A light wheelchair frame does not necessarily translate to a light weight chair. As my mother was always fond of saying dollars are made out of pennies and so, too are pounds made from ounces. A little bit here, a little bit there and suddenly that new ultralight wheelchair weighs 40 pounds! What happened? Options happened, thats what. It never fails when helping a new user set up their first ultralight chair that they want to get all the bells and whistles on that shiny new ride. Ive had several new users comment that If Im going to be stuck in a chair, its going to be a nice one. Fair enough; we all like nice things and want our personal property to reflect who we are and project the image we want to put out to the world. Be careful how much personality you put in that new chair, though. Most options come at a cost significantly higher than dollars and cents can account for. Those maintenance free plastic wheels and solid tires add seven pounds to the chair. Adjustable height armrests can add four more. The list goes on and on until that 17 pound chair is heavier than grandpas old Everest & Jennings, which leads to decreased range, sore arms and permanent shoulder damage. How do we as clinicians keep this from happening? Good advice and up to date knowledge are the keys to educating the consumer in wise choices. I like to do a little math with customers to illustrate how much difference a pound or two can make. A typical wheelchair user will hit the handrims on average 75,000 strokes in a month. If we add just 4 pounds of weight to the chair, that translates to pushing an additional 300,000 pounds per month. Thats a lot of extra strain on shoulders. While many factors contribute to wheelchair rolling resistance including tire type, width, tube type, bearings, etc. the single most easily influenced and permanent characteristic of the chair is weight. It is up to the clinician to steer the user in the right direction in keeping weight down. Discuss why the user wants those heavy plastic mag wheels. Is it because of a childhood remembrance of wobbly spokes on the old Schwinn Stingray they rode as a kid? Remind them that spokes have come a long way since then and even if something goes wrong, insurance will generally pick up the tab for repairs. Each and every option on that ten page custom wheelchair order form has not only a price tag in dollars but ounces as well. While just a few ounces extra doesnt sound bad in a discussion, a few ounces on the wheel, a few more on the footrest, a few more on the armrest and so on end up producing a chair thats not so light any more. Its up to us as clinicians to steer clients into smart decisions. They only get one set of shoulders! Protect them any way you can and keeping that chair weight down goes a long way. Tell me about innovative ways you help clients keep chair weight under control.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Jan 2014 16:15:18 +0000
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