Hello, I am a live in carer for a gentleman with advanced progressive MS. He is in an electric wheelchair but am having problems when undressing the top half of him as he is falling off the side of the chair. Although the wheelchair lady put a side support on one side that can be detatched I naturally need to take this off before changing him and hoisting him in to bed but he literatelly falls off the side which makes this difficult. I am trying to prevent them saying that he needs 2 carers as the services have said once he needs 2 carers they are not prepared to pay out any more money and would have no option but to place him in a care home. Naturally I am trying to prevent this from happening. My question is does anybody come across this before with MS?..and if so how to prevent this or any suitable equipment that anybody can suggest that is available to help or any advice at all really would be gratefully appreciated. Many thanks.
My husband was eventually very weak in his top half. He had 2 carers, but the majority of the day it was just me and him.
I don’t understand what you mean about the sides? Are you talking about the arm rests or something else? I never removed the arm rests because Steve would definitely have been on the floor! But - with me, the hoist would be put on when he went from bed to chair in the morning. I would then leave the hoist behind his back, so when he needed to go back to bed I just use to do the leg supports.
I never changed him in the chair. I always did it in the bed. He had bed rails, and I would roll him on one side, and then back again until the t-shirt got as far as his neck. Then he’d sit the bed up for me to pull it over his head. Same with removing the hoist when he was in bed.
The 2 carers rule is always there when someone needs hoisting - they told me off for using the hoist when I was here alone. What was I supposed to do? The kids (5 and 8) would also occasionally help out if he went into spasm and I needed to help support him while he was raised (that was severely frowned upon too).
I hope your gentleman has a proper ‘hospital’ bed with height adjuster? You must really watch your back/neck, as it is a huge strain rolling someone that’s that immobile