Traveling

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JohnHMich

Active member
Joined
Feb 17, 2020
Messages
58
Reason
Lost a loved one
Diagnosis
4/2020
Country
US
State
MI
City
Ann Arbor
My wife is still using a walker for short trips. So we packed that along with her power wheelchair for a socially distant snowbirding in New Mexico. We took her Trilogy NIV, the cough assist, and a raised toilet seat. When we arrived, we were able to reconfigure things so that she could sit-stand from the couch, move around with the rollator, and get to the dining table. We bought a shower bench. The challenge was the bed. It was half the height of our home frame. After a week of using the gait belt to get up from the bed, my wife had a brainwave. I used to use bed blocks to tilt the bed to help with acid reflux. Why not use those to increase the height. Luckily bed bath and beyond has 7 inch bed risers that make up the difference! Works perfectly. The next challenge is dealing with the water reservoir for the NIV running dry in the middle of the night.
 
There are some tips for the Trilogy humidifer in this thread, though not all of them will apply to a temporary home. In particular, I'd clean anything you can clean, tweak the humidification settings, and try to adjust the temp/humidification in the room to better match up.

Stay safe and have a good time.
 
Well done, have a great time together!
 
Good for you, John! I hope you and your wife have a wonderful winter break!
 
Good for you! Enjoy your trip--and keep thinking creatively!
 
Safe travels! My wife and I are considering traveling from Florida to Ohio this summer for the first time since I was diagnosed. I have a PWC and van, but I'm curious: How many days do you plan to take to get there? How many miles per day is the most she and you can comfortably go?
 
I have been using 330 miles or 3:30pm as the stopping point. For us, 3:30 means that there is time for a nap before dinner. This was suggested by some RVers that I follow on Youtube (Mike Wendland has a good channel). It's an arbitrary value, but it let us hone in on how long my wife can be in her chair in the car. We took 5 days to get from Michigan to New Mexico (and back). There are google maps tools that will let you draw range rings around a map to figure out where to make camp so to speak.

 
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