Two weeks of standing up.

It is now 2 weeks since I took delivery of my Levo C3 stand up powered wheelchair, and I thought I'd give you an idea of how things are going.

Having taken delivery of the chair on Monday afternoon, I then had to go out on the Tuesday and Wednesday, so didn't get the chance to really use it until the Thursday.

My carer helped me into it, after she had got me up in the morning.  Whenever you get a new piece of equipment it takes a bit of time to get used to it, and with a new wheelchair, the seat is slightly different, the wheels are in a different place, the arms are higher or lower, and all these little things mean that I need to modify how I do my transfers to get me into the new chair.

Anyway once I'm in the chair, I go to have breakfast.  Again the height of the chair in relation to the table is slightly different from what I am used to, so this means I have to slightly modify how I eat my breakfast.  Its amazing how different it is buttering your toast when your sat slightly higher than you're used to.

After breakfast, mum puts my trainers on, which I need to wear when I stand.  These give me more support to my feet and especially to my heels.  Because of the stiffness in my ankles which has developed as a result of sitting in my wheelchair, when I stand it is difficult to get my heel flat to the floor.  My trainers give me the right support, otherwise I would need some sort of orthopaedic wedge to go under my heel.

 

I then need help with putting the knee supports into place.  This is the one draw back with the chair.  In order to stand you need to fit the knee supports to hold the knees firmly, so that they don't buckle when standing.  However, if you're sitting in the chair it is not possible to put the knee supports into position, or take them off, yourself.  This means that once they are in place to hold my legs and knees for a stand, I would have to then leave them in place until someone could take them off.  This would mean that at any other time my legs are tied into a fixed position, which would restrict my ability to move.

 

The knee supports are permanently fitted to the chair, and have to slide out before being positioned just below the knee and locked into place.  The locking position is pre-set based on my height  and my position in the seat, and in theory, you should just be able to slide the knee supports in and they should lock automatically.  In practise it takes a bit of jiggery-pokery to get them to lock in but I guess that its a case of getting the knack of how they fit.

 

Then its just a case of putting the chest strap round me.  This fits under my arms and across my chest, and has a normal safety belt fastening.

 

From there its just a case of standing.  At first I was standing for about 5-6 minutes, but all last week I stood for 10 minutes each day.  It doesn't take much effort on my part as the chair moves to the standing position, supporting most of my weight.  It is only once I am pretty much upright that I start to take the weight through my legs, and begin to weight bare.

 

The actual motion from sitting to standing, and standing to sitting, is very similar to the motion that a normal person standing up, or sitting down, would use.  I can control the speed at which I rise to a standing position, with the joystick.

 

Sitting..

 

Up....

 

up....

 

and away.

 



Usually, I get almost up fully, and then have a rest, and let my legs get used to the stretch and weight, before straightening up a bit more.  I tend to do this 2-3 times before I'm up fully.  I can also tilt the vertical angle of my stand, to take some of the pressure off my knees on the knee supports, and also to ease any tension in my lower back.

 

I tend to spend my time standing looking out of the window, watching the world go by.  It helps distract me from any effort involved in the stand, and helps pass the time.  This morning I had the excitement of watching the bin-men collect the paper and food re-cycling boxes, up and down the road.

 

I can still drive round in the standing position, but to be honest it feels very weird and I need a bit more confidence before I do this much.  The chair automatically compensates when you're standing so that you can't go about to quickly, in order to maintain stability.  However you can adjust your speed to suit.

 

Once I have stood long enough, I lower myself back to a sitting position.

 

Following a short rest, I usually transfer out of the Levo and into my normal wheelchair.  The Levo is about the same size as my other chair, a Viper S, but I find it less easy to drive round the house, and it is very difficult to get in and out of the bathroom. 

 

It is probably just a case of getting used to the fact that the Levo has 6 wheels, the middle pair of which has the power go through them and therefore controls direction.  These wheels are directly under the seat.  This differs from the Viper, which has 4 wheels, and it is the rear two which has the power and control direction.

 

Its only a relatively small difference but the two chairs drive and turn in quite a different way.

 

The standing itself is quite easy, with the chair taking most of the effort of standing away from me.  In that respect it is very different from the standing I was doing at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, (NHNN), with the physiotherapists.  There I was using a standing frame, and having to put a lot more effort into standing up, and not actually getting myself up so well.  Certainly, I wasn't getting my legs so straight, and as my upper body was less supported, I couldn't get this straight, without one of the physio's actually pulling my shoulders back.

 

I don't find that I'm getting on my feet, and that its a struggle to stay there, and I'm not finding that my breathing becomes difficult, as it was at NHNN.

 

Although I'm only using the chair for a short time, this will increase, and the length of time I standing will increase, as I build up more tolerance.  My physio, who comes bi-weekly, was very impressed with how I am standing already, and feels that I am getting a lot of weight through both my feet and legs.

 

So overall, I'm very happy with the Levo C3 stand up powered wheelchair, and glad that I found a solution to standing at home.  Although standing is tiring, I'm really enjoying it, and its worth the effort.  I hope the pictures give an impression of my standing, but I'll apologise for the quality.  I will do a video at some point, so you can see the actual stand and sit motion in action.