Now You See Me, Now You Don't!

Well....I was finally approved by Medicare for a new power chair! Yippee!!!!!! Can you tell I'm very excited? I am! My wheelchair providers and I have been working for the past year and a half to fulfill all of Medicare's requirements for eligibility. I am more than qualified to fit the requirements for getting an electric wheelchair but it had to be proven. So, the physical therapist had to write a detailed report of my physical condition and the severity of my handicap. In reading her report I was a little surprised to learn that my physical condition was so bad. But that is because I have always concentrated on the things I can do, not on what I can't do. Also, she had to write her report pretty descriptive so that Medicare could realize my need for a wheelchair. My new power chair is going to have a molded seating system (just like my manual chair) with a ball shaped joystick and tilt-in-space with a button I can push to make the chair recline. We went to the wheelchair place last week so that they could fit me for a new molded seat. I thought I might have to them put a soft spot in the back on the right side where my spine bulges out from my scoliosis. That, fortunately, turned not to be the case! What was happening is that when I sit I sometimes push off with my left leg to give myself a boost up when I feel like I'm sliding down too far in the chair. When I pushed off with my left leg that caused my body to twist to the right and then I would put pressure on the hump in my spine. As a result of this pressure, I would get a shooting pain like a knife stabbing in the back. And, I'd have to lie down to relieve the pressure. Turns out the back was out of line and the right side of the back wasn't in its proper place. We didn't realize that though, and I thought my back had worsened in the last year so I would have to have a whole new mold done. But they tweaked the back for me, got it aligned properly, and now it's WONDERFUL!!! It feels like it does when I first got the chair. I remember being able to sit up for like 3 to 4 hours in my chair when I first got it. Then sometime last year it got out of line and my sitting time got shorter. Funny how those things happen and you don't realize something is wrong with the chair, only with me. But wheelchairs are like cars for the handicapped; they need tuneups once in a while. Anyway, it should take about 4 weeks to get the molded seating made and then I will go back to test drive the chair. The fun part is the chair can go 6.5 mph which is darn fast for power chairs! I might be able to keep up with my brother when he runs. That would be cool!!! Wait till the people in our community here see me riding in it - they won't be able to keep their eyes on me because I will race by so fast! lol! They think I'm a speed demon now with my 5 mph chair of 18 years, which is now an antique.