Can you hire/try electric mobility scooters

anguk

I completely agree with Anubis, my husband always refused to get one but when we found out he was going to lose his 2nd leg I made the decision for him and got one. It's been invaluable since he got out of hospital, he can get himself around the house, he's been assessed for a motorised wheelchair but it's going to take 16 weeks to get it, without the scooter he'd be confined to a bed or chair unless I pushed him in his manual wheelchair.

He's also used it to nip along to the corner shop on his own, something he hasn't done for years and when we go anywhere he can actually potter around with us instead of sitting in the car or a cafe.

He wishes he'd got one years ago, he says he felt like it was giving in but now he realises he's more independent than ever with his scooter. It's now 3 weeks since his amputation but he's actually more mobile and independent than he was with the leg because he's got his scooter!

mazza111

Anubis, I hear you on this one. Tried to get DD to use one in Tesco the other day because her knees were so bad and her wrists, despite having the braces on. It's a good walk round, especially with the knees going out, and the wrists slipping due to the crutches, but nooooooooooooooo she's too young to use it, needless to say she was knackered by the time she managed to get to the checkout. She sees it as lazy, I seen it as, you're having a bad day, try it and see how you manage!

Lum

That seems to be a common theme among getting some people to use any sort of wheelchair. Seeing it as "giving up" or "lazy" when in reality it's quite the opposite, far from giving up, it actually gives you your life and your freedom back. But people take some convincing of this.

mazza111

Lum my dd is only 21 so I can understand why she doesn't want to.

But at the same time, on those bad days, when she needs the extra help she should use it. I think it's going back to when she was non weight bearing on her one leg and dislocated the other leg, we borrowed a wheelchair to make things easier, she hated it needless to say, so is determined to stay out of one as long as she can.

Think I'll show her your post, just to make her sit up and take note!

Horseunderwater

I too have issues with shopping in a large store, but I do like to choose stuff myself, not quite the same when on line shopper does it. I almost collapsed in the new Sainsbury at Ely last week. I did not realise that I could use a mob scooter, but I will enquire next time. Store is so big. So if one can give you more freedom etc and independance, then go for it.

mazza111

Have noticed that a few shopping centres have them for hire too, our local one does. Think you need to register with them (show them your blue badge and id) and you can then borrow one for the duration of your shop, or you can phone up and book one. Think it was shop mobility that runs it. But it might give you an idea of how you would get on with one

Lum

Only thing I would say about the Tesco ones is to be cautious. I have no experience of their powered scooters but their manual wheelchairs are about as well maintained as their normal trolleys.

I think of the 3 that our local one has, only one was actually sort-of usable.

Lum

mazza111 wrote: »

Think I'll show her your post, just to make her sit up and take note!

Hope it helps.

You know what really doesn't help. People who chuck around phrases like "wheelchair bound" when in practice it's quite the opposite. I don't mean on this forum, but it's one of the most common terms people generally use to describe wheelchair users.

If you need to use a wheelchair and you don't have one, you are likely to be "house bound" or at least severely limited in how far you can travel from your house.

An appropriate wheelchair frees you from that housebound state, it does not bind or restrict you, it does exactly the opposite.

mazza111

Lum wrote: »

Only thing I would say about the Tesco ones is to be cautious. I have no experience of their powered scooters but their manual wheelchairs are about as well maintained as their normal trolleys.

I think of the 3 that our local one has, only one was actually sort-of usable.

Same in our tesco. They have 2 manual wheelchairs. Neither of them much cop. One has no brakes, the other has a wobbly wheel :rotfl:

I haven't persuaded her to try them yet, but if I can talk her into it I will

Lum

I explained this to my partner thusly..

"It's a manually propelled 4 wheeled transportation device provided by a supermarket. It's in exactly the state you should expect!"