so… this is hard for me, but i’m starting to think it may be time to consider getting a permanent wheelchair. i have a loaner. it’s old, squeaky, judging by weight it’s apparently made of lead.
google seems lousy with enshittified ad pollution.
anyone out there have any good info/advice/love of a particular chair?
also any advice for coming to grips with this transition in my mobility would be greatly appreciated.
plz boost if you can.
it’s difficult to overstate how tough it’s been to deal with limited mobility. hiking and cycling used to be such a fundamental part of my life.
i can still walk. but barely. the break in my hip may heal but will come with some chronic pain and the nerve damage in the other hip is permanent.
i can still cycle but only on level ground for short distances. i still love it, but it’s not the same.
and so, here i am…
to be able to do more without assistance a chair might be more useful than a cane.
@nimphal oh man. i’d love one of those. that looks super fun. it would be perfect for the neighborhood trails around here.
thanks for the recommendation!
but to be honest my legs still kinda work — just not great. but i was an avid cyclist for years. i didn’t even get a drivers license until i was almost 20. i can still cycle — just not well or for long. but i’m hoping to get an e-bike to compensate. kind of saving for a fancy one.
My mobility is now quite weak but an e-bike makes a huge difference. I am lucky enough to work on a campus where I can cycle from one place to another on it. For me at least ensuring the saddle can be set low enough to get on and off safely is a key consideration. The trikes look great too!
@macseoras @nimphal i spent a few weeks in and around my son’s campus a while ago.
although located at. 7500ft. — and i breathed hard just standing still, the campus is mostly flat and full of safe easy paths.
i have a lightweight fixed gear bike that’s easy to travel with — so i threw it in the car and went.
it was so wonderful to be at a campus again on two wheels! it had been forever since i lived where it’s flat. i forgot how fun and utilitarian cycling can be.
@nimphal @isaiah The mountain trike is really cool but super expensive, especially the ones with e-assist. The Grit is a little more affordable as an outdoor chair, depending on your strength and stamina https://www.gogrit.us/
I'm in a Whill C2 power wheelchair but if you have a decent amount of mobility and strength a manual chair with e-assist would probably work for you. For it to be most ergonomic, you'd want a custom built chair. I tried a bunch of different manual chairs and I now own a Strongback which was by far the most comfortable ultralight I tried (but I can't self-propel so I need someone to push me in it, so it doesn't see much use these days.) https://www.strongbackmobility.com/
@isaiah Have you considered a rollator? (This might be a bad suggestion right now given your arm.)
Look for a brick and mortar for accessibility devices or wheelchairs. I don't know where you are, but I know of at least one place in the Puget Sound region (where my Dad lives). Ask your PT, they'll likely know places in your local area.
My Dad and my partner's Dad have both been dealing with long term (permanent for my Dad) loss of mobility. Good luck with healing.
@isaiah I wish I had a rec for you, but all I can offer is solidarity. Last year I bought a mobility scooter and it was a huge mental shift for me. Unfortunately I chose the wrong company, it broke, and their previous behaviour made me not want to go to them to get it fixed at which point I discovered mobility companies refuse to work on each others' machines. I thought I was supporting a local business, but I was locking myself into a shitty company.
My only advice is that bigger companies>
@isaiah >likely have better and more established support systems for when things go wrong.
I hope you find a good, reliable chair. I'll watch this post as I am now wondering if I should have gone with a chair. At the time a mobility scooter seemed less of a shift, but I'm no longer sure why.
@RubyJones thank you. there seem to be a lot of regrets after being railroaded into something type posts on various forums.
it seems like there are a lot of chair specialists that receive financial incentives to push people toward specific brands/models.
before i met with anyone i wanted to educate myself a bit.
thank you for the solidarity. i hope you find a good solution soon.
@isaiah Sounds like you're already ahead of me with looking at forums and stuff! I was a bit clueless, and nobody answered my requests for recs on Twitter.
Suspect it's the sort of high-cost, small-market business that leads to poor service and aggressive sales techniques, which is unfortunate when the customers are disabled and really don't need the extra hassle.
@Eggfreckles i gave up on most “getting around” about 7 or 8 years ago. i can do some things, just not too much. the more i do the larger the cost — measured in units of chronic pain.
fortunately for me i exercised enough for a few lifetimes by the time i hit 30. and even after that, after my big accident, i still had another ten years of backpacking. just a bit more limping on each trip.
now moving hurts. yep… pretty much all moving. walking around a grocery store is a big ask.
@Eggfreckles i know it’s not healthy to not move — but there are no real alternatives. and there are no treatments for severred nerves other than treating the symptoms. that means pain killers and nerve deadening — pretty terrible stuff.
i still ride my bike occasionally. and i still swim occasionally. both hurt, sometimes, maybe most times, it hurts a lot. so i can’t do either very often — but hurt less than any other moving — so i’m choosing to hang on to them for as long as i can.
@danielpunkass @Eggfreckles it’s ok. i’ve had 20 years to get used to the idea.
did you know i cycled to your lab at applied sciences every couple days — just from my folks house by lighthouse point — but that hill was not kind to legs.
… and i used to stop and swim 1500m in the fancy pool. i was so ridiculously fit.
point is… i got plenty of pedaling in.
i’m good. :-)
@danielpunkass @Eggfreckles i try and imagining telling my kids that they will have to bike up bay street every day and watching them simply nope that idea completely. lol.
i really thought you were an east-side kid for some reason.
@theronconrey boy, you said it.
that said i did the real damage 23 years ago. i’ve known this was coming, creeping ever closer, i’ve just been putting it off for years.
but it’s what final made me haul my sad bones in to see a therapist. talking about it — in a way that didn’t feel like complaining — really helped me come to grips with a different, but still very meaningful life.
i should also mention that, yes, i do have a PT doc appt for this in the works. but i have some time before that as i’m trying to find a single doc for both OT and PT.
and i’m trying to get a bit educated beforehand.
@n8udd i know lots of folks love reddit. but i haven’t really found it to be helpful when the question is a matter of opinion. somehow the most upvoted replies are some angry 17yo with only wikipedia knowledge and way too much testosterone. 😝
but i’d read a link if you have one. :-)
@isaiah I've got no personal experience on the topic, but I've just been browsing r/wheelchairs for the last 10 minutes, and there seem to be a lot of extremely helpful people in the threads.
This is primarily re the chair suggestion. I don't know if it would necessarily be the most useful for info/advice on the transition.
Best of luck with your journey though.
@n8udd yes. despite my joking reply i have browsed it.
and it’s not without info and nice folks. plus there are a lot of folks talking about ways they use their chairs. it’s actually really encouraging just to normalize it for me.
but i was hoping for more education/reviews of specific products before my appointment with my PT doc about it. these things are crazy stupid expensive— best to avoid buying more than one. i know the doc will have strong opinions and i don’t want to get railroaded.
@competentgirl i’ve got a consultation on the books. just trying to get educated beforehand.
but i agree. i can walk. just not well or far. my recent experience being totally chair-bound (i broke a hip — fuck) has made me realize that i’m ironically *more* mobile now. and this takes the burden off of my relatives to wait for me. and yes —saves my legs for when i really need ‘em.
thanks for the advice. :-)
@competentgirl i’m mostly looking for folks that like their own lightweight or small-sized self-propelled chair.
i don’t have huge needs at the moment. but small and/or light would be great. it’s just that i have a tiny car.
but even just your experience in buying a chair or any other surprising details a nooby might face would be appreciated.
@competentgirl i still ride razor thin tubeless because im old and have opinions. 😛
these youngsters riding fat tires on road bikes give me fits.
but i live in austin so weather is rarely an inconvenience — im sure anything will be fine.
i just want it to be so easy and small that i don’t balk at taking it with me. i feet that i blow thousands on something that collects dust because it’s easier to hobble around with my cane.
@competentgirl to be perfectly honest i have a very nice. it’s old now but i love it so very much. and it was expensive enough to be one time deal in my life. i think i might rather crawl, maybe over broken glass, before i give it up.
and there’s just not a big market for wheelchair hoists for a 911 🤣.
@competentgirl curious. i know ill ask my doctor about this. but what’s wonky about your hip and what accommodations do you have?
i have 23 year old nerve damage and neuralgia in one and i somehow broke the other one in September. sears are not super comfortable on either side at the moment.
@competentgirl thx for details. sorry to get so personal.
i have a desk with strange seating (recumant) that takes pressure off my thigh.
i sat in my basic chair for a few hours today. ouch. in-laws are here — and i wanted to be social — i could really go for some narcotics right about now. 🫤
i’d love to have a chair that somehow gave my thigh a break. i’ll ask the PT doc about it.
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