The tech tightened up my joystick. At least I would not have to worry about it moving. But I still did not think I should have to have a tech come every time my joystick or something else needed a little tweaking.
Over the years since I have had wheelchairs manual or power, I have had other people who could tighten things. When you get a power chair, you usually get a wrench or tool that can be used to tighten up foot rests and other parts on the chair. Then with a power chair I normally went to a durable medical equipment vendor's building and had my chair worked on. Medicaid used to pay the techs to come to the disabled person and repair their power chair. But sometime before 2008 Medicaid stopped doing that. The vendor for my last power chair was about 20 miles away from the nursing home where I used to live. It was easy to go there and they would fix things. They did not charge because I'm on Medicaid. I thought it was part of their after purchase customer service. To me that would certainly cause a customer to come back to someone who had kept their power chair running..
For the last several years I've had to pay for battery replacement in my power chairs. Medicaid used to pay to replace them every year and of course the batteries did not last. Nowadays they will last about two years – which is much better than one – if I'm buying them. Now, my sister will have to assist me to keep my chair running. I do not think Medicaid will. But I don't know yet.
I told anyone who would listen that my previous power chair's joystick was much easier to adjust. We did not need a tool every time we had to move it in or out, forward or backward. There was just a wingnut on the outside of the bracket beside the armrest that had to be loosened and retightened. But, those can get stripped and over time should be replaced. They never were on my old power chair. We just used it the way it was.
The ombudsman asked me if I would feel better using the joystick if I got more occupational therapy. I told her any therapy for me was probably time-limited because it has been 48 years since I was partially paralyzed after a fall. Nevertheless, the occupational therapist did an evaluation and the new male OT, Mike, started doing some work with my right hand only. I thought this was rather strange. But I let him do it.
We proceeded into September and I was getting therapy three times a week. While I was doing that, I was checking in on the wheelchair user forum to see what I could do to get the power chair's manufacturer to make further adaptations to my joystick. The power chair users on the forum thought I needed a different bracket for my joystick. They said the bracket should move in every direction whether or not a wrench was needed to do it. They knew much more about my new power chair than I did. I had never had a chair of this brand previously.
I also emailed the disabled power chair user who works for the manufacturer of my power chair. It was difficult to get my questions to show up on his website (provided by the manufacturer). For some reason it seemed like my posts were being blocked. I thought the monitor on the website was told not to let me post. I didn't post anything that was negative or angry. I was not confrontational at all either.. I guess they just thought it was negative PR and didn't want it.
The power wheelchair users forum where I was posting questions, commented about the manufacturer's customer power chair forum and that the power chair manufacturer's employee (whose name was on the forum) was not being effective in resolving my problems.
I was starting to feel like the tennis ball in a tennis match. The power chair users complained about the manufacturer's customer website and sometimes they complained about me. I sort of felt like, "poor little Nell". I just wanted information and I wanted to get something started towards a resolution. I thought the manufacturer should want to make the chair easier for me to use.
The last I heard from the manufacturer's tech on September 1. He acted like I was holding a gun on him. He was trying to figure out a way to modify the joystick further. But, he also said, he might have to start over again. Although, I had asked if I could get a different power chair, and I was told that would not happen.
I thought getting it adapted further would take some time. But I was willing to work hard for it.
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