Max's lift...

I think for some, it might be difficult to envision what Max's new lift looks like.  So, I thought I should put a post together showing you just how it works! Since having it for a month now, I can tell you I honestly don't know how we lifted and carried him for so long!  Two weeks ago he was 98.5 pounds, and I could barely move him to the table in the doctor's office by myself.  

We have definitely been putting the lift to great use, and Max loves riding on it.  It is all around a better transferring experience for him.  

The lift itself was crafted by a couple of friends of Max.  They heard we needed a lift to move our growing boy and wanted to help out.  Dave and Jeremy are welders and metal fabricators, and came up with the design and plan for his lift.  We already had the Guardian Voyager lift from when we got the bathroom lift that only moved him from the floor to the bathtub, so we used that with the new track system.  

If you remember from the last post, Dave and Jeremy would come after work and make sparks fly late into the night getting the lift all ready for Max.  It turned out to be just what we needed for Max! 

The first part of these photos are for our friends who need now, or will need a lift system in their house for their kids.  At the end, I'll post photos and videos of Max in it.  

The end of the track, directly over Max's chair.

This is the trolly piece that moves the lift along in the track. 

The voyager motor lift hooks into the trolly.

This is the view from Max's chair, down the hallway.  

This is where it makes a turn into Max's bedroom.

They made a custom door that the track fit up into and the door closes under. 

Inside Max's room, the lift is bright yellow!

Once in the room, this junction decides which way he goes.  He can either go to the right and go to bed, or go left and go to the shower room. 

Left takes him down the hallway into the shower room. 

The track ends at the middle of the shower room. 

This is the end of the track over his bed.  

So, now that you've seen the make up of the track, here are some photos of us using it.  Max is a blur in a lot of these photos because he's always so excited to get to go on a ride!

He's ready to go on a walk and telling me about it!

Anymore he just looks at his lift to tell us he wants picked up, moved, or to go to bed or on a walk. 

We can lower it all the way down to the ground, but here we only need to get to his chair. 

I put his wheelchair next to his recliner and pick him up from one chair and put him into the other.

Here he is being lifted up...


And back down into his chair...

Now he's all ready for his walk!

You know Steve was going to find more uses for the lift than just up and down.  In comes the hammock. He went straight up from his chair into the hammock for a snooze and a swing. 

Here I am moving him to bed.  Commentary thanks to his nurse...I think she's saying something about a Yeti. 

And another use of the lift...SWINGING!  George is not a fan of Max swinging.  

Daddy and Sissy love to play this zoom game with him.  This was his first ride on the lift!

We all expected it to be easier to move him once we got the lift.  Steve's back and shoulder are already feeling much, much better from the injuries he gathered lifting Max.  Max feels safe and has fun riding in his lift.  His nurses are able to move him to bed without us, which means we can get out, and stay out past bedtime.  The one thing none of us thought about, has ended up being one of the biggest perks of having the lift.  We can hold him again.  

Every day when he wakes up, we "carry" him into his chair with ease.  It's something we haven't been able to do since he was so much smaller.  We give him cuddles and rock him gently back and forth. 

Dad-Dad cuddles.

Never too big for a Momma's cuddles...we just get new tricks to hold him. 

Max will ask us now to hold him.  We lift him up and either rock him in his sling, or lower him to just above our laps, letting the lift hold the weight of him while we give him cuddles.  Everyone loves being able to wrap their arms around him again.  

So that's it.  Let me know if you have any questions about the lift, or if you want to see some other vantage of it.  Every day we stop and voice how grateful we are to all of you for giving us this gift for Max.  It has made such a difference in his life.