This past week has been very busy with different kinds of activities. I'll start with one and may or may not get to the others.
Once again technology is my friend. My left arm is now having difficulty driving my wheelchair. We got attendant controls on the back but I like to do my own thing. So Monday we had an appointment with the physical therapist who is a "seating specialist" - bet you didn't even know there was such a thing! Accompanying me was my entourage, Dave and both caregivers, Cindy and Yuki. It was Cindy's day off but she had noticed some problems and asked to join us. The PT poked and prodded and checked my back and neck and made adjustments. Then the good part came...
The wheelchair representative brought a chair with foot controls for me to try. It was great fun! Before we could try it we had to take my bi-pap machine off the back of my chair and figure out some way for it to follow me in the other chair. The best solution was to rest it on a tall rolling office chair and have Dave follow along behind me. After a short bit of driving, the PT set up two chairs and asked me to do a figure-eight around them. I had no problem, unfortunately, Dave and the office chair didn't fare as well. After that they let me try a higher speed and then he really had some challenges. I was driving using my left foot and had to go forward, back, and sideways. This came easy for me thanks to my Bernina sewing machine. Because the machine has a knee lever for the right knee, they recommend using your left foot for the foot pedal so I was ready to go "south paw" style.
There was one additional complication. The technology is great but because I'm turning 65 in November I am now on Medicare. So it will be a whole different process and hopefully it goes smoothly because I want my new toy.
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