The time had come for us to take the step of getting a mobility car. Elin is getting a big girl, and it's hard to lift her in and out of a car seat. I knew I didn't want anything too big to drive so when someone recommended this it seemed like a great idea. Pretty compact, but room in the back for Elin's wheelchair and also up to two other passengers! It's like the Tardis! When the rep brought it in the Summer we loved it, ordered one and hey presto it arrived yesterday. I love it. I can't stress that enough. I'm not going to get too technical here, I'm a girl and let's face it I know jack about cars . This is silver, it's pretty, it's quite 'gangsta' with the blacked out windows, and it smells of new-car. That's enough for me. Oh- and when Elin isn't with me it reverts back to being a 'normal' car with three full seats in the back and a boot big enough for me to clean out Tesco Cefn in one fell swoop. Heaven. But would Elin like it? So far, no (of course). Our issues with travelling with Elin are well documented in this blog and if you are a friend of ours then chances are you're sick of hearing about it. I had high hopes that she would be ok in her wheelchair in the back, as Caitlin could sit right next to her and after all she is very used to travelling in this way on the school mini bus. Sadly for whatever reason today's trial run did not go well and had to be abandoned. Elin pulled her usual trick of thrashing around, leaning so far over to the left that she nearly garotted herself on her harness and sticking her feet out at strange angles :-( We abandoned the run in the interests of safety almost immediately. However, it's worth pointing out that I feel the fault lies with the chair, which is no longer fit for purpose, than the car. It simply cannot support Elin or hold her in a safe position. Luckily we are due a new wheelchair as soon as the last two 'fittings' have been completed in January, it's being made-to-measure, so even if her behaviour continues hopefully the chair will be able to support/accommodate her and generally keep her safe to a much better degree than the current model. In the meantime Elin's car seat will have to go back into the back seat and her wheelchair resigned to the boot, as she simply cannot travel like that particularly if there is nobody in the back with her. It's so hard to explain to people who have never witnessed her seating issues. She simply sometimes cannot tolerate it, she pushes herself into terrible postural positions and flings her arms out etc, quite often 'jumping' up and down as if she is trying to escape the chair. Not good when she is surrounded by metal. Hugely distressing for her and for us too. So, when the new chair arrives, coated in memory foam and made to measure for Elin specifically, we are hoping that simple trips out in the car become enjoyable, as opposed to traumatic. Such a simple thing for everyone else, such a huge, huge hope for us that could completely change our experiences of getting out and about as a family for the better. Fingers crossed.
Not what we want!! This was Elin's position in her chair on returning home. Pretty bad. The journey lasted all of three minutes as we simply could not leave her like this, even though Caitlin was next to her it didn't help. This photo is for any readers who have never seen Elin having a 'bad travel day'. We need that new Wheelchair, pronto!
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