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Mobility Scooters-How and Where Are You Going To Use It

Mobility Scooters- How and When Are You Going To Use It

Blog #5

Mobility Scooters….Question/Answer #1 – How and where are you going to use it?

How and Where are you going to use it?   Around the house? In the Grass/Gravel? Knowing where and how you are going to use it is the single most important question.    It drives the RIGHT solution. I am going to make some recommendations below based on particular situations. Please know the right solution can be personalized to your needs as easily as a phone call to AutoFarm Mobility…but in case you are just in the looking mode here are a few of my thoughts…

  1. Our best seller and in my opinion the best all-around scooter is the Buzz Around EX by Golden.   https://autofarmmobility.com/product/golden-buzzaround-extreme    This scooter has terrific on road and off road capabilities, it has 330 lbs weight capacity, is good size and can fit taller people as well as shorter people.   It has best in class range at 18 miles, and it is portable. It can be broken down into 6 pieces (the heaviest being 52lbs) for easy transport and can fit into the trunk of a car.   While there may be better scooters in any one category, my experience is that this is the most versatile Scooter I have ever used. Also keep in mind I have used this scooter in almost every possible scenario.  I go out of my way to find a situation to find fault. I even took it on a public train this week just see if there was an obvious issue….once again I was very impressed.
  2. Our Best Outdoor scooter – https://autofarmmobility.com/product/pride-victory-10-lx-with-cts-suspension    The Victory 10LX and the entire Victory Line  of Scooters by Pride are some of the best large format scooters for outdoor use hat I have found.    They do terrific on Grass, Gravel, and dirt. They have 400lbs weight capacity, significant ground clearance, and terrific large wide tires for strong performance on and off road.   The battery range is best in class. I have used these scooters and Disneyland, sporting events, car shows, festivals, etc, and they perform REALLY well. So why is this line not my best all around????   Its portability is very limited. While some places may say they breakdown, this scooter is awkward, heavy and large for many types of transportation. In my opinion it requires a mobility van, hitch mounted Platform lift, or a cargo area mounted hoist.   Those vehicle modifications make the Victory line very portable, but do add complexity to the transportation of the scooter.

 PLEASE take time to read my other points where these questions/answers will be put to good use!  

Jim Kissling, the author of this blog post, is the President of AutoFarm Mobility and a person living with Kennedy’s Disease (a rare neuromuscular disease).   Jim is a 40 something husband, father, son, business person, car lover, and he loves to talk about his struggles and achievements in life living with challenges and overcoming them.   

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How to maintain a GRIP on ice safely- YakTrax

How to maintain a GRIP on ice safely- YakTrax

Get a Grip – YakTrax

I love technology, and I love that there are so many wonderful advancements in mobility technology.   Well I “stumbled” on a new technology that I had to share with my blogging public.

Earlier this winter, I was on a mission to buy a snow sled for my kids on an awful/perfect winter day.   A reasonably warm Saturday morning, with Seven inches of snow, and a layer of ice under the snow! My kids wanted to go sledding, and I was trying to be SuperDad.   The perfect winter day requires the perfect new sled! Of course shopping for a sled on the “perfect winter day” is like shopping for water and plywood before a hurricane.   When you need it, it vanishes. We hit five stores all in search for a sled that could be ridden down the hill at warp speed. No Luck. I am exhausted, tired, and frustrated at this point, and I am carefully shuffling back to my truck to go to the LAST STORE no matter what!  All of a sudden I was sitting in slush looking up at my kids and truck. Uh oh! Yep, I fell really hard. But unlike my normal falls I actually was trying to be careful and WAS using my cane. (Other than a bruised ego, no damage was done to me!)

I have done some reflecting after this event.   Most people would reflect and say…I should not have been out that day.  (Frankly I should have those feelings too!) The problem is for me…I get frustrated.   I don’t want my life to be reclusive. I want to be SuperDad.

I began analyzing why I fell.   My conclusion was I didn’t have traction sufficient for the circumstances.   I blamed my highly worn shoes. I need new Shoes! (A project for a different day.)   But wait, my Problem with blaming the shoes are that I have issues of weakness, and heavy shoes can be a walking hazard too!  Shoes with good traction are usually heavy. All week I was thinking this through in my head. Then I remembered a product my Mother in Law told me about over a year earlier.   Why didn’t I think of it sooner? YakTrax! Yaktrax were originally developed for hikers and industrial workers that need extreme levels of traction in severe conditions. They have later developed a walking model and they are perfect for people with mobility issues in the snow and ice.   Yaktrax are a LIGHTWEIGHT rubber and metal contraption that fits over your shoe’s sole. They act much like chains for your shoes. I have tried them in many different conditions, and I have been extremely excited about the results. While no product is perfect, this device immediately gave me more confidence, security, and freedom even in awful winter conditions.    As many of you know, when I find an amazing product I not only want to tell you about it, but I also want AutoFarm Mobility to start to carry it in our showrooms and online. As of today, we are YakTrax’s newest dealer! Come check them out at the AutoFarm near you!

Jim Kissling, the author of this blog post, is the President of AutoFarm Mobility and a person living with Kennedy’s Disease (a rare neuromuscular disease).   Jim is a 40 something husband, father, son, business person, car lover, and he loves to talk about his struggles and achievements in life…. living with challenges and overcoming them!  

 

 

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Mobility Scooters Where To Start…. I Start With Questions

Mobility Scooters Where To Start..... I Start With Questions

 

Mobility Scooters….Where do we start….I start with questions!

I LOVE scooters.   Scooters are fun, helpful, eccentric, and a conversation piece.   I would enjoy a scooter even if I didn’t have a disability. In our store, if someone is having a rough or bad day, I routinely instruct them to get on a scooter and ride it around the store.    My belief is that simply riding a scooter will put a smile on your face. So the topic of scooters will consume many posts that I will write about. This post is designed to be a few of the foundational questions of how and where to start.  Many people and retailers start with solutions, I start with questions. It’s exactly like car shopping. My eye may always be drawn to the convertible, but if I have a family and want to carpool, then I am not getting a convertible. Not all cars are equal, and NOT ALL SCOOTERS ARE CREATED EQUAL!   There are 3 questions you need to address before you can select the right scooter for you. Once you can answer these questions, I encourage you to read my later blog posts where we dive into the answers for each of these.

  1. How and Where are you going to use it?   Around the house? In the Grass/Gravel? Knowing where and how you are going to use it is the single most important question.    It drives the a lot of the solution.
  2. Does it fit you?   Does the scooter physically fit you.   Are you comfortable? I am 6 feet tall, and my legs and feet (size 12) don’t fit on every type of scooter.   All scooters have weight limits. My wife may say that no scooter can handle my ego, but I will tell you that only some can handle my size, height, and weight.   
  3. How are you transporting it to places?  Some scooters are way easier to fit in a car than others.   Depending on your situation, you may find some scooters are much better for you because of their portability.

  If you have questions and need help gives us a call at 765-354-2261 or go to https://autofarmmobility.com/

PLEASE take time to read my other points where these questions/answers will be put to good use!  

Jim Kissling, the author of this blog post, is the President of AutoFarm Mobility and a person living with Kennedy’s Disease (a rare neuromuscular disease).   Jim is a 40 something husband, father, son, business person, car lover, and he loves to talk about his struggles and achievements in life living with challenges and overcoming them.   

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The Top 4 Mobility Solutions That Help With Giving Stability

The Top 4 Mobility Solutions That Help With Giving Stability

 

The Top 4 Mobility Solutions That Help With Giving Stability

Need a lift?

Have ever looked at a chair, sofa, or bench as a black hole?  You know… the seat where you will never return? Because of my neuromuscular disease, my hips and legs are pretty weak.   Now when I enter a room, restaurant, office, hotel, bathroom toilets….really anywhere I plan to sit…I do the Jim Kissling patented “scan for safety”.  If you have this issue, I suspect you do the “scan for safety” too. For those that do not have that issue, I will try to explain the process. The chair “scan for safety” is a very fluid process whereby you analyze height of seat, probable softness of cushion, life support items around the suggested seat….(aka things that you can grab for a graceful exit), and location from the rest of your group.   I have chosen some pretty odd places to sit over the years, because my quick scan analysis says that we are in some murky seating environments.

Candidly the scan for safety is a reality for MANY people!  The scan is one of the adaptations that you have to make living a life of reduced mobility.   With that said, there are additionally some tools that can help. While this is not an exhaustive list, it does provide some slick items that can really help make things better!  The Team and I and AutoFarm Mobility actually have staff meetings figuring out best products and practices DAILY to help individual challenges that are brought to us!

Items to help on the go!

The Standup Walker is an awesome tool for on the go issues.   The walker drops down, so that you can push up on the walker from a seated position.   It was designed by a kid at MIT. Go figure. Simple and brilliant.

https://autofarmmobility.com/product/urise-standup-walker

 

The EZ swivel seat is not as much about lifting, but Turning.   Absolutely a brilliant product….ESPECIALLY IN THE CAR! The twisting and lifting of legs in one motion is definitely a challenge when your core is weakened.  The swivel seat is essentially like sitting on a Lazy Susan… aka a turntable made of parachute like material. Which is not only soft and comfortable, but also very easily rotates thanks to the slick parachute like material.   The bottom of the turning device is rubberized so it really grips the seat. While I am a big fan of the swivel seat, the entire stander line are innovative yet affordable tools that can make a big difference out on the go, and around the home!

https://autofarmmobility.com/product/stander-swivel-seat-cushion


Items to help around the House!

The Number 1 item by far in the home is the Lift Chair Recliner.   This is a recliner that has an electric motorized lift that lifts you up to a near standing position.     Giving your weakened core and/or hips/legs, a head start helps a person to defy the effects of gravity! We carry MANY variations of lift chairs from 5 different manufacturers.    

https://autofarmmobility.com/product-category/lift-chairs

Another really cool item is the EZ Stand-N-Go by Stander.  It is placed in existing sofa or chair that can make it substantially easier to come back from the depths of the abyss.  This item makes no permanent changes to the furniture and can easily be moved and adjusted as necessary.

https://autofarmmobility.com/product/stander-ez-stand-n-go

 

In summary, I am on a personal crusade against black hole furniture.   Friends don’t let friends get swallowed by furniture. Please spread the word so there are no more senseless tragedies!

Jim Kissling -President of AutoFarm Mobility

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Steps to a life with reduced mobility

Steps to a life with reduced mobility

 

The Diagnosis…The first 3 Steps to a life with reduced mobility.

Oh no!   Your world just suddenly stopped.  You (or a loved one) has just been diagnosed with a disease that you can hardly pronounce, let alone know how to embrace.   What now? You will read some awful internet articles about your disease or about people with your disease. You will grieve, you will be sad, and most of all you will be scared.   That’s what I did, and I think everyone I have ever talked to did this very thing. As I sit here writing this blog, I know I don’t know you or what you have…(I probably cannot pronounce it either) , but I do know that a life with reduced mobility does not have to be a bad life.   This blog is to help give some ideas that helped me to embrace my life even if it was different than I anticipated.

The First 3 steps to a life with reduced Mobility.

It is okay to grieve and it is okay to have a bad day every now and then.   I am no shrink (aka mental health professional), but in my experience, I think it is important to recognize the situation you are in, and be sad about the change.   Your mobility is a big deal, and losing it or a slow diminishing of your abilities is sad. Take time to accept it. The key is that there are other steps you must accomplish, so make sure you don’t just camp out here at step one.   You need to move to the other steps and frankly this is the worst step to enter and leave!!!

Tools are your friend.   Back in High school, a couple of my friends and I actually picked up the back of a car to move it….you know with our arms.  It was not ultra-intelligent, but neither was I!  Today, this is a rather funny idea that I could even remotely accomplish the same activity.   Today I would either grab my keys, a rolling car jack, or tow truck to move a car. Mobility is the same thing.   Tools are available to help us. We are not lazy if we use tools, we are actually smart! Smart people use the tools available.   Also, I may be somewhat eccentric, but I have embraced the tools as an extension of my personality. I have a fantastic collection of walking canes.  I don’t have one cane (how boring)…I have probably 20-30 canes…Different styles, purposes, and personalities. I go out of my way to have the tool work for me and reflect my individual flair.  My favorite cane has a hand carved fish in the handle. I call it my Fishing Pole.

More than one way to do something.   If I asked you to put a nail into a board, you would say…I need a hammer.    What if I said there was no hammer???? You would have to find another way right?   Maybe use your shoe, or a rock, or a wrench. It may not always be as good as a hammer, but if it gets the nail in the board, then job well done!   Well the same thing is true about your mobility. You are going to need to get creative about a lot of new things. I think of it like…don’t get mad get even.   I have done some pretty creative things overcoming my challenges, but when I have one of these brilliant moments I am pretty darn proud of myself. One of these moments recently occurred when I went to a friend’s house and sat in one of their beautiful low slung chairs.   Chairs I now refer to as chairs of death and doom. You know the chairs that suck you in but never spit you out. I was stuck, and I did not know how to gracefully exit under my own steam. I had a customer tell me a few tricks that helped them and I quickly put them into action

NOSE TO TOES – Moving your nose closer to your toes in a seated position shifts your center of gravity and weight away from your bottom, and towards your feet. This helps with stability, momentum, and helping with my weak hips.

 ARMRESTS on a chair aren’t for resting – While shifting my weight forward I was able to push up with my arms to give my legs an extra boost of help.  

Jim Kissling, the author of this blog post, is the President of AutoFarm Mobility and a person living with Kennedy’s Disease (a rare neuromuscular disease).   Jim is a 40 something husband, father, son, business person, car lover, and he loves to talk about his struggles and achievements in life…. living with challenges and overcoming them!