Daily Life with a C4/C5 Spinal Cord Injury

Not many seriously disabled people can take a short notice break away from home and, we are no different.

Several months went into the planning. 

Lots of questions needed suitable answers and solutions including:

How accessible is the accessible accommodation?

            Is there mobile hoists and shower wheelchairs available?

            Do we have any Personal Care Assistants available to come with us?

            Are there accessible activities and venues once we get there?

            How do we all get there with all the equipment and supplies that are needed?

           

With all that in mind, we chose Center Parcs at Longleat.

I booked an accessible 5-bedroom Executive Lodge.  This would give each of our two PA’s a room each.

I hired a van from EuropCar to transport all the necessary equipment.  I’d read lots of people who’d previously visited who’d been let down with the hire of hoists and chairs at the Parc so I’d decided we needed to take everything…just in case.

Dad wanted to use the swimming pool so we’d been to the HydroHub on several occasions to ensure all of us were comfortable with wet transfers and moving and handling in the water. 

As with everything, when you employ anyone, I had to get cracking on risk assessments, moving and handling plans, additional training, and meeting with the PA’s to ensure they were comfortable with the plans etc.  I also have to consider how many hours the PA’s will be working, what they’ll be paid, how their day will look and I always like to ensure they have time to enjoy some downtime too.

A couple days before check in, a lovely lady contacted me from the Accessibility/First Aid team.  She was checking we had everything we needed and asked if I’d like her to hire in any equipment!  I wasn’t expecting that!  They obtained a shower wheelchair and a hoist for us at no extra cost.

Van loaded, morning PA’s arriving early to help dad get ready and we’ll be off…..

We Arrived!

Early entry into our accommodation made unloading easy.  There was an additional cost for this but I felt it was worth it for our own sanity!

On arrival, as we had a wheelchair user, we were offered a car pass which allowed us to drive around the Parc if we needed to.  This is a great option in poor weather or for manual wheelchair users.  Worth taking the pass, just in case.

Our accommodation was down a slope – easily navigated with a power wheelchair but may have been more difficult if pushing a manual wheelchair.  With the amount of equipment etc that needed unloading, the distance from the van to the lodge door was about 20 metres.  Not too far but it took several trips in drizzly weather.  Something to bare in mind when booking.

The lodge wasn’t what I was expecting but it turned out to be my fault!  I had got mixed up with Executive and Exclusive.  The pictures and floor plans I had were of Exclusive but, on arrival, it was an Executive that we had.  This was a big error on my part.

Having my own disabilities, the lodge pictures (the wrong pictures) showed two en suite rooms downstairs.  Sadly, this wasn’t the case and I had to navigate the stairs twice a day.

We also didn’t have the private hot tub we were expecting.  Not a deal breaker but we were all excited to see how dad enjoyed the hot tub experience before we look at adapting our own at home.

So with everything unpacked, off we went to explore the Parc.  Longleat Center Parcs is very hilly.  Worth considering whether its suitable for different wheelchairs. I’d not have wanted to attempt pushing a manual one around.

Out of our lodge and up the slope to the main road and then up another hill, the ground was wet and leaves were all around making the ground fairly slippery – it is a forest, it was raining and these things can’t be helped!

All the building are accessible and there’s plenty of charging points in communal areas if chairs and scooters need a little boost. 

We visted the Foresters on night one which accommodated us all really well.  Great food and great atmosphere especially as we wondered through the winter lights to get there.

Day 2 and it was time to go swimming!  Access to the changing rooms was easy and a lifeguard showed us to the changing places changing room and bought in a mobile hoist and a water wheelchair.  The changing places cubicle was far too small for what we needed. The two PA’s were unable to move around safely with all the equipment in the cubicle so I stood outside with the water wheelchair until we could swap it around for the electric chair.

The water wheelchair was very basic but served a purpose.  Access to the pool was through the communal shower area and foot bath – no problems here.  There is a beach style access to the pool BUT this is accessed by 2-3 steps!  Next to the lifeguard station was a narrow slope for for water wheelchair.

We needed to go backwards with this and, as I hadn’t included this in my risk assessment, I did this myself.  It was really not easy.  May be easier if the chair user was a child or smaller in height.  I was concerned about knocking dads feet – knocking his feet could lead to cuts and infections which are always a huge concern with a SCI.

Once in the water, the chair moves freely and we took it to our waist height, we then placed a long woggle around his back and under his arms which helped us release dad from the chair and into the water.  Using the adult net floatation device, dad enjoyed a float around, he moved his legs around and enjoyed the relation.

The waves come on every 30 minutes and a loud alarm signifies a two minute warning.  With this we all went into the lazy river to escape the waves!  Well, the lazy river wasn’t as lazy as we thought it may be! That said, we all had such fun!

Dad took a shower in the water chair in the communal area which left the bed in the cubicle nice and dry for dressing.   After the swim session I sat with the PA’s and dad and we discussed lessons learnt and ways to improve for the following day.  Very worth while.

Dinner was taken at Café Rouge where the staff were simply amazing! Lots of space to get around and once again, great food.

Day Three and another swimming session.  This time a revised method of using the ross return stand instead of the hoist.  Although a little cumbersome, taking the return stand with us from the accommodation, this proved to work well.

A lovely weekend had by all and home to book another break!