Miracle! Oh no, it's just technology...
My God, the wheelchair user stood up!! For a long time this hasn't been impossible, nor is it new. Ever since six months after my injury, I have been standing up using braces. The first time I stood up after the injury was on a standing frame at Sarah Hospital. And it was the first embarrassing moment I went through. The machine consists of a platform that looks like a pulpit, which you approach from the front, secure your knees, and a strap is passed under your hips. Then you just turn the machine on and it pulls the strap, leaving you standing up. The only difficulty is passing the strap behind the hips; we have to lift the body to allow it to be placed behind. Very practical and simple to operate, as soon as—but back then I had no sensation or control over my basic needs. As soon as the machine pulls the entire strap, it presses your hips and belly against the platform to stabilize your body. When the process was finished, my belly was just squeezed for my basic needs to function. And some "little balls" appeared behind me...
A wheelchair user usually depends on someone when they need to reach something up high.
After that embarrassment, the staff at Sarah made me a pair of plastic braces shaped like my legs. With them, I could stand up using any counter, window, or firm support; I just had to put the braces on and pull my body up. I started doing physical therapy at home, and using the headboard of the bed for support, I would stand three times a week at home. Sometime later, I started physical therapy at the clinic, and I would stand using those ladder-shaped bars near the wall. And then when I started hydrotherapy, everything became easier because standing in the pool is much better since body weight decreases in the water. Besides, you don't get that dizziness that you feel when standing on solid ground.
With the Stand Up chair, that's over!
Since my orthoses stayed at Aquafisio BH, where I do water therapy, I ended up staying out of the house even more. Until I discovered a simpler way similar to the Sarah hospital's machine, the Stand Up chair, which uses an electric system to raise the chair's seat and backrest to a standing position – or rather, almost fully standing, since you need to stay at an angle of less than ninety degrees so you don't tip forward. The first one I saw was at Reatech in 2009, motorized, which even allows the wheelchair user to roll around while standing. It's really interesting; I saw a guy rolling around in it in the vertical position and I thought it was out of this world. It's the solution for going to parties, where most people usually chat standing up, and we wheelchair users are left trying to join the conversation by stretching our necks. Only when I checked the price of the equipment I almost fell backward; at the time it was over fourteen thousand reais (today it's already over 15 thousand).
Since it wasn't very useful or viable, I let it go. Until in 2014 I discovered that there is a more affordable model (not really, after all it costs around 6 thousand), the manual Stand Up. It is an ordinary wheelchair, with push rims for the wheels, but it has a system that allows the wheelchair user to stand up. A few months later, a friend of mine, Cristiano, bought one, and I did a article here on the blog about her. Time passed, and I ended up making another orthosis to stand at home. That way I wouldn't go too long without standing, since I was going to hydrotherapy only once a week.
From a seated position to standing in a few seconds.
However, one fine day, while browsing Facebook, I saw that a wheelchair user from the state of São Paulo was selling a used manual stand-up wheelchair for a little over two thousand reais. I got in touch, we agreed on the shipping, and I closed the deal. It arrived for me in a week. I was a bit hesitant because I was buying it used, but luckily it was really in good condition, everything working just fine, except for the battery, which I had to replace, but the seller covered that cost.
I started using the chair and it does what it promises, it gets the wheelchair user to a standing position. As I said before, it's not completely vertical, you lean back a little bit, but that doesn't get in the way at all. It does what matters, weight-bearing on the legs, and allows you to reach anything high up – in my case literally anything, since I'm 6'5". With it I can reach suitcases on the top of the closet, anything on a high shelf, cups and pots that are stored up high, and I even managed to change a lightbulb! Check out my review of it on my channel below.
Is it worth spending almost six thousand reais just to stand up and reach a few places? Yes, it is. If you have this money to spare, it is definitely worth it, because it is not just about reaching things; it is important for your health. Over time, bones weaken, and standing keeps bones more intact by placing weight-bearing pressure on them. However, you cannot just buy it and stand up; you need to consult a physical therapist and an orthopedist to check if you are able to stand. One of these professionals will request a bone densitometry scan, which will check the strength of your bones. If you have been in a wheelchair for years without standing up, there is a risk that your bones are already weak, and standing up like that could be dangerous. Click here and check out the article I wrote about orthostatism below, and always consult your doctor before doing any activity!
Source: Wheelchair User Blog
Data: 12/01/2018
