Living and laughing with a disability - cerebral palsy; ordinary life, extraordinary circumstances.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

To whom does the power chair belong?

Yesterday, Jodie and I took her power chair in to Providence home care services to be looked at.  She stalled out a couple blocks from work yesterday, and she has been stalling out a lot lately.

I unloaded Jodie from the van, we went into the "store front".  The gal behind the counter was very nice.  She called for a tech.  He came out.  Jodie transferred to a regular (non-wheel) seat in the waiting area.

The same tech came back out awhile later.  They had the power chair up on the rack.  From viewing the log from the onboard computer chip he could see that Jodie's chair had indeed been stalling out...a lot!  The diagnosis was that the left motor on the chair needs to be replaced.

It will take five to eight business days to get the part.  They offered Jodie a loaner chair, but with her experience with the loaner earlier this year, we figured dealing with Jodie's chair is a better option.  I will take her to work and to her meetings for now...no busing it or long way ventures for Jodie for awhile.

Another tech brought Jodie's power chair out.  The gal behind the counter was on break.

The look on the tech's face was priceless! Like - "OMG! They are both disabled!  Whose chair is this?"  A deer in the headlights look - totally!

He came towards me with the power chair.  I do look like the more disabled one...no doubt.

Jodie said, "Umm, it's my chair."

"Dang!" - I could see it in the tech's eyes.

Jodie and I had a good laugh...

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