- Hello, lovely people.
Welcome to episode two of my desperate attempt
to find a power mobility aid that works for me.
And in the process, hopefully share some info
that may be helpful to others.
Or just weirdly entertaining.
Oh, believe me, there is some info in this video
that I really wish I had known earlier.
And that really makes me look like an idiot,
but will probably make you really laugh a lot.
If you're new to my channel,
and you've only seen videos
in which I'm spinning around in heels or dancing,
you may be thinking,
"But Jessica, why do you even need to use a mobility aid
"if you can walk?"
Well friends, I'm what's called
an ambulatory wheelchair user.
That's a person who has limited mobility,
and needs an aid to move around,
but is capable of walking in some circumstances.
The reasons for having limited mobility can vary,
from fatigue, to joint pain, unsteadiness and injuries,
to yes, being paralyzed.
I personally am very unsteady on my feet.
I suffer from fatigue and pain,
and I have a neurological condition
that means I occasionally paralyze my limbs.
(bell dings)
Bingo.
Episode one is linked in the card above,
and should also be in the description below.
In this episode, however, I decided that the best way
to get a feel of do I buy a power chair,
or do I buy a mobility scooter
would be to rent one of each
and try them out for a week.
And not just going to the shops try them out, no.
I decided to take the power chair
to the YouTube convention Summer in the City,
and the mobility scooter to Brighton Pride,
which was a really great idea.
Until it really, really wasn't.
Honestly, that mobility scooter caused the first bit
of actual marital strife my wife and I have ever had.
And I thought at one point
she was going to push the scooter into traffic.
Not with me in, calm down!
So what is a mobility scooter?
Well, it's kind of a one-person golf buggy,
crossed with a motor scooter.
They're battery powered,
and can be recharged using mains electricity.
Although there are different types available,
all mobility scooters have bike style steering
to direct the wheels.
They have padded up-right seats and very simple controls.
The maximum speed for the road scooters
is eight miles an hour.
And you don't need a license to drive it,
so go me, even on roads.
When driving on pavements, however,
you should limit yourself to four miles an hour.
It has taken me months and months to make this video,
because whenever I think about it, I panic.
I panic that I'm going to be spending lots of money
on the wrong thing.
I panic that I don't actually know what the wrong thing is.
I panic, because I feel guilty that I want the option
that looks more stylish, but is more expensive.
Even though I know that if I get something that's ugly,
or it looks medical.
I have a lot of issues with things that look medical,
it's a thing.
I won't actually use it.
And I also panic,
because I know that as a human with brain damage,
I'm actually not at best place
to choose the thing that works for me.
Because A, I'm aware I have an inability
to tell scams from genuine shops.
And it paths the way,
I swing from assuming everything is a lie
to being far too trusting.
And also B, I actually don't really know
what's best for myself.
Remember, just because I can list the kings of England
doesn't mean I can cross the road safely.
And then, I feel this huge amount of guilt
for not being able to look after myself,
and make these very important adult choices
and having to get help.
And wow, this is not where I saw this video going.
Hi, welcome to my channel.
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Now while we're here, move on.
I have to say, using the mobility scooter felt amazing.
It handled pavements in a way I hadn't expected it to.
It didn't make me feel weird.
It was great being able to easily move around without pain,
and it had this pretty little basket,
where I could store bottles of Diet Coke, vital.
I mean, what more could you ask for?
I mean, okay, it was actually pretty terrible
at getting onto a bus.
And you'll see.
There was a thing.
All right, we're now gonna try and get on the bus
with the scooter.
What do you think?
- Fingers crossed.
- We can see it coming,
and there are an awful lot of people on it already, so.
(upbeat music)
Things we've learned in the expedition on the bus.
It is very hard to maneuver.
I kind of had largest thing off the bus,
it's a very tight turning circle.
I very much failed to do so,
hit the wall,
and the bus driver, bless him,
just came and like picked up the back of the scooter,
and essentially dragged me off,
whilst telling me how to maneuver and turn.
And I was like, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
And just continued to bash into him.
Thank goodness, Brighton Buses, A+, you did really well.
I failed to drive well, but that's on me.
This is new, I'm learning.
It'll be fine.
So it'll be interesting to see
whether that's any different with a power chair.
I imagine somewhat easier,
because the turning circle is it.
It just turns on itself,
rather than you having to do a big loop.
Also, there were so many people on the bus,
because, obviously, it's Pride.
So it might be easier with this,
just day to day shopping, going into town.
(bright upbeat music)
Very steep road.
Aw, can you see?
And normally, I would be really struggling going up here.
But no, who's struggling?
- I am.
- Yes, you can do it.
Go, go, go.
And I'm very calm.
Thank you, scooter.
Okay, so the weirdest thing just happened.
Sat outside the court,
waiting for call checks to my little scooter,
looking at my phone on Instagram.
And then this entire crowd,
I don't know, students, just came and like stood around me,
talking to each other, completely ignoring my existence.
Like looking literally over me.
I was jut like hello.
(bright upbeat music)
So I walked around without the scooter for ages,
because it's way too busy to be going around
with the scooter.
And now we're trying to leave the park,
on the scooter again, obviously,
'cause my legs are so tired.
But the only way to get back home really quickly
is up an incredibly steep hill,
so we'll see how we do.
So we decided, we could get a taxi,
and take the chair apart and put it in the taxi.
But that would require cash,
and all the cashpoints
have like a half hour queue in front of them right now,
so that's a bit much.
So no, we're gonna go on an adventure
and get back home ourselves.
Hopefully, it won't run out of charge.
Yeah, that's right, women power.
We don't need taxis.
Oh, oh, and we're down to one.
We're down to one.
Are you pushing me, Claud?
- No.
(laughs)
- We've run out of battery half way up the hill.
That's how much more we have to go,
but this is how much we did.
So that's not bad.
Turned it off.
Hopefully when I turn it on again, there will be something.
Up the hill. - Maneuver it, darling.
- Made it up the hill.
That hill.
- And I push it.
- It's terrible.
You did really well, baby.
Is your heart still beating terribly?
Doubt that it has this automatic breaking system
where if it's going too fast.
And we're trying to go down hill,
so Claud doesn't have too push so much.
But the automatic breaks mean it does that
if it's going too fast.
So Claudia's decided we're not buying this.
Okay, look, we're going slow, we're fine.
Wait, is it starting to rain?
I think I just felt a raindrop.
Thank god, I'm married to an able-bodied woman.
I'm getting, am I getting off,
so you can go over his hill?
Okay.
Maybe, also we don't get this one.
So what have we learned from this scootering experience?
Well, I have learned to take a charging cable with me
everywhere I go.
And also that distance apparently really, really matters.
It might seem like it doesn't,
because you think, "Oh, I mean 30 miles, that excessive.
"When am I going to go 30 miles in my mobility scooter?
"I wouldn't, it's only a mile and a half
"to where I want to go,
"and then a mile and a half back."
But that's 30 miles on the flat.
I live in a place with incredibly steep hills.
It really cuts down, really cuts down on your tiring,
so here we are.
I've also just managed to run my own mobility scooter
over my own foot.
I injured my foot with the mobility scooter.
I got overwhelmed making this video, can't lie.
I have about 50 tabs open on my laptop.
And it's a lot of information,
and it feels very important.
Hopefully, we can dive in together,
but if you start feeling overwhelmed,
just remember that it's okay, and I am right there with you.
A special mention must be given
to the scooters that offer something more
when it comes to looks.
The scooters that really go all out,
and look stunningly vintage.
I really want these.
They're so impractical, again, but I really want them.
Anyway, price of a mobility scooter.
Clearly, some of them look quite cool.
They are generally cheaper than electric wheelchairs.
It was really handy having handles in front of my body
when I was trying to push through the crowd at Pride.
Tilly could sit on my lap when she got tired.
I put my handbag between my feet,
so it didn't have to be on my lap and getting in my way.
I felt more secure on the four wheels,
even though the base was quite thin.
If I was larger, or that there were only three wheels,
I think I might've felt it was a bit wobbly.
I did go to the park though,
and it happily trampled over sticks and leaves,
so that's something.
I also drove much faster than I expected it to.
You don't need a driving license to take it on the road.
Again, weird.
Can potentially fit into the boot of a car.
And it's silent.
Cons, it's silent.
I ran into Walter, he wasn't pleased.
Some of them are really ugly.
If not on incredibly flat ground,
it needed two hands to steer.
So I couldn't actually glide along,
while holding hands with my wife,
which is what I need to do.
And they can just sometimes be quite expensive.
Generally, everything is expensive,
because being disabled is expensive, but expensive.
Apparently, the ones that fold out into small spaces
are actually really heavy, which baffled me.
Side note, I really, really wanted
one of those very specific white folding scooters,
because they're tiny,
and you can put them into a car boot with a buggy.
My nephew's buggy.
No announcements here, sorry.
And these can be taken on a plane,
which seems really fantastic,
because I love the idea of taking my own scooter
through an airport,
and not having to rely on
the airports very shoddy assistance.
And it looks great,
but then Claudia pointed out that it slopes up at the front,
which is where my feet would go.
And since I have rather long legs and generally wear heels,
that means my knees would be higher than my hips,
which would put a lot of pressures on them.
And that's bad, because it messes up my hips.
And Ah!
If you have an ATTO or an iMoving thing
can you please tell me if it hurts your hips?
If you don't have a garage,
it's going to be quite difficult to store.
It's about the same size as a large buggy,
and the majority of English houses
were not built to have those in.
And when we say we have small houses
because we're a small island,
but that's not true.
We built our houses packed close together,
because we need an excuse to moan about our neighbors.
Fact.
I could not for the life of me steer the darn thing
onto that bus.
I also wouldn't have been able to use it inside my house,
because there's no way on God's green earth
that I could've steered through those doors.
Most of these cons relate to steering, so steering.
And the biggest con of all was the darn battery.
Because even it says it's almost full,
if you try to get up a steep hill, it will die on you.
Is that the battery's fault,
or is it my fault for agreeing
with my slightly inebriated wife
when she wanted to go up a really steep hill?
Mm, don't talk to me.
I mentioned at the start
that I sometimes feel embarrassed when using a mobility aid.
And that's partly because,
as someone who needs to use one sometimes,
I can feel a little like,
"Ah, gosh, am I allowed to use this?
"I only need it sometimes.
"Won't people think that I'm faking?"
Even on the days when I have a paralyzed foot
and literally can't stand up, which.
The other part of that embarrassment though
is that I feel I look too young.
Although, I'm pretty sure anyone under the age of 80
probably feels they look too young
to be using mobility aids.
Oh my god, I don't know.
I have an aunt who is 80,
and she would not appreciate that comment.
85, okay.
85 years old.
Everyone else is in their prime.
I'm sorry, Auntie.
Tune in next Friday
when I'll be testing an electric wheelchair,
and attempting to not get too deep into my feelings.
See you then.
Oh, no wait!
I know this isn't really the same thing,
but my wife has an electric bike.
And then I find out that electric tricycles are a thing.
And now I want to go on bike rides with her,
or pop into town.
Look, I have a weird brain problem
where I can't retain the ability to balance on a bicycle.
You can teach me, and I can do it for a day.
And then I try again the next morning,
and I've forgotten again.
And I'll fall off,
unless you go through the whole process of teaching me
to ride a bike again.
'Cause yes, I'm the person who ruined the saying,
like riding a bike.
But this is a tricycle, so I don't even need to balance.
And it has baskets for dogs to sit in,
and it's electric, so it would do hills for me,
whilst also kind of making me vaguely exercise my legs,
but without putting weight on them.
So it's basically physiotherapy, but adorable,
and in British racing green, and I want it.
That's all.
(smooth jazz music)