Friday, July 8, 2011

the wheelchair training manual for parents

Those innocuous little ramps I used to jog up are damn steep when you're propelling your entire body weight plus 20-odd pounds of wheelchair up them.

The shiny metal rail is lovely for keeping your hands clean, as opposed to propelling yourself using the wheel itself. However, that shiny metal rail gets very slippery in the rain.

A five-year-old pushing a wheelchair can get you over small door sills and bumps in the sidewalk. A six-year-old pushing a wheelchair can send you out in the street in front of a semi lickety split.

In a group containing three or more children, it's best to have a timeshare plan arranged ahead of time for who gets to push the wheelchair when.

Foot rests are nice and all, but when your wheelchair decides to start drifting to the left with every push on the rail, it's really handy to have your feet available to correct your course.

Bicycle-type pegs on the back of a wheelchair would be awesome for carrying small children who don't want to walk any more.

3 comments:

  1. What about putting a harness on the children to pull you...kidding of course. Sad that the ADA hasn't mandated a fix for this problem of slippery wet metal. Argh!

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  2. I just had to laugh about the send you out in the street comment. My kids pushing my chair = scary!!!

    And about the pegs- you just need to be careful that your kid isn't standing on them when you get up from the chair ...

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  3. I love your blog, CPW. You've got a marvelous, sarcastic sense of humor that gets me chuckling even as I empathize with you. I don't have fibro, but I do have rheumatoid arthritis. I do "get" pain, and I do "get" functioning in spite of it and the disability it causes. Keep smiling, keep laughing, and keep in mind that in spite of everything you may think about your situation, you're a person of great courage, creativity, and character. Looking forward to reading your posts as you continue life's adventures.

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