Hi Paul It depends on what level you are and whether you can grab hold, or like me not use anything, but I can tell you what we do. If we go into a doctor’s office I need to get on the table, I usually recline my chair somewhat so that the person behind me can tilt me forward somewhat and reach around so that they can crisscross their arms in front of me and grab hold of their own wrists with the opposite hand with my arms tucked in front of me. The other person will get ready to pick me up under my knees. The person controlling my upper body always is the one that counts 123! For me it is important to have my upper body stabilized as I only can move my neck and head.
We learned a lift at Santa Clara rehab it makes it relatively easy for one person to move me. My arms get put into my lap, and the person doing the lifting picks up my legs crossing one over the other and then they put them between their thighs and hold them snug. They then tuck my head against their side of the chest and reach over me, get ahold of my jeans and using their upper legs, swing me up and over to the bed or chair. I have seen 125 pound nurses move some very large quads that way. My whole family has learned how to do this lift and if there is a second person they can grab my waist and help swing me over. They say it is not too difficult as they are doing the balancing with their legs. I do wear jeans, so they have a definite waistband, but in an emergency we have learned to do it with using a towel folded long ways under my buttocks and they use that. My daughter was just 15 when I broke my neck and she was one of the first to learn the lift so that we could travel to horseshows. She could actually picked me up from the front passenger seat and move me to the van’s bed in the back. She still moves me this way when we go somewhere that we do not have a lift. Luckily, I have a great overhead lift so we don’t usually have to do it at home on a regular basis. Hope that this helps. 'We are all different, which is great because we are all unique. Without diversity life would be very boring." Catherine Pulsifer From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2014 5:13 PM To: Quad List Subject: [QUAD-L] lift Hello All, What is the best way to direct 2 or more people to lift you out of your wheelchair? Thank you! Paul
