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How Squeaky Should a Wheel Be?
You’ve heard the saying, “a squeaky wheel gets the grease,” right? This seems to be true to a point. If it’s consistently squeaky though it’s easy to just tune it out. I’m probably balancing this fine line when it comes to my wheelchair adjustments. Since October the wheelchair guy has been out 5 times to tweak my chair. Before Christmas was the last time he was here. He was supposed to be getting different arm pads and I have a couple other minor changes I’d like to make. I was trying to be patient but…it’s been a month. So, do I start squeaking again?
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7 Replies
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What kind of arm pads are you getting? I hate the ones mine came with (the plastic digs into my sides if I have to lean to the side) and my rep never came back after his initial visit so I never got them fixed and I can’t find any good ones online that I know would work.
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Lupa, I’m not sure exactly what he’s ordered. They’re supposed to be more rounded and padded so they’re not so hard. I’ll keep you posted.
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DeAnn, I’m dealing with something similar. My new chair was delivered before Christmas minus the seat cushion and sip-and-puff controls. They were forgotten when the ordering happened. I wasn’t upset because I like being able to study the chair before getting into it, having that excuse of missing parts. But at some point, it gets to be too long to wait. I know for myself, I’ve reached that point. I think we each have to decide for ourselves when we’re ready to squeak for what we want. I guess we have to figure out when we feel strong enough to fight for what we want. If it’s not your time yet, that’s okay. Don’t feel bad for not squeaking, but on the other hand, we can’t feel bad for squeaking for what’s rightfully owed to us.
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Lupa, I’ve had gel armrests on 3 different chairs now, and I absolutely love them. They’ve kept my elbows and wrists from getting those horrible pressure sores I used to get from that hard plastic. That stuff should be outlawed! The gel is still firm enough to support, but it’s also giving enough to keep it from hurting. You might check those out. I don’t know what kind of chair you have, but both my Permobils and now my Quantum have had them. You should be able to get them.
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I’ve think I’ve seen those, Kelly, but it’s not the top cushion where my elbows and wrists would be that bothers me. It’s the thin, hard plastic base which digs into my ribs when I lean to the side, so much so that I get bruises if I’m not careful. But of course being careful makes it harder to do whatever it is I was leaning to the side for in the first place. What Deann described hers are going to be like is I think what I want, more rounded edges with some padding.
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I also have gel armrests and LOVE them! I’ll never have anything else.
As far as being squeaky. If my provider didn’t get something I need, I remind them weekly. But my provider is NuMotion and I have had terrible experience with them! -
My wheelchair is my legs.
Be very squeaky.
That being said, I have been having problems with my chair since November 8th and the challenges just keep escalating. This past weekend it stopped working at 7pm and suddenly turned on Sunday afternoon. Then on Sunday evening it died again but worked on Monday morning.
My chair repair people won’t be out to evaluate it until Monday, so until then I am trying too stay where I can be rescued with my hoyer.
If I had a backup chair I might not be so concerned, but right now my backup is a too small manual chair that I can’t move by myself.
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