My wife slumps towards the right in her chair. How can I stop that?

Thanks Bronish, and everyone, for your help!

I hope you all had a great Easter!
Update on leaning situation:

The carpenter tried many things today: gave it his all.

But...not easy.

Conclusion:
--Other people might have an easier time solving this issue, so please don't take my experience as something you must follow.
--My wife really wants to stay seated at her desk.
--For this reason, all solutions are being geared towards that.
--In the future, she will sit in her lift recliner, away from the desk.
--But for now, since she'll stay at her desk: the carpenter tried again shaping a vertical wooden board, to be attached to the chair, with a hole below for her arm to move freely; it did keep my wife upright, but it was very uncomfortable.
--The brace idea was tried again; but uncomfortable.

Final conclusion:
--We'll continue using the current chair. We've added comfortable cushions. She feels good. She still leans, but she prefers this, to any other thing we tried.
--And as said, in the future, when she can't sit at her desk anymore, she'll move to the recliner.

So it ends well. (Thanks also to people who suggested special chairs, special cushions; we'll continue trying that out too!)

David

HI David!
I'm just an ex-caregiver, but I come to this forum regularly to learn from all you wonderful people out there.
I just wanted to tell you I laughed suddenly when you said this could be a joke, about the carpenter, seamstress and PT!
Someone needs to finish this great funny potential joke here!
Happy Easter/Resurrection Day tomorrow to you, Mary and everyone else here. God be with you both! And, to all, Shalom! 💜🕊💜

Ask her primary care doctor for an OT eval. This is part of their scope of practice to assist and help solve everyday problems. Its certainly worth a try and should be covered by her insurance.

Good Luck!

Try these suggestions:
1. Put a thin vest … like a safety vest on her with opening in the back, and use a gait belt looped thru the back of the vest secured to the back of the chair so she won’t lean. Almost like locking a crossbody seatbelt behind her.

2. lateral body support for wheelchair can probably work on a

https://www.vitalitymedical.com/skil-care-706055-adjustable-lateral-body-support.html

Update.
All of you - thank you for your help. We continue to try different solutions.

Latest solution:

Negative (what didn't work):
-Belt/velcro: uncomfortable, feels like a straightjacket
-Back brace: can be painful after some hours

Positive (what might work):
-The carpenter today built a vertical board, to be placed on the right side of the chair, with a hole/empty space in the bottom, so that my wife can easily move her right elbow/arm. The top part of the board will have en elongated horizontal thing that sticks out, so that my wife can lean her head against this, and in this way, her body doesn't lean to the right, while at the same time she can freely use her right arm. He returns next week to experiment some more.
-Some of you mentioned other types of chairs, cushions; we're looking into it.

Happy Easter everyone!

Boy, I'm having a hard time participating in discussions here -- don't even know how to send a private message. Anyway, to follow up on my reply: A lot of us have actual spirit levels. They have the liquid bubble in the middle. However, there are lots of free apps for phones and tablets that provide a visual spirit level. Since Sacks theorized that awareness of the slumping was key for the Parkinson's patient, I wonder if your wife might be able to use the app to set herself up straight. Sacks videotaped Parkinson's patients to show them how they were off balance with some success.

Ask her doctor for referrals to physical therapy and occupational therapy. The therapists will do evaluations of her abilities and needs. They can make recommendations of chairs and medical equipment aids that can help with her issues. They can also make recommendations of medical aids to help in the future as her abilities decline. Physical therapy can also recommend exercises and treatments to help strengthen her core muscles and stretch those that cause her to lean.

With Parkinson's patients, I believe it is called 'listing'. My husband had it and the physical therapist a Veteran's Hospital helped him partially overcome it - so it was not so severe.

Perhaps a physical / occupational therapist that specializes in Parkinson's or neurological issues could be of assistance.

Wishing you both the best.

In the nursing home we used a pillow folded in half under pt's forearm, and between thigh & arm rest of chair. On the side they lean towards. So it forms a shelf they can rest their arm on. Put the ends of pillow down towards the seat. And push it in between her outside of her thigh and chair arm. Be careful bc skin can sheer, so no ramming it in there with your hand. We used our hand outstretched fingers together and tucked it in. Should be quite comfortable. It works. Good luck.

david1950: Perhaps your wife can wear some type of back brace.

Have you ever heard of Moonpods? They are an updated version of bean bag furniture, but hear me out....

They call Moonpods (and Yogibos, another brand of the same thing) "anti-gravity" since the new style beads conform to your body as you kind of sink in.

I bought a Moonpod crescent pillow. It's big, and shaped like a crescent of course. I bought it to see if it'd help with pain in hips and spine in bed.

1) In bed, it make me feel like I was floating, and with far less pain.
2) I couldn't sit anymore on the couch or loveseat as it was too deep and I also needed arm support. When I lay the Moonpod crescent on the furniture with the closed end against the back of the furniture, it shortens the depth and allows my arms to be supported (by the crescent's arms).

The beads allow you to push into them shift a position, like to lower your arm or elbow (or head)--you've noted that other things you've tried prevents her from moving her arm.

Since you have a brainstorming carpenter on your team, maybe you two can peek at Moonpods (or Yogibos) online to see if one of their styles could be worked with for her chair(s). (They don't just sell crescent-shaped pods.)

I don't know much about Parkinson's but coincidentally, I was re-reading "The Last Interview of Oliver Sacks" today and in a conversation with Charlie Rose, I think, he discussed a patient with this exact problem. The patient was a carpenter and a good problem solver. He asked Sacks if a spirit level could be rigged up for him - a tool evidently used in carpentry. According to Sacks, it worked for the patient, although I'm not sure of specifics. They postulated that the part of the brain which controls balance perception was damaged frequently in PD patients. I'll bet there is some information somewhere on the Internet about an adaptive device.

By the way, Oliver Sacks was a very famous neurologist and a wonderful writer.

Are there any back or torso braces that are used by physically disabled that would work for your wife? Some sort of "body brace" that would keep her more vertical.

Does she have a good sturdy chair with arms that is protective? That should be the first step. Have you tried propping her up with bolsters and stiff cushions on the side that she leans to?

Update:

The carpenter, seamstress and PT came.

Many ideas are being tried out; drawings. I’ll let you know. This will take some days.

THANK YOU.

Sounds like you are getting some good suggestions. The only thing I can see is a chair with wings that extend down the sides. Seems to be a common problem. I looked at chairs they claim are for those suffering from Parkinsons but I see nothing where the tilting is being taken in consideration.

I did want to comment on walkers. A neighbor's wife suffered from Parkinsons. He told me when Parkinsons people fall they fall backward not forward. His wife had a walker designed to help with this problem. Had something to do with the way it was weighted in the front. Just giving u a heads up if you weren't aware of this.

If your wife is willing to give a try to doing her activities while in her lift chair, what I was referencing earlier is not the smaller swing out table on the chair but a larger one on wheels, of the type they use in hospitals. The work surfaces on some of these tables is generous, e.g., 15X30. There are a lot on amazon and elsewhere, including ones that are designed to work with recliners. We had a plain vanilla one, and then tried a more expensive one that supposedly works with a lift chair. However, my husband forgot to swing the table away when he lifted the chair so ended up busting the table top within a couple of days! the key word to use when searching is "overbed table" or sometimes "laptop table"

Thanks a lot, to all of you! Very kind, very useful.

The carpenter comes today. But we need some days to try things out. I’ll let you know how it works out. Our hope is that the velcro/belt idea works (the carpenter had suggested this right away). And I see many of you suggesting this. THANK YOU.

David I looked at your link (about the longest one I have ever seen). The belts (particularly the $19.99 one) look good to attach to Mary (strongly and with comfort), but they aren’t any good to attach Mary to the chair to anchor the leaning problem. Perhaps you can attach a chair strap to one of these?

Does Mary know anyone who is sewing crafty? It’s the sort of thing that some sewing buddies would love to help with, including Barb's sewing suggestion.

PS you should be able to take the little table off the recliner, so that it will go up to the desk.

David, I googled "velcro vest".

There seemed to be a lot of hits for restraint kinds of things, which you can use at home.

You could also try buying a couple of yards of neoprene and some heavy duty velcro. This could be fashioned into a front opening/closing vest that could go around both the chair and your wife.

I checked Barb’s very helpful links. The chair looks great, but I have doubts about the vest. I was thinking about an easy experiment you could make (possibly with the help of someone who can sew or even staple). Get two of the common stiff double-ended oven mitts, stitch them together so you have one long one, and then stitch velcro to the ends. The idea is to make a long wide band going behind the chair and crossing at Mary’s front to hold her to the chair. She can rip the velcro to get out, and perhaps hang the device on the back of the chair when she’s not using it.

More ideas can perhaps add even more options!

https://www.seatingseniors.com/pages/parkinsons-and-mealtimes

This is a chair that swivels, rolls and can be locked in place. It's heavier, so may not tip as easily.

It seems like bracing your wife to the chair (perhaps with a velcro vest arrangement?) might be worth a try.

Maybe something like this:

https://www.vitalitymedical.com/posey-torso-support.html

I think a heavy chair will be essential, or Mary’s weight will pull the chair over. It can be wheeled, to make it easy to pull up to the desk. Perhaps you could then think about attaching Mary to the chair. I often wear a brace (for scoliosis), which straps very tightly around my rib cage. You can get them on Ebay, about $30 from Latvia. I think something like it would be strong enough to attach to the chair, with a buckle at the front that Mary could do or undo herself.

Another option might be to attach the heavy chair to the desk, so the attachment anchors it rather than Mary holding on. The chair would then need to swivel so she can seat herself. The recliner sounds like a good start.

My DH is an engineer who at one time in his career worked making customised devices like this for people with disabilities. Many places have similar businesses or charities, often with semi-volunteer engineers and tradesman. I am quite sure that my DH could do this, or advise, but it would be a better idea to search for an agency like this that you could access in the USA. I have a sister (also Mary) in a wheelchair, and she visits our local ‘Independent Living Centre’ when she needs equipment advice like this.

If you wish, post or message with how you get on, and I’ll ask DH for ideas. Yours, Margaret

I'm interested i this discussion becasue my husband with Parkinsons also leans, in his case to the left. This is the side that is most affected by his Parkinsons. His lean isn't too bad, and he's almost always in his lift recliner which can't tip over. But I can see it would be more of a problem if he were regularly sitting at a table or desk. If your wife would use a heavy recliner to sit in, you could get a table (like a hospital table) which could go across in front of her and she could have her computer on there, draw, read the paper, etc.; and you could more easily put wedges or pillows next to her to prop her up on this kind of chair.

Ask about a tilt in space wheelchair with lateral supports as well as a headrest and ROHO seat cushion. If a table (like one of these)

https://www.amazon.com/overbed-tilt-table/s?k=overbed+tilt+table

is placed over the chair while it is slightly tilted back I think she should be able to use her hands to manipulate things on the table top. Unless she is leaning due to muscle spasms being slightly reclined would tend to shift her centre of gravity backward rather than sideways, the lateral supports and perhaps a 5 point harness should help as well.can

Parkinson's may start of one side and then move to the other side too. However, symptoms might be more prominent on una side. Nothing can be done medically to the patient about that. It's something she has to learn to live with. Only solution is to build a specially designed chair for her. I think you're already doing that.

I would consider a wheel chair simply because of it's sides. Only problem is that many are not as tall at the seat as other chairs. Then a sort feather filled pillow on the right side, sometimes best placed under right armpit. You really can't afford the falls as eventually you will be dealing with broken bones and all of the outcomes from that. I would stop by a Physical Therapy department and discuss with them as well. You might ask your doctor for a one time referral for an hour to discuss with them this and any other problems. Good luck and hope you will update if you find something that works well for you, as that will be a help to others.

There are wedges you can get that will prop her in the right direction.
My Husband had a Broda Chair and that had "wings" on the side that made it easier to put a wedge where it needed to be.
The other thing you can try is reclining the chair a bit. (If it is a wheelchair that reclines)
Also this in your house you can do what you need to do that means if you would like to use a belt or other "restraint" that will keep her upright you can do so.

Both of my parents did this exact thing (neither one had Parkinsons) and no solution was found for either one of them. An oblong pillow was stuffed under mom's arm while in her wheelchair and that provided a TINY bit of help, but not much. Her doctors, physical therapist, occupational therapist & finally her hospice nurse never were able to find one single solution to the slumping over problem she suffered from. You'd really think, in this day and age, SOMETHING would be found to alleviate this problem that many seem to suffer from, huh?

I'm sorry Mary is going through such a thing and I hope your carpenter comes up with an answer. If so, please come back & share it with us here on AgingCare. Good luck!