Wheelchair Grumbles

[davidgillon]

Wrapped up the eBay chair last night (bubblewrap and clingfilm), and damn-near killed myself just getting it from the lounge to the hall (having necessarily bubble-wrapped and clingfilmed the wheels in place). My god, that's an awkward package - only practical grip was to pick it up by the footplate and dangle it in front of me. God knows how eBay expect me to get it to the Post Office, my facetious 'balanced on my head' actually looks like the most practical method available!

I filled in the eBay Customer Service feedback form immediately afterwards. I snarked.

Current situation with eBay and picking up the return is the US eBay twitter team have prevailed on the UK side to look into it again. UK eBay's initial response was 'didn't the vendor say they would pick it up in message X', to which my reply was "message X actually says 'OMG you're three hours drive away, I can't do that'" and I'm waiting for a response.

I was explaining this to friends at lunch today and remarked "the only people I could ask are sitting round this table" - one works in London, one isn't really close enough to ask favours of, and in any case spends a lot of time babysitting his grandchild in London when he isn't haring all over the South East ringing bells, one is even less able to carry it than I am, and her husband said "I can do it if you need me to, but it'll have to be this week". It'll have to be 'this week' because next week is when he has his bone-marrow transplant, which is precisely why I'm not asking him under any circumstances!

And it's depressing going back to the old chair, it's so inefficient and uncomfortable and clunky in comparison to the eBay one, even though that was the wrong size :(

And what is it about wheelchairs that terrifies pedestrians? I was wheeling back to the car, someone came out of a doorway a good six feet in front of me, saw me, flinched two feet sideways and said "Sorry!" before giving me a wide berth! I was parked a little further out than usual and the two friends who were heading back that way actually decided to follow me back to the car after I'd said goodbye even though it's off their direct route home. Aw, sweet!

(Edited because apparently my spelling now sucks!)

Comments

[davidgillon]

Ha! Though this time I was in fact out of the chair and using it as a walker - long uphill stretch. And he still jumped sideways.

Anyway, while I have you on the subject of chairs...

My friends were asking about power-assisted chairs at lunch today. Bit of essential background: They're both in their early 60s, she's a part-time chair user of long standing (polio, wears a caliper, walks with sticks). The chairs they've had have been manual self-propelled, folding, same kind of thing I'm stuck with at the moment. But when she uses it she doesn't do much in the way of pushing, he's always done it for her. I'm not sure whether she actually has the strength to push herself effectively. They're now at a point where they can't necessarily rely on him being able to push, so were asking about power-assisted options, mostly trying to figure out how stuff works rather than looking for specific recommendations at this stage

I mentioned the eMotions, and the RGK version with a separate push-rim, plus that there are the clamp-on auxiliary setups. Anything you can think I'm missing? He was suggesting he'd prefer something he could control, she wasn't quite as convinced. I didn't think to warn them about the weight, so I definitely need to send them a follow-up, probably with a few links.

[kaberett]

Alber eMotions are the bigger heavier version -- longer range, longer battery-life, and consequently heavier batteries. There's a lighter-weight less-adjustable version called the twion, and the other thing to look at is efix. (Website!)

Otherwise, yeah, clamp-on auxiliary set-ups -- or looking into getting a fully powered chair & adapted vehicle.

Nothing else immediately springs to mind, alas!

[davidgillon]

Ooh, thanks for that! I hadn't realised Albers have more than one option.

I'm really not certain what's best for their situation, need to think about it some more.