Rehab: Hospital, Jail, Insane Asylum, 13

         Equipment Part 2.

         One does get inundated with equipment. and the was hardly the end of it. I had been sent a transport wheelchair several months ago. It doesn't have the big wheel you can turn with your hands. You have to propel it with your feet, or have someone push you. The brakes are in back, so you pretty much want to be pushed. My daughter did the honors when I went to the doctor's to get my drugs updated a couple weeks ago.  

     That was an adventure. First of all, I didn't reattach the leg guides, so I came near to breaking my ankles at times when I drug my feet. Then because of the coronavirus, you couldn't just go into the doctor office.  You had to call in from the parking lot and then they called back when you could enter. My daughter pushed me up the ramp to the door, but she couldn't come inside with me. My nurse practitioner greeted me just in the waiting room, then took me to a little table, took my temperature and had me wash my hands in a disinfectant, then she rolled me back to hr examination cubicle. We were both wearing masks. How the world has changed.  Afterward she pushed me to my daughters car.

        I have a bigger wheelchair that rehab sent me home with, a brand new one. It is 18 inches across, which allows me easier maneuverability through the house. It wlao has the large wheel that allow me to steer it myself and brakes on the front.

     This like the wheelchairs we had at the facility, except they were wider, and also wider and more worn. This was the wheelchair that tilted over backward and dropped me on my head.

      I was also sent a power chair, which I haven't used. The battery is dead and I haven't figured out how to charge it. No Directions came with it.  I wanted to send it back, but was advised to hold on to it for possible future use

I get about the house using the transport wheelchair or my walker. I was using my wife's walker we bought when she had a knee replaced, but I have since bought my own. I brought a walker tray, but it as too short to fit on my wife's walker.  My walker is a bit narrower, but the tray fits.

With all rhese wheelchairs and walkers, we had to have a way out of this house. With the help of the ALS foundation, a nice metal Amramp, ramp for installed from my driveway to the front door.

This was a real help to me.

     I also have what is called a rollator,  whlch I used briefly on my walks, when I could walk, but it scared me. It was  like riding a roller coaster. It was very slow going up hill, but it took off with you on a downgrade.  I took a nice spill with it.

     The only advantage to the rollator  was it had a built-in seat in case you got fatigued and needed to sit down to rest.  Frankly, I preferred my walking stick in those times. Much more reliable.

     I still have the walking stick. It was a gift from my parents on our 25th wedding anniversary. That makes it 34 years old now. I'd have them bury me with it, except I donated my body to Thomas Jefferson ALS Research center. 

     Other things I have include a lift chair. Lois wanted to get one and I resisted, but I have glad she insisted now. It gets me on my feet.

The one Physical Therapist made me train on their lift chair, which I thought was overkill, since I had one at home and knew how to operate it.  The Rehab's life chair, was beat up. I didn't want to get up one I got into it.  It had a vibrator (that they could no longer turn off) Boy, it felt really good. My chair does't have a vibrtor. I had tried a chair at the store that had both a vibrator and heat, but I was too tall to fit the chair when reclined, so I settled for the chair I have.

     I also have a Phillips Trilogy machine, basically a form of ventilator. I can put the mask on at night and the machine produces oxygen and helps my breathing.