Looking for a new ride

Last week we had a much anticipated appointment at the seating clinic.  Sophie has basically grown out of her paediatric stroller that she has had since she was 2 1/2 years old.  It has been an awesome wheelchair and we still use it whenever we are out and about in place of her wheelchair.  Her newer wheelchair is too heavy for me to get in and out of the car on a daily basis so it stays at school during the week.  So since we don't have the immediate budget to get an adapted wheelchair van we need to get Sophie a transport chair.  I am hoping it comes in at under $5000, we shall see. Ugh.

The reason it gets so pricey is that Sophie needs so much support.  I never realize it until she is out of her own wheelchair and she is just a floppy rag doll that loves to wiggle and arch and kick.  I had really hoped that the first chair we tried would be the one.  It looks so comfy and it is a more base type model, which also means it is less expensive.  It doesn't have tilt and it only has a fixed recline so we think it is out.  She just can't handle the simple positioning.

The next one we tried wasn't a whole lot better, she was all over the place.  It does have tilt and recline which helps a lot but not enough on its own.  We had so many belts and straps on her it would take me 10 minutes just to get her strapped in.  She was getting caught on the arm rests and banging her head on the frame.  You can see in the photo below she has a chest harness, soft laterals with chest strap, three point seatbelt, tilt and contoured seat and she was still falling out.  We ended up adding leg straps too.  I was really starting to worry that this type of seat just isn't supportive enough for my girl.  So they added in a contoured type seat to a third chair and fixed laterals and all the bells and whistles and she did much better.  So hopefully we will be able to piece together a chair for her that will work well and be comfy.

 

She was so good trying out all these chairs, the appointment was over two hours long.  She never complained and was quite happy checking everything out.  Hopefully we will have a new ride for my girl soon.