Chair makes a huge improvement in Mom's wellbeing
Ending the struggling up to her walker from a chair is only the most immediate benefit. There has been a noticeable improvement in Mom's mobility and feeling of wellness, physically and mentally. She can now easily raise her legs and feet to a perfect level at night. (The lever on her old manual recliner was too hard to operate, and twice she had gotten her legs trapped in the gap behind the footrest.) This nightly elevation practice in concert with daytime wearing of compression stockings has ended the chronic dangerous swelling of her lower legs. Before buying the chair we had certain concerns. First, with her declining capacities, she has grown averse to changes and resists new learning. We were able to get her excited about such a fine and fancy chair. The controller has been easy for her to learn just by trying it out. The big Lift arrow can't be missed, and reclining is also easy. Several buttons she probably doesn't use at all, but if she gets ambitious, their functions are easy to explore when she's comfortably seated. She has learned that she isn't going to tip over backwards or be pitched out forward onto the floor. Second, the chair had to be located a few feet farther away from the bathroom than she was used to. (See specs for necessary distance from wall.) This, along with fear that the chair's operation might be too slow, raised concern that she wouldn't be able to get to the toilet in time. We have found that the chair gets her up often faster than she was managing to get herself up before, and that once up, she is seemingly a bit more agile-- and I note that the number of "accidents" has diminished dramatically, which was unexpected. I can't say whether this would be the case for others. We do keep disposable bed protectors (about 2' x 3' or so) on the chair. They tuck in nicely. A question that remains is of course how long the chair will work. Mom has had it about two months and we hope for years. We'll see. Another little point is that we need to get some non-skid surface between the metal feet and the floor. I found it scooted backward once, and know not the reason, but there is documentation warning that physical impediment of the chair's operation (I suppose, for example, lowering into a wall) will break it. Fortunately that hasn't happened here. This class of lift chair costs some money, but even on Mom's limited income, money is all for quality of life. The chair has added greatly to that quality for her.