The Car...Ugh.

New 311 pound wheelchair, meet our 2010 Honda Odyssey.

Hmmmm...not so much.

We knew we would need some car modifications in order to get Ella's new power chair into the car.

But we've run into some snags (of course).

The biggest being that we have three children who need to be in car seats. Plus a 311 pound wheelchair. Ella is not old enough to ride in her wheelchair in the car. She won't be until she is able to ride using a regular seat belt (4 or 5 years old). So for now, we need all three kids to be in their car seats, plus the power wheelchair on it's own.

This morning (Saturday) we met with a representative from Mobility Works (Adaptive Vehicles).

Our first thought was to use a wheelchair lift in the back end of the car. This device mounts to the inside of the car and acts like a crane. It has a hook that grabs the chair and lifts it up, then we swing it into the back of the car and secure it to the floor.

The lift can support the weight of the wheelchair, and our car can support it, but our particular car's floor cannot support the LIFT supporting the CHAIR. The lift would break through the floor of the car trying to hoist the 311 lb. chair. Ugh.

So obviously that won't work.

So we need a van with a ramp.

We got a portable ramp yesterday. It's heavy (40 lbs.). It's in two pieces and needs to be assembled every time you use it. It's not very stable since it doesn't actually attach to the car. Michael used it this morning and it took him 15 minutes just to get the chair in the car. We folded part of the 3rd row seat into the floor to make room for the wheelchair (next to Ava's car seat). Once the chair was in the car, it was not secure. It is very dangerous to drive around with this heavy piece of equipment able to freely move inside the car. If we were to get in an accident, it would be all too easy for this 311 pound chair to slam into Ava who is sitting next to it. 300 pounds vs. 32 pounds. Not very good odds for her. Double ugh.

So...that won't work.

The last option is a handicap accessible modified minivan.

We knew we would need one of these for when Ella is sitting in the wheelchair in the car (but not for a few years still). Having a ramp modification in the car requires that an entire row of seats be removed and the floor of the car lowered. About 85% of ramp-modified minivans have the middle row of seats removed, and the ramp goes out the side sliding door. The remaining 15% or so have the back row removed and the ramp exits out the back.

Since we need to fit 3 car seats in the car for the next few years, our only option is to have the ramp go out the back and squeeze all three car seats in the middle row (that will make for fun car rides!), as the 3rd row bench is too small to accommodate all three.

But here is another little snag. Almost every single rear-entry ramp minivan lowers the floor between the two captain's chairs in the second row (see diagram below). So we couldn't have the middle seat in place for our third car seat. Ugh.

Floor lowered full-length (to the back of the front seats)

There is ONE car that only lowers the floor up to the second row (but not between the captain's chairs) so that we could put the middle seat between the captain's chairs (see diagram below).

The Honda Odyssey rear entry accessible minivan.

Floor lowered partial-length (to the back of the second row seats)

This is the ONLY modified minivan that will work for our family.

We aren't sure if our current Odyssey can be modified. It's doubtful. We were told that the companies that do the modifications only work on the latest body styles (for equipment purposes). Our car is a 2010. The new model came out in 2011. Ugh.

So right now we have this incredible wheelchair in our dining room. Ella can't use it because our house isn't open enough (we've already been denting walls, breaking transition pieces on the floor, etc. with US driving it). Even once Ella has mastered the chair, we don't know if it will work in this house. Ugh.

And we can't get it in the car. So we can't even take it to open areas for her to learn how to use it.

So here it sits. Taking up room and collecting dust. Just waiting to be driven.

We knew that a new car would be in our future. We just didn't expect it to be now. We thought we had more time to figure out the logistics.

Ugh.