A lift becomes one of the options that can help make it possible to keep your loved one at home longer. As they lose the ability to move their own body the time comes when they need more help then you can provide yourself. It doesn't help if you injure yourself trying to lift or push or pull your loved one in order to help them move. A left can fill that void.
I began to consider using a lift when it started being more difficult for my wife to get out of bed. I have a bad back and it limits how much I can actually help. We have a Sleep Number bed and she sleeps at a very low sleep number making it very difficult for her to get out of bed on her own. As she continued to lose strength that problem became much more difficult. I knew the time was going to come when she would no longer be able to get herself out of bed. I started researching what options I had to help her accomplish that. Some internet research on YouTube and Amazon convinced me a lift would be the solution.
I got the doctor to prescribe a Hoyer lift and rented one from a medica supply company, her insurance paid 80%. She refused to believe that she would ever need it, but I knew the time would come when she would. It's sat for some time before it was ever used. That gave me time to figure out that it was not going to be possible to use it on the deep pile carpet in the bedroom. I ordered some three quarter inch plywood in 2 x 4 sections and created a platform that extended under the bed and out from the bed in a wide enough area that I could move the lift in the areas I needed to move it.
A physical therapist came to show me how to use the lift and that was helpful. However, the first time I used it I with my wife I realized I was not going to be able to use the Hoyer lift by myself safely. There was simply no way I could manage her and manage the lift and she was unable to help in any way. I almost dropped her on the floor but I did manage to recover and safely get her in her wheelchair.
I really got lucky, one of the first caregiver companies I interviewed the gentleman who came was very helpful. While I was showing him our situation in the bedroom and my concerns about helping get my wife in and out of bed, he sort of muttered under his breath something about a sit to stand lift. I had never heard of a sit to stand lift but after he left, I really began looking on the internet to see what was available. This seemed to be a much better option then the lift I had. I contacted my doctor and got him to order a sit to stand lift to replace the Hoyer lift that I had.
When my son-in-law and his wife came to help me at one point his wife was willing to be the Guinea pig to let me practice and learn how to use this new lift. After some experimentation we figure it out a way that worked. It was very helpful to have someone I could practice with.
The lift became the only way I could get my wife in and out of bed for about 9 months. It also became the tool I needed to use once she was unable to stand on her own to help her to move from a chair to the commode for toileting purposes.
The only problem with a sit to stand lift is it does require that the person being lifted be able to provide assistance by pulling up and helping themselves stand. As she became weaker that became much more difficult. It also began to be very painful for artificial knees every time we tried to pick her up or let her down.
I will address the solution for that problem in another post.
Here is an excellent YouTube video showing how a sit to stand lift can be used for bedding and toileting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KICUlpmZsmk