Choosing a Vehicle for Special People (like Me) with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

Driving a rental PT Cruiser last week helped me appreciate my 1999 Chrysler Town and Country Limited. One of the world's foremost experts on Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Nazli McDonnell, has stated that one of the worst things for EDSers is driving. I haven't had any problems with driving at all when driving my minivan. The various considerations for us mutants include:

Door handles: I like loop handles that you pull out using your whole hand instead of push buttons for your thumb to disengage the door latch. My thumbs bend backward when I use them for pushing, so it takes more force--and it can hurt. And with the lever kind of door handle that you pull up with your fingertips, I again have my fingertips bend back. My minivan has the loop handles. Yay!

Seat at just the right height: If you have to stoop or squat or climb to get into the vehicle, that wears on the body. In my opinion, a seat where the top reaches the upper thigh a bit below the buttocks is optimum. You can easily slide into the seat butt-first without squatting. (My minivan is a little high for me, but not bad.) That leads us to:

Seat with the right material: Leather is the best. You can easily slide to the right position without friction burns. It isn't too hot or too cold. It wears well and cleans easily, which is good when you never know when a joint will go out and your drink or food or whatnot will spill. Vinyl patent-leather type stuff is slippery and also cleans well, but it is brittle in the cold and very hot in the heat, and it tears too easily or even breaks/cracks in the cold. Cloth is very high friction and doesn't clean well at all, but never gets too hot or too cold. My van has leather--yay!

Seat heaters: I scoffed and thought it was for rich people who are too lazy to put on a coat or who where weaklings in general. But when your hips or upper legs hurt, that heat feels so, so, so very good. Its like a portable hot pad for an aching butt. I have really come to appreciate this. :)

Adjustable electric seat: The more adjustable the better. I tilt the seat bottom up in front and down in back, and then recline the seat back. Just like a nice LaZBoy! It really offloads the weight from my pelvis to higher on my back, and my hips are my biggest weakness. The electric motor is important because moving a seat manually can be quite difficult for an EDSer with misbehaving fingers and hands, since there are very strong springs that push the whole seat back on most manual-adjust seats. The only downside for my minivan is that the head and neck rest is too far back for the way I like to sit, and it doesn't adjust. :( If I am in an accident, I will probably have whiplash more severely because of this. :( :(

Armrests in just the right place: I think you should be able to sit with your arms on the armrests and still hold the stearing wheel on the lower third. (With the advent of the driver-side airbag, you are no longer supposed to hold the wheel above the 3 and 9 o'clock positions, since then your hands will be above the airbag if it deploys. You want your hands below the airbag if at all possible.) If you aren't exerting the upper body to hold up your arms, then it is much easier on your body. Your shoulders will be in a more neutral position, and shoulders are the most commonly damaged major joint in EDS. The right-side arm rest on my mini-van is in just the right spot, but the left one is on the door and too far away. If I were a lot fatter, it might work. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

A soft steering wheel: I have put on real lambswool steering wheel cover. So soft and comfy! It stays cool in the summer sun and warmer in the winter. And it is easier to grip the thicker wheel. One EDSer recommends a stearing wheel spinner, which are available at JC Whitney and similar auto-modification retailers. I need to buy one to try it out, but that sounds promising.

Cruise control: Cruise control is so helpful even if you don't have EDS! If your foot itches or your leg cramps, you can still keep on driving, and there is less force exerted and thus less wear and tear.

Electric windows, remote door locks, etc.: More savings on wear and tear on joints. Trying to lock or unlock every door in the car manually from the driver's seat is so difficult. My finger joints are so unpredictable, that actually getting a key into a lock takes me twice as long as others. Manual stick shift versus an automatic is a little more tricky. With a luxury vehicle, shifting is so easy that it takes very little physical effort, while economy cars are usually very hard to shift. When you have to apply all of your force and body weight to the clutch to try to get it to engage, it is the worst thing for us EDSers...and that is my husband's current car. I hate that!

Mirrors without blind spots: Turning your neck to see if you can safely merge or turn is problematic for EDSers. Most of us have vertebrae that easily sublux (pop out of place--the opposite of what chiropractors do) and they tend to do that more when twisting the neck. In addition, many of us have had surgery to fuse the vertebrae together, and it is impossible to turn and look. Convex mirrors that stick on the normal mirrors can be helpful. I use an additional convex (wide angle) rearview mirror placed below the regular mirror to keep an eye on my kids and make sure that they aren't doing dangerous things like unbuckling their seatbelts or throwing food at each other.

The rental PT Cruiser did have 1 nice feature. On the rear gate, you can unlatch it with the slightest pressure to the latch area--it has an electric/electronic latch where you touch the handle like you are going to pull it up, wait a second, it unlatches, then lift up easily. Nifty!

So there you have the promised article. Any suggestions or creative ideas are welcome.