My mum’s lost confidence in pulling herself into the sarastedy after regressing to a hoist for 6 momths due to shoulder pain in her strong arm. She’s got used to being passive and although the pain has healed she seems nervous about the sarastedy.
Has anyone got any tips for pulling yourself into it? Her physio is trying to help but we can’t afford sessions every week so DIY-ing most of the time.
She’s got a bit of movement in her stroke leg now…
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Hi EMG - Sorry to hear this. I can’t offer any advice as we never managed to get Mum to pull herself into it either. In Mum’s case the Sara Stedy was too big for her - she is very petite and also she only has strength in her non-paralysed had. It was to much for her and in the end we had to send the Sara Stedy back as it was occupying space in an already cluttered house.
There are some videos on YouTube, but I guess you have seen them.
Hopefully with your DIY efforts, she will get her confidence back.
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I’ve no experience with Sara Stedy other than know how they work.
You could do with one of those forward tilting recliners that @ManjiB’s mum has.
That would make it easier on her arms to get on Sara Stedy…but that doesn’t help with transferring from her bed
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EMG72.
Sorry your mum is having trouble with the Sarastedy. I used one in hospital and we then had 2 in the house when I came home. One upstairs and one down. I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help as we found them invaluable in getting me around. I have one useless arm but suppose I must have had enough strength in my good arm to pull myself up. Hope the Physio can help. Good luck to you both
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Thanks all.
Has anyone managed to stand again without using the sara stedy?
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Yes. I am standing and walking with a stick and am also walking in the house without my stick. It’s very strange walking but hopefully it will improve. I am over 2 years post stroke though! It takes a long long time
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Good for you. Did you use a sarastedy to get to that point?
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I have been thinking back to when we were working on getting Mum to stand up and how we were trying to do it.
For us, the equipment was too big for Mum - being petite, she needs child sized equipment. All her equipment is oversized including the riser recliner. Her wheelchair is the only thing that is actually the right size for her and I seem to recall it had to be specially sourced.
Wrt the Sara Stedy, as I recall, the physio had a support belt but again with Mum having a PEG tube the positioning of the belt was problematic.
EMG - Are you using a belt to support your Mum as she tries to stand up?
Is she able to reach the Sara stedy cross bar? If not, can she grab the side bar to pull herself forward?
How close can you position the Sara Stedy i.e. can your Mum reach it comfortably without having to over stretch?
I am not sure if your Mum has successfully used the Sara Stedy before she regressed due to hoist following pain in her strong arm.
If she has successfully used it and it is a confidence thing, maybe you can reassure her she will be safe and you will support her?
Or perhaps the pain is still there and she’s not letting on but doesn’t want to aggravate it by pulling herself forward.
Many questions, but just the one new piece of kit - the belt. I guess your physio already uses this.
To finish with, the Sara Steady was meant to get Mum standing and bearing her weight on her feet/legs and to be transferred from bed to riser recliner etc.
To assist with the walking, we were given a walking frame, but as she never successfully stood she never took any steps with the walking frame either.
For some time now, we are working on building her strength so she can bear her own weight and then we hope to get her to hold onto the walking frame and take her first step post stroke.
Our DIY method is to get Mum to sit up perched on the riser recliner chair at full-tilt. In so doing, both feet are on the floor and her bottom is resting on the seat of her chair. On occasions, she has managed to push herself up using her leg/thigh muscles and “fallen to rest on my shoulders”. This is like when we hug - I am hugging Mum and she has her arms around my shoulders. She tolerated this for up to five minutes. But as always things happen, and the routine gets interrupted and we take the proverbial steps backward.
As Mum seems in the main positive and willing to engage expect when she is tired, we keep trying and we keep inching forward.
That’s all I have for now.
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I think what @ManjiB is referring to works something like this in the youtube link:
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Thanks Lorriane - If I remember rightly, it was like a weight lifters belt (gait belt). Thinking about it, I am sure the physio will already have this covered - it was just me thinking out loud 
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