Unregistered carere looking for information and advice

Hello i am a stroke surviver who is trying to help his wife to care for himself by gathering information about usful gadget which may be worth trying to try to make our lives a little easier so i aim to ask those who may know the most about the subject for any advice i need before spending a lot of money and time trying things that may be absolutly no good at all its no good asking a seller if a product is good they are going to try to sell it no matter how poor it may perform so i will ask those who realy do know the carers

I do hope that youplease feel free to contact me if you wish ĺ will not mind me

What sort of gadget?
Have you had an assessment from a hospital or Social Services?
Aids to assist are absolutely free, on permanent loan.
Please don’t waste your money on buying something that might not be suitable.
My mum spent over £1,000 on an “adjustable” bed but it didn’t meet her needs.
It looked nice but was incredibly flimsy, utter waste of money. When she went to live in a nursing home we smashed it up and took it to the tip, no one wants a second hand adjustable bed!

John is your wife able to use her hands. Can she verbally communicate. Can you gives us a bit more information. So we can perhaps help.

If you have come accros any of these that work well please let me know

Edited by moderator to remove personal email address

Thanks for the information you have saved me a fortune i was thinking more along the lines of self dressing aids which can be used by simone who is only able to use one hand

email address removed by moderator

Hi John,

The best person to advise on and often provide aids is an occupational therapist. Your wife’s GP can refer her for an assessment.

Please do not put your email in posts you can read more about this here Our Forum | Carers UK under the heading Keeping Safe.

If people have advice to offer you, they will either post on this thread or they will send you a PM message.

Melly1

Hello yes my wife is able to comunicate and use all of her limbs 100 percent my speach is quite good again now although it is rather quiet duto trachiotomy and maybe scar tissue from the operation i am a very practical man and i think men have diforent way of looking at things to women for instance i used to drive any where day or night i even taught her and my kids to drive now i have no driving licence as i had to surender it a letter from dvla said i could have it back after confirmation from my gp that my eye sight was ok the dvla couldnt get through to my gp by phone so after almost 7 years and a pandemic i am still waiting for it to be sorted out i am only able to travle to places which she has driven to before and even then only in daylight when not rainingi had a joey lift fitted into the back of my peuget partner car to enable her to automaticly load my power chair with the press of a single switch

Well a big thankyou to those who have responded when i came hom from hospital the ocupational therapist had some equipment deliverd to my home including wheelchairs to use in a shower the main wheelchair could hardly fit through my doorways so i decided to get my own power chair which works well they declined to supply me with a patient controled chair on the grounds i may crash into things and become injured so i got one of my own and had no such trouble at all the atendent controled chair they supplied was imposible for my poor wife to control due to my being 6 feet tall and much heavier than herself and it needed to be taken apart to put it int a car she was then expected to get onto her knees behind my car on the road to put it all back together including fitting a heavy battery packi was not going to have my dear wife getting down on her hands and knees behind a car with the posibility of passing traffic and near misses so i said no to that and made my own arrangments to resolve my mobility issues

John, you’ve been a bit sexist! I may be female but have ridden a road racing motorbike, stopped for speeding by the cops within the first ever 2 miles on the road,; shipped steam engines across the world; averaged about 10 steam rallies a year since I was 19; steeered a steam roller hundreds of miles, many with a baby in a baby sling on my chest; and started and ran a national lorry club and written a lorry magazine for 20 years.