Tag Archives: power lift chair

El Sucktomento…As My Dad Would Say.

Posted on by
4

So far, this year has sucked royally.

We suffered through over 30 days with a clogged kitchen sink. We couldn’t do dishes, rinse canned beans, wash produce, or even rinse our hands! We had to do everything that required water in the bathroom. Trust me, washing dishes is never my favorite thing but washing them in the little bathroom sink sucks balls! So does rinsing beans and veggies over the tub! I tried several different products to try and unclog the drain, and wasted time trying to plunge the damn thing. Dad finally gave in and called a plumber since my son, apparently doesn’t have time for us, and after a whole 30 minutes, our sink was unclogged! It was an expensive 30 minutes because the guy got lost and he was on the clock the whole time he was trying to find us. It cost us a little over $300 bucks! Ugh.

All was good after the sink was unclogged and I thought things could go back to normal. But no. Things would not go back to normal. Last Tuesday, I got ready for bed (I sleep in my power lift chair) and when I tried to recline the chair, the hand control wouldn’t work. I thought the cats might have stepped on the power strip and turned it off, or knocked the plug to the power strip out of the wall. Those things have happened before. I checked and nothing looked suspicious. I made sure the plug was all the way in, making a good connection. I sat back down, and the hand control worked so I proceeded to recline and get comfy for the night.

At 3:00am my bladder woke me up and when I tried to raise the chair to a sitting position, the hand control wouldn’t work again. I thought, boy am I screwed! I tried again and the chair started to move but it moved in the opposite direction I wanted it to go and wouldn’t stop! I had to wake Dad up with my emergency call button. He put a footstool under the footrest of the chair to keep it steady while I scooted off the damn chair! I was so damn mad. I mean, I haven’t been able to sleep in my bed for years because it caused me too much pain and now my chair is dead. Where the hell am I going to sleep? Where the hell am I going to sit to relax? I can’t sit in Dad’s recliner because it rocks. I can’t sit in any of the other chairs in the house because they rock, too. I’m stuck with my wheelchair. It’s the only chair I can get in and out of now. Ugh. Can things get any worse?

I’ve been sleeping in my bed, uncomfortably and painfully. It’s making my leg and back problems worse. I’m not sleeping well at all. New chairs are too expensive. I tried to find a used chair. That wasn’t going well either. My poor chair. It’s been good to me for about 5 years now. It was used and only $200. I think it’s given me $200 worth of comfort! But…

Yesterday, I got to thinking maybe it was the transformer that went out because that’s happened before. Last year, I bought an extra transformer (a universal one) so I switched it out to see if my chair would work. Nope. So that wasn’t the problem. I didn’t think it was but it was worth a try. I wanted to try that though before I bought a new hand controller. I found a universal hand controller on Amazon and ordered it. It will be here Friday and hopefully, it will solve my problem so I can sleep in my chair again!

Stay tuned to find out if my chair will be brought back to life!

The Chair

Posted on by
15

 

0627191602_hdr863955727.jpg

About 3 weeks ago we had a thunderstorm that zapped my power lift chair. I could have still used it had it not died in the “up” position! I had so hoped it was just a loose connection but no such luck. The next thought was that perhaps there was a reset button underneath, somewhere near the motor. Nope. Do you want to know what my next thought was? No, you don’t. 

For a week I thought I was going to have to buy a new motor. I didn’t even want to go online and search for the correct model. I did though, and it wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be, but wondered if we could even manage to replace it ourselves. I didn’t know how difficult it might be.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought that it wasn’t the motor after all. The power box would have been hit by a power surge first. The light on the box wasn’t lighting up, indicating that it was not getting power. So, I searched for a replacement. Luckily it was much less than the motor would have cost. Less than $20 compared to just under $100 for the motor…the more favorable is obvious! I ordered it and waited patiently for Amazon to ship it. 

In the meantime, I struggled to get in and out of my old recliner. I had to have help a few times. The damn thing was just too low, too soft, and it rocks. That made it difficult to get out of without twisting and turning and my bones just can’t handle that these days. My back (and knees) hurt like hell because of all the twisting but I shoved along…praying that the new power box would indeed, fix the problem with my power chair. 

Day of delivery came (June 21) and I was terribly disappointed when I received word that my shipment wouldn’t arrive until the following Tuesday. I checked the tracking information and found that on June 20, it was in MO where it should have been but for some idiotic reason the damn thing ended up in Minnesota! So I had to push through a few more days of hell.

screenshot_2019-06-22-17-02-43965729365.png

By the time Tuesday came, my back hurt so bad that I was nearly in tears. When the power box finally arrived, I was so happy but still worried that it wouldn’t fix the problem. We pulled my power chair out of the corner, plugged in the new box and gave it a test. IT WORKED! I was so happy! 

I’m back in my power chair, careful to unplug if we’re going to have a storm. I need to get a surge protector next time I venture out. I don’t want to do this again! My back is slowly beginning to feel better. I find I can get up from the power chair sometimes without using the lift mechanism because it’s firm, not so low and it’s stationary. But at least I have the lift when I need it.