I had an epiphany this morning. This epiphany really shocked me but in a good way. I have had, surprisingly, good night sleeping almost 8 hours with only a couple of interruptions. This rarely happens. I usually wake long before dawn and drag myself out of bed in the morning darkness lit by the lamp over my bed. The process is I pulled my legs out from underneath the covers let them fall onto my power chair and then I reach into the trapeze above my bed swing myself into basically a controlled fall into my power chair. I wish I could say it was a beautiful transfer but usually the transfer is quite a mess and luckily I have a power chair which allows me to tilt back and slide my butt deeper into the chair and pull my legs under the footpads/petals. At this point I can tell chair back further really using gravity to slide myself much more square in my chair and less probable of falling out or sliding out. I do this every morning and I am so thankful I can do this. Many times I chuckle to myself at how independent I still am. Amazingly so.
A couple years ago as I was coming out of my second stenosis operation I was meeting a lot with my main physician a guy name Dave Riser. I think I like this guy but he also threatened me a lot not by direct threats by any means he was too sophisticated for that. I think it was his approach he was very direct in his thought process on his delivery of medicine and treatment. Dave Riser is a physiatrist, A really smart guy. At this time I was only using my more than I've ever had before. Before the first stenosis operation I use my power chair mainly to get back and forth to work. When I came home in the evenings I transferred into my manual chair and pushed the rest of the day. I liked it this way. I love the ability to push myself around the house and seriously I destroyed the house a lot less with the manual chair that the power chair but that's a whole other blog. But, following the second stenosis I was getting anxious to get back to using a manual chair and wanted to order a new manual chair. Dr. Riser really begin pushing me against using a manual chair indicating that to do so would be dangerous as far as my shoulders were to go. And true there were times of my shoulders did seem to grind a little bit but not enough to bother me I didn't think. Like I said Riser's comments threatened me. I couldn't believe he really believed what he was saying
Following my second stenosis and now I use my power chair totally. I am amazed at how well in constant my power chair has been for me. This morning as I transferred into my chair I had the epiphany, David Riser M.D. Was totally 100% correct in his comments. I totally understood him now. I'm 70 years old with a 70-year-old body – – maybe even older due to the trauma of my life – – and it's insane that I should be thinking about pushing myself in a manual chair where I can be 100% more functional in the power chair. The manual chair, if I were in, might make it a bit easier to dress in the mornings but I figured out how to lift my legs and cross them allowing me to put lotion on my feet and my lower legs and my clothes and shoes. My power chair and the ability to tilt back even lift the foot pedals Above my head allowing me to arch my back and drag my shorts up over my butt allows me to be independent and not have to be involved with other people when I don't need to. They were 100% correct. As much as I'd love to have a manual chair now to push around in a don't need to. It may cause more damage and harm than I need.
So Dave thanks. If you were around I would tell this to your face. I'm sorry that I doubted you…
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