We have decided to buy a Mobility Scooter for him indoors as getting the wheelchair in and out of the car and then pushing a giant of a man in it is now killing me, bad back, aching neck and arms. Why does everywhere you go seem to have an upward slope, okay coming down isn't so bad, tempted to let the darned thing go and let him free wheel.
Well we cannot get a light one as he is well over the weight limit for it and also much too tall so we have had to look at the larger ones, which means heavier. I had a go dismantling one yesterday, the battery weighs a ton, the motor at the back weighs a ton, the seat is not too bad, the basket is okay but the base complete with tiller (handle bars) cannot even be lifted, so you have to live the front, place it on the edge of the boot and push it in. Then do the opposite getting it out.
First of all before you can put it in the car you have to take the seat off, take the battery out, take the motor off, take the basket off then fold down the tiller onto the base, lift the front of the base and put it on the boot of the car and push it in.
Getting it out of the boot you have to put the chair on the floor, put the battery on the floor, put the motor on the floor, put the basket on the floor, then try and get the base out the way it went in,then attach then open up the tiller, attach the motor, attach the battery, attach the seat and attach the basket.
Well I did this yesterday and I was absolutely and totally knickknacked. The only other way is to buy a ramp and wheel it in and the heavier ones cost £170 and the very light ones cost £700 but the question arises is where do you put the ramp when it is finished with as you have to take it with you to get the scooter out again. The next option is to buy a new car that has been modified to lift a scooter and god knows how much that will cost us.
I thought getting a scooter would be so very simple, get it out, stick him on it and hey presto, bye bye husband, but no, not simple at all.
I cannot face pushing him round in a wheelchair for the rest of our lives so we are going to have to buy one and hope to god I don't do my back in. A lot of people tell us they can lift theirs in and out quite easily, yes you can if you are 5 ft something or other and only weigh about 10 stone, but when someone weighs nearly 18 stone and is well over 6 ft 3 ins tall then a light-weight scooter would collapse under him hence the reason we have to get a bigger model.
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20 Replies
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I really think you need to approach a mobility shop, and ask for someone that really knows his mobility scooters. I have one myself but hesitate to give too much advice as I think your husband has different needs to me. The point you need to emphasize, that you have to avoid back problems.
Another choice to visit places where you can borrow scooters. Towns often have them and also National Trust places.
I know how you feel we had one for my dad and the only time i could take him out was when my husband was able to go with us . In fact it is stuck in our garage now and has been for 3 years shall have to get rid hope you manage better than I did
We have an electric hoist fitted to lift my scooter in and out. If your car is a motobility one it costs about £250 to fit if not £700 approx. Hope this helps. xx
You really need a hoist for these scooters. My mother had one and I manualy took it out of the car , I found it such a strain after a while and also developed a back problem over 5 yrs
My husband had a scooter but had an estate car he had a piece of plywood for a ramp.He would keep it running while it went up the ramp.
Thank you for all your comments. It is our own car and we do not get benefits so we have to buy everything ourselves. A ramp is out of the question as you cannot always get a disabled spot so have to park in a normal spot and there is always some idiot who parks right up your bottom so you cannot open the boot (ours opens sideways), we got a large car to put the two pushchairs in when we used to take our grandchildren out when we were child-minding so if someone parks too close we cannot open the back door to get the wheelchair out never mind a scooter. Also where do you put the ramp, you have to take it with you and they are not cheap anyway.
We purchased a brand new car two years ago and don't want to start paying out for alterations to it or having to have a hoist fitted, it is costing us enough as it is as we have had to buy all our own disability needs, stairlift etc., hand rails, bath-room chair, bath-seat, we are now talking about having a walk in shower installed as my husband cannot get into the bath to have a shower as he cannot lift his leg over the side of the bath, we have bought stools to help him and hand grabs but it is just too much for me as like I said, he is very tall and weighs 17 stone and when he had a bad do in the shower I couldn't get him out.
We had a look at another one today, didn't seem quite as heavy to lift but when you have to take off the seat, battery, motor, basket and fold down the steering column then lift the base to go into the car it is extremely tiring and like I say, I am 70 years old and if anything happens to me he will have to go into a home so it is a case of killing myself lifting the wheelchair in and out and then pushing him in a wheelchair, or killing myself lifting all these heavy pieces of equipment.
I told him to sell the car and get a converted one with a lift but he says they are too expensive so I don't know what else to do. If we don't get something soon, I will be stuck in the house for another 18 months with us not being able to go anywhere.
We have been to a few mobility shops and tried them all and they are all heavy because they have to carry a very tall and heavy person so you can't get a light weight one.
We talked about renting but it is another hassle of having to ring up, rent the thing then take it back to the shop, we wanted something which would enable us to just get up in the morning, get in the car and off we go without having to plan renting a scooter.
We are going to have to get one and I will have to manage.
I don't know if there is somewhere like this near you, but near us there is a place that sells secondhand cars that have been converted for mobility problems, may be a cheaper way to go if he is worried about the pennies jubileemobility.co.uk/wheel... I don't know if this helps. Keep smiling.
Thank you, to be honest, he hasn't any need to be worried about the pennies, all our married and working lives we have saved, saved, saved, as he never liked to spend money on anything, he nearly had an heart attack last month when it cost us £1. 75 for a cup of coffee at the hospital, he said it used to be 25p.
We can afford to buy anything we want to without batting an eye-lid but he won't, we have a light in our back-room that is broken and won't work, will he get an electrician in, will he heck, he says he will do it on his own, he can't even stand up without getting out of breath and having a 'do', without him doing electrical work.
The only time he will spend money is when something definitely has to be done like important house repairs then we have to get hundreds of quotes to see who is the cheapest. I haven't had our front room decorated for 25 years, our bathroom needs decorating and a new bathroom suite with a walk-in shower installing, we need new wardrobes because they have been in 40 odd years, we need a new suite and carpets. We don't have central heating as it broke down and he won't have it changed so we have fan heaters all around the house, he is the tightest, miserable so and so i have ever met. When I order anything from an online shop I have to hide it as he complains about me buying stuff. I was so fed up the other day that I told him to die so I can get my life back. The problem is because I do every single thing for him it will be me that dies first, I have an hospital appointment to see the specialist this week and because it is an early appointment he can't go with me (I always have to take him with me when I go anywhere as he hates being left at home on his own) but I refused to change the appointment so he said I had to cancel it and make another one. I have refused so he is now in a bad temper, all he cares about is himself.
Because I can lift the wheel-chair in and out he says we don't need a converted car but like I have said before it isn't the lifting of the wheelchair in and out that gets me, even though it is heavy because we had to get a heavier one because of his height and weight it is the pushing him in it that is the problem hence the reason I want a scooter and he is even humming and ahhing about that as well as he says they are expensive and we don't need one.
I can't go out dressed up as by the time I have finished pushing him I am sweating, out of breath and totally knick-knacked, but if we get the scooter I will just have to get the pieces out, assemble it but then I am finished, I can walk at the side of him and relax a bit for a couple of hours.
If I had known then what I know now I would have stayed single and told him to s#d off.
Oh how I wish I lived near you I would come and show him what a person with severe COPD stage 4 and on oxygen could do, has always been lazy because it seems to me that is what it is. Right I'm off to the garden centre on the scooter along the cycle track, two miles there and two miles back. Try to keep smiling.
He has also Stage 4 COPD and Bronchiectasis, and on 16 hours a day oxygen, they are talking about upping the supply to 5/6LPM. He is fine sat down and only has problems when he stands up. I don't mind fetching and carrying but there is nothing to stop him being organised. He won't even consider being on his own whilst I do something for myself, I always have to be in ear-shot.
He can be sat down for three hours and then when it is time to go out he decide he wants me to get this and that, so I get it for him, then he has forgotten something else so I have to go and get that and this goes on and on, then he finds out that the oxygen cylinder he is taking to the car with him is nearly empty, why oh why when he has been sat down all that time, couldn't he make a list of what he needs and I could put them in a carrier bag so we can just go out instead of having me running backwards and forwards for different things.
We used to have a gardener as the garden is too much for me but he didn't like paying out every two weeks so he bought a cordless hedge trimmer online so now I have to cut the hedges, mow the lawn, then sweep everything up after me, when I complain all he says is 'well I can't do it'. The darned thing weighs a ton.
We need two new doors fitting, I wanted to get a joiner and have them done properly but he says he wants to do them, he can't even stand up never mind fit a damned door so god knows how he will do it. I am sick of having them both on the floor in the kitchen.
I need to get my beds changed and get the bedrooms cleaned but because of all the outside jobs he has lined up for me I cannot get them done. If I start shouting at him he gets breathless and says I am stressing him out and doesn't want to talk about it.
He refuses to talk to anyone on the 'phone if we have to discuss anything about our bills etc. he says he might not be able to breathe so I have to do everything.
I will be honest with you, he is now a waste of space, just here to make my life totally miserable, I told him yesterday to die and get it over with as I didn't know how much longer I could take it.
Most of the larger shopping centres have a shopmobility scheme, you park your car at their centre take a buggy then return when finished. Here is their link so you can read it up and find one near you. Hope this helps, good luck. xx
Just realised I sent you the link to the Cardiff shop but if you click on home it will take you to the national site where you can find your local or one in any area you want to visit. xx
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Thank you very much, yes, we have been on their site and in their store but the problem we have again is the weight and the height of my husband, it is very rare you get a wheelchair available as soon as you walk into the shop for someone who is over 6 ft3 ins tall and weighing over 17 stone, we have tried in the past and they didn't have any, they usually stock the lightweight ones, we have been told to ring them up and they will try and get us one in for when we visit but when you have COPD/Bronchiectasis, everyone knows you (like my husband) cannot plan anything from one day to the other as you have no idea what you will be like when you get out of bed, so asking them to get one in specially for him for a certain day is a no-go as we cannot be sure we will get there.
We have seen one we think will be okay and the specifications sound suitable for my husbands weight and height, we were going today to try it out and see if I can lift the pieces but they are closed at the week-ends so it will have to be next week.I will let you know what happens.
Thank you once again for caring.
Good luck in your quest next week, let us know how you get on. Have a good weekend xx
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I have decided that when we get the scooter I am going to take him to the top of a hill and cut his brakes.
Thank you, but the trouble is I have never learned to drive so he is the driver, he can drive for thousands off miles without a problem but standing and walking, he cannot breathe.Hence the wheelchair and scooter.
If I could drive (I never learned because he wouldn't pay for the lessons), he wanted to teach me himself, the first time I had a go,he was shouting and balling so I told him to stick it. If I had remained single (I wish) I would definitely would have learned to drive.
They do make adaptions so that you drive from a wheelchair. Hope you do find a solution. Another point about the ramps or anything else you may need to purchase, even though your husband is not on any benefits, you will still qualify for not paying VAT on the equipment.
Another point. As you are not in the first springs of youth, there is a very good chance you, your husband or both of you, were in the services.The Royal British Legion are very helpful in providing advice and equipment to help you both lead as normal a life as possible. If you can, give them a ring and set the wheels in motion. They will provide a scooter, ramps etc.
Really good luck but keep us informed.
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