I was kind of aggravated because the vendor's tech had turned the speed and sensitivity down some on the chair. He felt it needed it because I was in the learning phase. I don't think they really trusted me. They also should've realized that my hand was in a precarious position sitting on the joystick in order to operate it.
On June 10 my outing turned out to be less than successful. I made it in and out of my van okay. The new power chair had enough power and that made me feel better.
But all day long, my friend had to keep moving my arm forward, or sideways, or reposition it so I could continue to push on the joystick. It was just maddening. By the time we got through the store, I was exhausted. My arm was aching like crazy. I was using the new joystick in a totally different way than I used my old one.
I think all I did was apologize to my friend. He told me that I certainly needed to get the joystick in a better position. He had known me, at that time, for 10 years plus. He knew that I had never had that much trouble with the joystick on my previous two chairs.
– – – I had done a lot of searching on the Internet for power chair related issues. I checked on the brand of chair and found that there were many complaints about it. That made me leery.
– – – I also searched for different types of joystick covers that would fit my new power chair. I discovered they have a lot more than I realized. However, many of them would not work for me.
Then, two days after my trying outing with my friend, I found the website of an occupational therapist who specialized in "power chair seating". She was located in Canada. There was a contact sheet on her webpage so I wrote and asked her a question..
She emailed back, and that set us on back-and-forth emailing with me asking and her answering questions about my new power chair. She asked me to send photos. One of the nursing home aides took them, and emailed them to me. I emailed them to her. She said she did not see any reason why they could not have set up the new power chair similar to my old one. She said it did not matter if it was a different brand. She asked what the tech's excuses were. I told her I did not get many excuses. I just got blank looks.
She told me to keep emailing and contacting the vendor and asking to get the chair changed. She even offered to do a feature on her website about it – if the tech was able to get it closer to what I wanted. I tried to use that as leverage with the vendor. I thought he would want the good PR of being on a Canadian website with an occupational therapist. But, he didn't seem to care.
So that didn't go anywhere for me. But I did feel heartened that a professional occupational therapist understood what my problem was.
The next week I went out with my friend Beth. I decided to cut down the size of the trip. We just went to one smaller department store. I knew I would not have to trek as far in it. But Beth still had to reposition my arm and move it whenever it was out of position. It was June 14 and I was sweating as we went across the parking lot.
When we went into the little Italian restaurant, Beth was concerned about how quickly the chair turned. I told her it was not the chair but the position of my arm. I told her I just could not lift my arm to take pressure off the joystick. She was so afraid I would go off the edge of a curb because the chair moved too quickly. I told her they had already turned down the speed and sensitivity quite a bit. I even ran the chair in a lower speed. But with the new chair I did not know what I was doing. It all takes trial and error.
Despite the difficulties I did have, my trip was successful and much more pleasant than the one the previous week. But I still knew things could not remain the same with the new power chair. I knew the way I was operating it was not safe for me.
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