Mum’s finally home after her hip replacement. We have set up a chair for her at home which the Occy Health folk raised to 20 inches for her but she’s not happy so I’m now sourcing a rise and recline chair.
She was horrified by the prospect of paying £1700 odd for one but we noticed Argos has several more reasonably priced.
Can anyone advise if they are any good or is it false economy? The seat on the one I have my eye on is 18 inch rather than the 20 inch they’ve raised hers to but she’s already chuntering that it’s too high. Would the 2 inch difference matter if the chair’s going to rise anyway?
Does she see a OT or not? If so, show them pictures of the chair and then ask for their advice. They may have some recommendations. Do not do anything yet. The Disabled Living Foundation may also have special chairs you can use at home. Or you can order a rise and recliner chair from this company via their website. Call the occupational therapist tomorrow.
Also take a look at this company http://www.hslchairs.com/. I think they even do demonstrations in your home with you.
Mum got one from the district nurse. The chair had special pressure relieving cushioning built in for bed sore prevention.
Sometimes charity shops have them in decent condition.
The height of seat needs to be right for the person, so the thigh/leg/hip is positioned correctly. A small cushion might help but larger thicker ones become awkward when the chair rises.
My wife has Lymphedema in her legs. She has co-ordination problems and mild learning difficulties from an attack of Meningitis which caused brain damage. She is prone to falls and spends most of her time sat in an upright chair supplied by social services. District nurses come in to dress the open wounds on her legs and bind the legs with elasticated bandages to squeeze the fluid out of her legs. She does have a manual wheelchair for when she is too unstable to use her walker which I push her in and she only uses to get from the lounge to the bedroom. The Lymphedema nurses from Birmingham hospital make less regular visits to work with the district nurses. The Lympo nurse said my wife really needs a riser recliner chair as she needs to have her legs raised. I suggested a foot stool but the nurse said that was a very bad idea and that she would sort out a riser recliner chair for her but that was several months ago and we have not heard anything so I have decided I better buy one myself for her. But here I have a big problem. 20 plus years ago we moved out of our 3 bedroom Victorian terraced house and bought a lovely new build upstairs flat. It was perfect for us until my wife became wheelchair bound! Now I have a wife who cant get downstairs because she fell of the stair lift we had installed and Occupational Therapy & Physio said it was too dangerous for her to use. So she is now effectively completely housebound because of our housing situation. As far as the riser recliner goes, we have heard nothing since. What I need to know is when you buy a chair, does it come in pieces for putting together by the company you buy from when its delivered or does it come fully assembled? The problem is, living in an upstairs flat with a stairlift blocking the stairwell, its pretty much impossible to get anything big and heavy in or out of the flat. When social services delivered her upright chair and hospital bed, they both came in several parts. When they set up her upright chair we needed to get rid of a big armchair which was part of a 3 piece suite. The only way they could get it out of the flat was to cut it into pieces using a chainsaw to get it past the stairlift and down the stairs! When the Lympho staff said she needed a riser recliner, they said it would be no problem because they would deliver it in pieces and then put it together upstairs but since hearing nothing further from them after several months, I think its time to buy one myself. But does anyone know if you buy a chair from a private company, do they come dis assembled or in one piece? We really could do with a bungalow now rather than our flat but the trouble is nobody builds bungalows we can afford. Ideally just a small one bedroom one like the local council have would be perfect so I could once again take her outside for trips out. She is fully housebound only because I cant get her downstairs. We could sell our flat but we would not have enough money from the sale to buy any of the bungalows they build today. The council say we are not a priority because we own our own flat. In fact we cant even get on the housing register. So the best I can do is to make the flat as comfortable as I can for my wife and since riser recliner has been recommended but nothing done about it, I need to source one myself if its possible. Sorry for the long winded explanation but I needed to explain why its not just as simple as picking up the phone and buying a chair.
In the New Forest, where I live, there are a number of interesting housing schemes. I investigated briefly when my brother was very ill. As my brother was abroad, they would rent it out to someone on the housing list for an agreed number of years, then fully redecorate before handing it back. I’m wondering if you could do something a bit like this, a sort of house swap. You move into one of their bungalows and they use you flat?
Haven’t read all of this but rise and recline chairs are not right for everybody… Firstly they come in various sizes and if it’s too big or small it is no good at all. My Mum had to have a petite one.
We went to a disability shop to buy it and they were very good. I asked for the easiest one to operate, chose the fabric and correct size. The salesman got Mum to use the remote control and would not let us leave until he was happy that she understood. It was delivered a few weeks later.
She had recently been diagnosed with dementia and I made sure she was happy with the controls too but in a very short time she had forgotten and was trying to climb out with the leg supports still raised! Very dangerous.
When she went into care the chair went with her but the staff agreed she wasn’t able to use it safely so disconnected it. They said that hardly any of their residents could get on with rise and recline chairs.
I had a special Chair made for hubby when he was in the home. To save the staff from constantly transferring him from arm chair to wheel chair. Both were not helping the pressure sore. I left it at the home when he died. £2000 if I remember correctly. It was worth it for his comfort. I believe it was used for a lady who had no family to get her extras.
I’m not sure if you have already looked at this but try calling home aid companies in order to see if they can assist. Most of our UK home aid businesses have a active phone number in addition to take new customer inquiries and useful details on their websites as well. It is worth a shot at least in any case to find out for sure. If you take a good look at products on their own site you can often see if you can find exactly what you need. Good luck.