slip sliding away...

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Barbie

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I have noticed in the last few weeks that my husband is slipping over in his pwc more and more. He has me re-align him at least 4-5 times each evening and the nurse just called me and told me she had to do it 10 times today. his upper body is going left and his hips are going right, and he slides forward a little too. the seatbelt keeps him from hitting the floor but obviously his trunk is weakening. he is in denial of course (classic). When we got the chair it has guides for the hips but not the sides and the guides are not pushedup against his hips anyway so there is several inches between his skinny butt and the side of the chair (if that makes sense). he refuses to sit in the chair with it tilted on a regular basis. I have seen a thing that goes between the legs to keep from sliding forward--does anyone have one of those? do they work with the roho cushion? also what kind of supports do others use/have in the chair?
 
If he doesn't like tilt, try a 2 inch rigid foam wedge (tapering to 0 over 8 inches) under the front of the cushion. If this doesn't do the trick the item you are looking for is called a bolster. A bit of back story, my wife is a custom wheelchair seating tech.
Vincent
 
I have noticed in the last few weeks that my husband is slipping over in his pwc more and more. He has me re-align him at least 4-5 times each evening and the nurse just called me and told me she had to do it 10 times today. his upper body is going left and his hips are going right, and he slides forward a little too. the seatbelt keeps him from hitting the floor but obviously his trunk is weakening. he is in denial of course (classic). When we got the chair it has guides for the hips but not the sides and the guides are not pushedup against his hips anyway so there is several inches between his skinny butt and the side of the chair (if that makes sense). he refuses to sit in the chair with it tilted on a regular basis. I have seen a thing that goes between the legs to keep from sliding forward--does anyone have one of those? do they work with the roho cushion? also what kind of supports do others use/have in the chair?

Barbie, Ron is ALWAYS sliding forward too and I have to constantly adjust him in his wheelchair and in his pop-up Lazyboy chair. Guess that's what happening, that his trunk is weakening - an indication?
 
If he doesn't like tilt, try a 2 inch rigid foam wedge (tapering to 0 over 8 inches) under the front of the cushion. If this doesn't do the trick the item you are looking for is called a bolster. A bit of back story, my wife is a custom wheelchair seating tech.
Vincent

I'll have to do some internet searching for a bolster for Ron - thanks for the info Vincent!
 
I found this on the internet:

Pommel / Horn Foam Wheelchair Cushions

•Gently rounded pommel designed to help prevent patients from sliding forward or out of wheelchair.
•Separates the knees to help eliminate skin shear and promote air circulation.
•Nylex cover is fluid-resistant.
•This product has antimicrobial properties built in to protect the product. This product does not protect users or others against bacteria, viruses, germs or other disease organisms.
 
Great information as I have to continually adjust my Wife as well. Her problem is more that she is light enough that bumps and turns cause her bounce or slide around.
 
Barbie, regarding keeping the torso straighter side-to-side we found that stuffing pillows in on one side at the hip and another on the other side up on the ribs worked best. Annie's chair had the side supports that were intended to perform that function, but they were pretty small and therefore put unbearable pressure where they contacted her body. The pillows worked for a while. Eventually, as she continued to weaken, she found that she was only comfortable lying down in bed. As far as sliding forward in the chair, Annie never had that problem because she would keep her chair slightly tilted back. It doesn't have to be tilted a lot to help counteract the forward sliding. But simply reclining the back of the chair doesn't help much (as opposed to tilting the seat bottom back as well.)
 
I plan on doing some shopping on Amazon tonight-- Phil I have suggested pillows to him but he says no--if I buy some specialized designed ones he would probably let me. I just ordered the bipap pillow but it has not come in. I think that pommel thing Heather mentioned is what I was envisioning but not sure how that works with his Roho. the wedge is good sounding too--I will look for one of those too.
 
There are several approaches to this as others have said. The lateral supports against the upper ribs (we only had one on the side to which his upper body leaned) are easily installed and adjusted. The hip supports, which we did have on both sides, were uncomfortable so we put little medical sheepskin pads between them and his body. We also had foam pieces behind his lower legs on the calf pads -- if there is pressure there, repositioning is harder.

He did not like to tilt either, esp. since he only had one eye, but we tried to change position as much as possible, even just raising and lowering the legs, if your husband would tolerate that.

A pommel type w/c cushion can be ordered but I am not sure how you could retrofit a Roho since the cells are designed for optimal immersion across the contact points. If he is sliding a lot, you could try adjusting the pressure to provide greater immersion in a sweet spot that he can stay in, i.e. not having equal pressure in all four quadrants.

The problem w/ pommel cushions like the one described is that cheaper foam, as you know, creates greater risk of pressure ulcers, and there is a larger margin of error in terms of the static dimensions of the pommel vs. having more flexible adjustments in the supports, cushion and cushioning between the body and supports. That is why I would recommend the latter.
 
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