`More Wheelchair Challenges

Once again I am embroiled with my durable medical provider in a battle to fix my power chair. I have never been so stranded in my power chair as I have been this year. Last week as I was traversing to and from my appointments in my power chair I have been stuck at least four times in snow and ice. I have been stuck at curb cuts where snowplows and dumped quantities of snow which has turned to ice making their use and possible to wheelchair users such as myself.

Last week while coming home from my Wellness workout I was trying to navigate down the strip of sidewalk by the local 711 where I catch my bus. The snow had not  been shoveled from this strip of sidewalk and in the late afternoon slush and ice I became stuck. I sat there waving my arms trying to rock my chair back and forth in an effort to free myself from the freezing slickness. While I was rocking the proprietor of the 711 came out and tried to free me and at the same time Two or three people stopped and also entered into the challenge. It was a major struggle to free me from the ice. Two guys on the back of the chair and one person on the front pushing and finally I was freed. I  left the sidewalk and got back on the street which had been freed of snow and ice and was able to get home. It was only then, at home, I realized there was something wrong with my chair when I tried to tilt in place that the seat was pulling  to the left. I knew immediately one of the tiltiing arms of the seat mechanism had snapped. Obviously the break happened while the good Samaritans were yanking and pulling my chair in the ice flow. I don't know what else I could have done at that moment. The damage is done and all I can do now is make arrangements to drop my chair off at the wheelchair shop and start the process. It has been nearly a week now and I spoke to my technician today and they really have not done any work on the repair waiting for me to get them the authorization to contact my insurance provider to see if the work recovered. Of course this will take time and I just have to accept that and I have. Luckily, if I don't tilt in place I should be okay. This will be a challenge but at least I will have transportation in my chair and I can make some of mine usual appointments. So far I've missed a couple of wellness workouts and my Monday volunteer experience at 211. I have to admit the stress of a broken chair is not nearly as bad in retirement as in worktime.

Now, the second challenge is trying to bring my new manual chair into some sort of usable condition. This chair, this new chair, has been a major thorn in my side. The wheels will not stay on, the chair is really too long for me to use in my lifestyle and the cushion is to large for me to independently transfer onto. I am now in the process of contacting my primary therapist and the durable medical rep to set up a meeting to see if we can figure out a way to make this chair usable to me. The major problem of this new chair is that I have to use my insurance to make the purchase and I only get so many chairs in the five-year period. I cannot order another at this point in time so I need to make this other manual chair work. I foresee problems on the horizon. I'm cool I can survive this I just hope my butt can.