Power wheelchairs used to be considered a luxury. So they so they were not purchased for nursing home residents by Medicaid. I can certainly understand why those who govern Medicaid thought that. But when my power chair's joystick would no longer function. I found out what it was like – again in my life – to have to sit and wait for others to push my wheelchair.
Before and after meals I sat in my chair and waited. I couldn't go up and down the halls of the nursing home by myself. I would sit in the lobby after breakfast feeling like a piece of furniture. Sometimes residents or others bumped right into me not even noticing I was just sitting there waiting.
From the looks I got, I must have had a dismal face when I was sitting there waiting. I felt like I had no freedom.
I had notified the vendor and he said a different tech would stop by to see what could be done. I hoped he would get there soon.
The next week on Wednesday I was sitting in the front lobby waiting to be taken back to my room. A strange man that I did not know came up to me. I thought he would give me a card or identify himself. But he didn't. That day I was in the power chair. The aide who had me didn't mind putting it in "free wheel mode" and pushing me. So the man, I'll call John, started looking at the power chair. It took him several minutes before he told me that the joystick was disconnected. I told him we knew that because the nursing home's maintenance man had told us that Monday morning.
Then John asked me why I had such a small joystick. I told him someone probably thought I needed it. He said I needed a bigger one. I had no idea there was a bigger one because no one had said that. But I suggested I'd gotten used to the old one and would rather have one that was similar. He complained about the way the other one had been attached.
Eventually, he removed the joystick and its wiring. He told me he was going to try to solder the connection back together. He said if he could not do that, they would have to order another one. He said someone was responsible for the joystick breaking. He said it would not be covered by the warranty. I told him that the nursing home transported me to a medical appointment. I said turning the power chair in the minivan caused me to get caught. I said the bracket on the back of the power chair stuck out too far. I told him I did not think the controller box should have been put in the middle of the back of the power chair. I said the controller's placement might have been the problem. But John wanted to blame me getting caught on the fact that I had a backpack on the back of my power chair.
He told me a new joystick could cost $500-$800. I told him there was no way that I could pay for it. He gave me a kind of menacing look. Then he got a phone call and went up the hall to take it.
There was no one with me to hear what John, the tech had just said. I so wished a friend or family member were with me so that they could say something that I as a nursing home resident could not say.
Before long, John the tech came back. He said he would be back to put the joystick on my chair if and when he got it fixed.
With that, he left.
Later as I thought about all of this, I wondered why one tech who worked for the same vendor as the one who put my chair together, would criticize him. I sensed bad blood between them and wondered if the older guy, John was a bit jealous of the younger one. But it was also apparent that he thought the younger one had messed up in some way.
I wondered how long it would take to get my chair back in working order again.
In the meantime, I knew I would have to be pushed.
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