I seem to be slowly climbing out of the muck that is woe is me and selfishly thought it might help me if I share a few early wheelchair experiences in hopes it might help someone even newer at this "View From Two" than I am. These are purely observations from my experience. Simple things that wheelchair pros may deem too benign to even mention. So, this post isn't a how too but rather a this is what happened to me.
Unless you were a young genius when you bought your house not a single thought of A.D.A. compliance crossed your mind nor did you look at the front porch and say to yourself "boy those stairs would be tough for a person in a wheelchair." I look at the stairs in my home and I immediately think of...
If you have stairs you will need a ramp or a huge bank account. Until my best friend came over and installed a ramp
we used a medical transport company to get to my appointments. Quite handy, they would come get me down the stairs haul me off to my appointment and charge $150.00 a trip. Not a penny of which was covered by insurance. That would have been over $2K just during radiation. I can't afford that.
As you can see this ramp has a non-skid surface. Remember, if you are in my situation, you can't feel anything below your waist. Your feet are below your waist. So, as you unknowingly have a foot trapped under your chair while going across a non skid surface your foot may end up looking like this;
While not painful, no feeling remember, they are bad enough to be concave wounds and wounds do open your world to infection. Not good to fight an infection while you are fighting the Effing Evil Empire. Wear shoes.
Transferring from the wheelchair to various places can be a challenge. It took almost a month for us to get the transfer from the chair to the pick up to be something less than a Laurel and Hardy comedy. In the house though there are a few things the wheelchairer will need.
My insurance supplied a dinosaur of a wheelchair. I quickly learned, as did my caregiver, that the wheelchair itself can damage you. Especially the dinosaur versions as they have pinch
points that will get you at the most irritating moments.
You'll also need some things to help you make transfers. Especially two very important places, your toilet and shower.
A riser for your toilet
A shower bench
Unless you want to hassle with your chair and transfer every time you have to pee [if you have prostate cancer then peeing is a seemingly endless proposition] you'll need some portable urinals. Don't get tricked by the glow in the dark urinals only the lid glows in the dark. The lid you rip off and throw away first thing.
You might want to add some rails to help with your transfers.
A grabber for all the things out of reach which is everything
However, if you drop things and you will, you can teach your puppy to pick them up and bring them to you. Connor, pictured below, even brings in the mail.
Make sure you get a decent pair of gloves they will save your hands especially when braking on slopes.
What I don't have a pic of is patience and frustration. If you wake up one morning and suddenly need a wheelchair everything, every move you took for granted is now a challenge and an adventure. This goes for you caregiver too. If your caregiver is your spouse she gets it doubly hard. Don't think that she isn't frustrated, scared, and trying desperately for patience. Make sure you tell her you appreciate everything she does and you must realize that she didn't plan on this phase of her marriage to be such a health nightmare. Being a paraplegic is as tough on your caregiver as it is on you. Try not to forget that. Sadly sometimes I do.
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