Judie, mine is also Invacare...TDX SP. I have to say that eventually, I believe the foot plate will be wonderful for him. When the time comes that he doesn't have the ability to get out the the chair, the plate just stays flat. He'll be hoisted out eventually. Good deal that the chair works with your kitchen table--means he doesn't need to dirty his hands with the footplate just before eating. As for the crazy controls, mine are different, and all on the right side. Hopefully for a good laugh as well as a helpful lesson, I will tell you what happened within the last week...
I wear a denim shirt with rolled up sleeves nearly all the time (saves arms from the hooking frame which is wire), and was paying bills at the kitchen table while Phil was still eating dinner. My hands do not work well and things "slip" a lot now. So, I dropped the stamps onto the floor, and Phil said "I'll get them, don't lean over" as I was leaning over... and caught the wadded up sleeve of my shirt on the joy stick, while I couldn't sit up-- so I'm bent down, head near lap and moving erratically toward the top of the stairs. He grabbed the joystick when I was within a foot of the stairs, Judie. After his venting a bit, I got extra chocolate, lol, but it is really dangerous.
Yeah, you still cannot get close to having real accessibility, and may need to stash the essentials down at his level of reach. At the kitchen sink, I can wash one hand, then turn the chair around and wash the other. I have to really want to wash up downstairs to bother. Up at the vanity I can tilt the chair (learned to do it before pulling under the vanity the hard way). Then, lift the right arm and move under the vanity while holding up that arm, so that I pull in as close as possible and am as high as possible. If Mike does some really good damage to the house, trust me.... he cannot escape it. Especially when tired. Once in a while Phil has to move my chair around and I LOVE it. lol. He always finishes with a new respect for all it entails.
Having said all the negatives, Judie, I love my chair. I really do. It's my home within my home. As I lay outside today, my feet were higher than my head, and very happy to be up in the air. And, I'm able to stretch by doing all that recline. I feel like I used to on those big exercise balls when you lay on your back on them... a good stretch.