My power chair, a Quantum 6000 Z died
last week, I mean really died stopped functioning altogether. I knew
that was coming, the Quantum has been acting funny last couple
months. I don't know if it was the controller or bad batteries are
whatever but the chair finally died. I've been hoping to nurse the
machine for another month or two since we ordered a new Quantum a few
months ago. Actually, we started the process years ago well a year
and a half at least and for one reason or another the machine never
got ordered which is a bit of a pisser. So hopefully the new chair
should arrive by the middle of June at least that's what the sales
guy says, I'll believe that when I see it. So In the interim we
purchased a powerchair from a state-funded program called Create
which takes used chairs fixes them up or checks them out make sure
there were thing then sells them to the public at a significantly
reduced price in this case $250 which is a deal. I was hoping to have
the chair for the holiday weekend but it just did not work out that
way. I have been pushing one of my two manual chairs the past week
and that has been a real challenge. I am hoping to pick up the chair
tomorrow at some point and hopefully I can use this chair till the
new chair arrives. I'm trying to look on the bright side in that yes
I will have two chairs that should be a relative quality sort of one
of the chairs goes down I will have a backup chair. The problem is
the chair I'm getting is very similar to the chair which died which
means it will take alot of space in my house so I'll probably have to
store the chair in the garage where it'll take up space there and
begin to deteriorate at least the batteries will.
I had a love-hate relationship with the
Quantum 6000. The best part about the chair was that it would travel
at 8 miles an hour which does not seem very fast but for me it was
incredibly fast. Most of the chairs out there average about 5 mph the
extra 3 mph makes all the difference. I was working then and had to
cover a lot of distance to go for my home to the train station. The
Quantum had some issues, for instance , I had a tilt back feature on
the chair which actually laid me back taking massive weight off my
butt which is been very helpful. But from the beginning the chair all
in the back position would intermittently stop working it took me a
couple months a lot of terror to figure out what to do in those
situations. I took the chair in a number of times but no one can ever
figure it out. I never could really get cushion in the chair that
would really protect my butt which vexed me the entire time I owned
the chair. There are a bunch of other little things the chair
challenged me with but all of all the chair never really failed me. I
had the technician take an image off the controller box that showed
the last mileage of the chair 4747 that's right almost 5000 miles. I
did those miles in five years so it was time for it to go I hope the
chair enjoys its rest . Initially the idea was I would take my chair
to this program and they would go through and rehabilitate the chair
however when we got there the guy offered a us a chair that was much
the same, nearly new and could be ready in a couple days, supposedly.
So today I am counting on getting that
chair I have things to do, places to go and people to see. I'm such a
pessimist that I just know somethings going to go wrong either in
getting the chair are when I'm out driving in it because as the way
things go… Or maybe just maybe I'll hit a home run touch all the
bases and score!
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