I Need Another Nap!!!

I am just exhausted, my muscles hurt and I just want to lay my head down on my desk and sleep or an hour or so. I did not go into the office as I normally do, this morning. My goal today is to get some form of mobility device which I can use until I can order my new chair which will be 120 days at the earliest. I think, because its me the time till I get my chair much longer. When I was at the Independent Living Center last Thursday I noticed there was a Jazzy 1121, a power chair I thought I could live with if the Center would let me check it out for a couple of months.

I called the Center a little after 8:00 am this morning and asked to speak with their A.T.(Assistive Technology)coordinator, Janice. Janice and I go back quite a ways so I figured it would be a pretty straight forward project but Janice directed me to the new guy who was handling the equipment loan program. I got hold of the new guy and he basically said the chair was there but he had not checked the chair out yet and the final word would be Kim, my best friend’s who associate director of the Independents Living Center. I figured I would go head shower and dress and drive on down to the ILC and by the time I got there Kim would be in.

I have to admit I was a bit intimating. It has been a long while

since I really pushed my manual chair on the outside—out in real public, transferring in and out of my Quickie even just rolling down my ramp can be terrifying knowing that if one my front casters hits a crack the wrong way I could go flying out of my chair. But if I am going to get myself back to being in the game I am going to just have to be careful but keep moving forward. I opened the door and found snow blowing sideways to my front door.. I took a deep breath and rolled down my ramp. The night had been warm temperatures in the mid 30’s—the ice was melting so at least there was not the ice flows which have been on the ramp of late. I wish I had spent more time this weekend on snow removal. Oh yeah, I did not have a chair to use. I have forgotten how hard it is to push my wheelchair in the snow. It’s damn hard. I got stuck, took me for ever to get to the lift and then to get on the lift and then to raise it up because I was so unsteady. Eventually though I was in th van and driving to the IL.

I was pleased and surprised at how well project of getting the loaner . Kim was GREAT!! Kim adjusted here and lengthened there and soon I was ready to go. I drove myself over to Magic Rest, where Saturday the tech said if I were to get this chair they would change my old seat from the dead chair to the loaner plus my new puncture proof wheels… Everything worked—just the way it should—so rare in my experience. The loaner is not as fast as I would like and I am not as comfortable as I would like but I can make it and I well make it. Now I just have to put the pressure on Randy and on to the new chair!!!