To quickly bring everyone up to date: I needed a new cushion for my chair, and had been having really noticeable issues with my balance & posture since the fall. When I contacted my guy at Custom Mobility (the wheelchair retailer), he recommended that I go for a consult with a physical therapist who specializes in wheelchair evaluations/fittings/etc. I was terrified (physical therapists ranking pretty high amongst my childhood bogeymen), but shouldn’t have worried — Lauren turned out to be awesome and totally on the same wavelength as me. So anyway, she recommended a full new system from Ride Designs. It is entirely different from anything I’ve ever had. With the addition of power tilt and a headrest, I’ll be sitting more or less upright — better posture than I’ve had in about 18 years. I was hesitant, but we did a “practice” molding in December and I decided to go ahead with it, as the benefits will outweigh the discomfort and fear of the adjustment period.
So the first step was to get the funding in place, as this is not a cheap proposition. I got a denial from Medicaid — they said it would be less expensive to get a whole new chair than to just change the seating on this one. (Which isn’t true in the real world, but whatever, if they want to replace a four-year-old chair that’s their call.) To resolve that, and a similar issue with my primary insurance, I’m getting an all new chair(!). It’ll either be a Quickie 636, which is virtually identical to what I have now (a 646) or a Permobile 350, which I’m going to go test drive later today.
Yesterday I had my official molding with Gary (co-owner of Custom Mobility, who’s known me since I was 4), Lauren (awesomest PT ever), and Joe (the actual inventor of the seating system, who was in town from Denver).
I won’t gloss over it: the molding was really difficult, and I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck today. But it was successful. The goal was to get a seat mold with my hips as level as possible (believe it or not, they can get within about half an inch of neutral), and to get a really accurate cast of my back. We eventually wound up doing the back piece with me laying down; the same forces that make my posture so poor in the current chair (ie, gravity and muscle spasm) were getting in the way of us getting a good mold. But a little ingenuity, a lot of communication, and a hell of a lot of general manhandling of my body, and we got it done!
The final product will be a seat that will give me support and hold me in place (my left hip will be blocked to keep me from sliding) without causing pressure sores; and a relatively small backpiece that will support the right spots and that will be mounted on a fully articulating arm to move me into the right spot. It’s difficult to explain, but in reality it’s brilliant and, I anticipate, will help my pain issues significantly.
Yvonne says it’ll be “life-changing” — she’s not exaggerating.
Oh, the other cool thing: regardless of which chair I get, I’m getting an ass-kicking electronics system. It’ll have a bluetooth mouse driver, so I’ll be able to control my Mac with my joystick. For a few bucks extra, I can even get an interface that controls a PS2 with the joystick, too. That’s right, bitches: I’m gonna own you on Guitar Hero.
So the next step is for me to pick which chair I want and get the paperwork re-submitted to Medicaid, et al. We’ll get authorization fairly quickly since the case is already open. It’ll take about 4 weeks for the seating system to be made, and less than that for delivery of the chair itself. So I could conceivably have everything by late March-early April. It won’t be an overnight transition — this is radically different in just about every way — and for awhile I might use both chairs. (I’ll have to do some OT to figure out how to do everything sitting up, using my left hand, etc.) But Lauren said I should be totally comfy and functional by my birthday (30! eep!) at the beginning of June.
So that’s it for now — I’ll continue to keep you updated as the process unfolds. Thanks for all the prayers and good vibes… they’re much appreciated.
