Making our way....

My wife and I both have a physical disability. Cerebral palsy to be exact.

It has not stopped us from leading a pretty normal life. We each work, we have a house, a son, a couple dogs and a minivan. A pretty normal life.

My wife uses crutches. I walk without crutches, but my unsteady gait seems to be getting more so, complicated by back surgery a couple years ago. I now have some pain when a walk, especially when I stand still.

We don't complain, but we want to prepare ourselves for the next stage in our life.

A couple years ago we were able to get a doctor prescription for each of us to get a scooter. Insurance did not cover the whole cost, but they covered most of the cost. Their consideration was based on us needing the scooters at home, but our whole thought for the scooters outside the home, to allow us to go more places with our son and to do more with him.

Insurance would not cover any modifications to out van. We had a lift installed inside the van so we could carry my scooter. A short time later we had a lift installed outside the van so we could haul my wife's scooter.

It had gotten to be difficult for us to load and unload the scooters from our minivan, not to mention hauling the one scooter on the tailgate in the rain. Manuevering my scooter in and out of the back has gotten tricky. I have to pull it out with all my strength as I let it down. It has gotten to be pretty ackward for me to do.

We are thinkng that a full-size van with a rear lift would make our life that much easier.

Jodie and I visited Performance Mobility last week. I rode my scooter up a lift and into one of the vans. I asked the guy how much that van was. "Sixty five thousand," he said. Total sticker shock!