By Allan M. Friedman, CFILC's Technologies Manager
A wheelchair wasn't going to cut it. It just wasn't going to work in our
house.
My wife sustained a severe injury to her right foot last
summer. She recently had surgery to
repair it. But the healing process takes a long time and she must be off her feet for most of it. So we needed to find a way for her to get
around in our house; our circa 1979, two-story, fully carpeted house. Unless,
of course, she stayed in bed the entire time.
If you knew my wife you'd know that is out of the question.
She couldn't use crutches. We tried a walker but it proved
to be too difficult as well. She's not
very strong.
Kaiser, in their usual one-size-fits-all way, would only
provide a standard hospital wheelchair which doesn't work in our home. Pushing a standard wheelchair on carpets is
extremely difficult and besides, our interior doors are thirty inches wide and
our hallway is forty-two inches wide. The
wheelchair is also thirty inches wide. Have you ever tried making a hard right turn
in a confined space like that?
Fortunately, I was able to borrow a scooter from the California Assistive Technology Reuse Coalition (CATRC). This scooter has been our
savior. Now my wife can move around the
house quite easily. It gets into every room (on the ground floor). And with a couple of
homemade ramps (plywood and two x fours) she was able to get over the two
inch step to our front door and the four inch step at our back door. This scooter allowed her to continue
working right up to her surgery last month.
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| photo: http://kidsonroll.com/MobilityScooters/ |
When she got home after the surgery we faced a new
dilemma. The scooter was a great
solution while she had a cast on her foot and could sit normally, but now she has to keep her foot elevated. We thought we'd try a wheelchair again but
with her leg extended it was impossible to get into the bedrooms and bathroom. The scooter solved that problem too. A laundry basket on its base lets her keep her
leg up and still navigate the house.
It will be many months before my wife is able to stand or
walk. We both work for non-profits and
don't have the resources to buy something like this new. Thanks to CATRC we have been able to use this scooter to help her through this. And I don't have to do laundry anymore!
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| photo: http://www.rootandscoot.com/index.html |
Do you have an AT success story that you would like to share? Please use the comment box to let us know about your AT adventures.
AS an Advocate have i seen first hand how consumers benefit from Assistive Technology. I had a consumer who was in the process of getting a scooter but did not follow up with the process as her Medical Benefits had been terminated.
ReplyDeleteThanks to a non profit organization who's main focus is the Re-use of Assistive Technology consumer was able to get a scooter and is now able to live more independently.
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