Half Way

I'm halfway there. Where ever “there” is. It was last week and I was out cruising around in my power chair when for one reason or another I glanced down at the odometer and saw that it was standing exactly at 2600. 2600 that's miles I put on this chair since I got it a couple of years ago.

I was so disappointed when I got this chair. I really expected so much more when I sat down with my physical therapist at the time. I actually was still taking my physical therapy/medical services from the University of Utah. Sadly, I cannot remember my physical therapists name though I totally believed in her. She seemed to me to do everything right, she was your hip totally cool, feminist/gay professional. I will call her Sandy for now, but I remember sitting down with Sandy and the marketing rep for the durable medical operation I was purchasing my chair from and going over what I wanted and what I needed in my power chair and what my insurance would cover. The covered a lot of stuff that day and I really thought I put my foot down on a lot of stuff that I didn't want. I wanted power chair that would go 8 miles an hour as fast as the chair that I was giving up. I'd pretty much worn the guts out of my chair it was time for something new. There is also the problem of keeping my feet on the foot pedals of the chair. I didn't realize it at the time but the problem I was having was not necessarily my foot pedals is much as it was the stenosis I didn't realize that was occurring. It seemed my legs) more and more spastic. Sandy and mind durable medical guy started talking over my head like I wasn't there. They talked about a “foot box” in the maybe even showed me a picture and all I can see was what looked like a giant front loader on the front of a power chair. I did everything that yell that I didn't want this device and I really thought I'd made my thoughts known.

A month or two later I was notified that my my new chair was in and I needed to come and pick it up at the hospital as well as to have my physical therapist and durable medical person finish fitting the chair to my body. I still remember rolling into the rehab unit at the University medical Center in seeing this power chair with everything that I did not want on it especially the “front and loader”. I wasn't going to take it was good to leave it there but in the end I caved. I think the chair sat in my living room a week before I started using the chair. Not only was the “front loader” offensive but the charitably go 6 miles an hour. I had to get special authorization and justification to get the extra 2 miles an hour from the chair which I would love to have had but was not to be especially sense I was no longer working. I think now I've almost had the chair possibly three years and I've grown to really quite enjoy the product. However, the chairs making very strange noises grinding noises when I lay my chair back are bring it back up to a sitting position. I've grown to totally love the “front end loader” even after my stenosis operations I need to have the foot boxes on my chair to keep my feet on the chair especially when I transfer from my bed to the chair in the mornings getting up. I like the boxes so much that I found a pair of use boxes over at UCAT/create which I'm having installed on my back up chair when I can. I'm so excited to have a back up chair that really will be usable when I need it. Quite frankly I don't know if my current chair will last another two years. The image on the posting today is the picture of the 2600 miles on my odometer. The last picture like this I posted is when I let go of the other chair and it read 5000!