children's ones at all).

Her school is also atrocious in terms of accessibility - she says she understands why I am always in a foul mood when having to go there -

but she's managing and in all likelihood, healing better than the children who are ferried from front door to school, plus she is strengthening her arms, shoulders and chest muscles, so I am pretty sure that a hulking great lad could manage with a set of crutches and a cast when she weighs about 6 stone and is half the width of her friends.


Perhaps, as you actually have a car, you could drive him there and let him make his own way back? Or get a cab if there is no public transport whatsoever?

It's easy to say 'use a wheelchair then. Get in contact with the Red Cross' than convince someone that they will be better off getting on with things as best they can.

I hope he recovers quickly, OP, and by the end of the week, even had you sourced a chair he could well have been sitting on a wall whilst his mates tried to do trick stunts or taking girls on a ride with the thing

Savvy_Sue

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

You HAVE to see this if you haven't before! (1:16 onwards in particular)

http://youtu.be/WZmgZN1umsM

Classic! :rotfl:

To be fair to the OP, her son is in a heavy full leg pot, which I imagine will take time to get used to. But I still think that he will get faster, and your suggestions of what would happen to a wheelchair at school sound all too plausible!

Mupette

Although i agree that using crutches is better, what i don't agree is expecting him to walk to school like that...

an hour and a half if you are not used to it is going to wear him out, it's ok if you have many years experiance of it.

Yes 17 years old males should be fit and healthy, but this is ridiculous.

OP can the school let him do work from home for a short while?
until you can get a chair sorted