Advice on wheelchairs

Hey, just a quick back ground summery. My wife was diagnosed aggressive rrms just over 4 years ago. We are on our 2nd type of DMDs (gilenya) and also follow the swank diet. This has seen her go 18 months without a relapse (this is down from 16 a year, go fingolimod). Due to this reprieve my wife has seen a stabilising and, in some cases, lessening of her symptoms. We are now at a stage where we know her over all limitations and can start managing to create a much better, more freeing quality of life. We’re looking for a lightweight wheelchair to aid my wife and I with basic stuff. It is possible for her to walk for around 15 mins at a time with a couple of hours recovery time. This is pretty good really and we hope that some physio and more time without a relapse will see this getting better still. In the mean time we’d like to be able to spend more time out and about, to be able to go shopping together, go out around cities and be able to go on holidays. We need a wheelchair that is easy to take around with us even when my wife doesn’t need to use it all the time. Has anyone else found themselves at this point? If so what did you get to aid you, which websites are best, are there any second hand places and how much are we likely to be spending? Thanks in advance L.

Hello

You could get a referral to your local Wheelchair Services. It’s part of the NHS and they provide wheelchairs for people who need them in similar situations to your wife. I got my first ‘chair from them when I could walk, but not very far.

If a chair is only needed outside the house, they would only provide a manual self propelled wheelchair. These are usually reasonably light (enough for a healthy adult to put in the boot of a car) collapsible chairs.

They only provide powerchairs for people who need a ‘chair indoors and out, and who cannot self propel around the house.

Your GP can refer you to a Wheelchair Services.

Another option you might consider is getting a walker with a seat. This way, your wife might manage to extend the distance she can walk, being safer and more secure, with the benefit of having a portable seat for regular rests.

You could also join your local Shopmobility. They provide wheelchair, powerchairs and scooters for people who need them around a town centre. If you do a web search for your town and Shopmobility, you should come up with their website. That will give you their phone number so you could call them.

Sue

My wife saw an Ms physio a few months ago who has arranged a wheelchair for her from wc services just in case she needs it sometimes(she cant walk far and uses a scooter most of time), its being delivered on thursday.

We have been in Spain for a few weeks and we have a wheelchair out there we bought as a spare for our daughter a few years ago,it does the job and has allowed my misses to go round the shops in the local town with me pushing her which she couldn’t otherwise but the one consideration i would mention is weather as well as chair folding inwards the handles also fold in half height wise as with a little fiesta hire car it wont fit in boot without folding atleast one of the back seats down.

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