Fired by my occupational therapist

Today I was fired by my occupational therapist. There are two kinds of therapists that you can see a lot. Physical therapists are responsible for training you in the use of your body with all of its limitations. Occupational therapists are interested in getting you back to a normal life. This may include getting back to work but it also includes many of the changes to get around in your house, to be able to use the kitchen, the bathroom and many of the other facilities that are part of a normal life.

Ever since my accident I have been seen by both physical and occupational therapists. Now that I am an outpatient I have been seeing my physical therapist about once a week and my occupational therapist almost as often. Today my occupational therapist told me that I had mastered many of the skills that she wanted to teach and that barring major new issues I would probably not need your help in the future.

I suppose that I cannot argue. I am working, at least half-time. We have made most of the accommodations we intend to make to the house and I understand the critical issues in making the remaining modifications. We just purchased a car and it is being modified to allow me to drive with hand controls. I am cooking and helping out with many other household chores. I suppose my therapist has a point that a little over four months after my accident, while I still have a lot to learn and a lot to improve, I have established new patterns of my life and they are rapidly becoming a complete story.

Bump, Bump, Bump up the stairs

Ever since the accident I have avoided visiting friends whose houses could be reached only by stairs. When we wanted to meet people they came to our house. The last two meetings of our book club met at our house as the only accessible house in the group. Last weekend I was invited to a party for the Seattle AOPA , and flying organization that I have been a member of for a long time. I found out that the house at which it was being held was up a staircase with eight or nine steps. I also knew that there would be a large number of people at the party and while much of the organization is getting up in years there would be a number of younger and stronger folks.

So I took the problem to my physical therapist and asked how a wheelchair could be moved up a flight of stairs. I had originally thought that I would have to be taken out of the chair and carried up the stairs ignominiously using a fireman's carry. The answer is much simpler and two women demonstrated how a chair could be tilted backwards and rolled up a flight of stairs. Bump, bump, bump. It turns out that while the chair is rolling the occupant can significantly aid the process by pulling on the wheels.

Getting down is essentially the same process except that the chair is rolled forward down the stairs while being tilted backwards. Getting up the staircase went very smoothly. We used four people to get up the stairs and only three to get down. I am convinced that two would have been completely adequate for getting both up and down.

In the future as long as there aren't a few strong and able bodied people around there is no need to tell our friends that we cannot go to their house. In the future the club will meet at the hosts house and with a little help I will get up the stairs and joined.

Falling Down

I have been in a wheelchair for over four months. During that time I have been in my chair, on the bed, in a love seat that we bought so I would have some place to sit that was not a wheelchair. We specifically raised the seat four inches to make transfers to and from the love seat. All the time I was deathly afraid of what would happen if I missed a transfer, leaned too far or otherwise messed and ended up on the floor.

I had talks with the physical therapists about what was to be done if I found myself on the floor. If it happens when I am alone, the answer is not pretty and may well involve a call to 911. With two people to help, the answer is a fireman’s carry back to the wheelchair. With only one helper, we reviewed a complex technique involving laying the back of the wheelchair in the floor. Carefully placing the body in the chair with the back down and then lifting the chair up. I was not at all sure I even remembered all the steps, let  alone had the strength and skill to do them.

Eventually it had to happen. I had just gotten on the love seat and was still on the edge when I tried to roll the wheelchair away so i could see the TV. I loosened   first the near brake and then leaned over to loosen the far brake. As I was leaning over the wheelchair slipped. Normally, with the brakes set, I would be able to catch myself on the wheelchair but with the brakes released I had no support and slipped slowly to the floor. Now I was on the floor and had to figure out how to get back up. Fortunately  a couple of weeks earlier we had bought a Hoyer lift.

Normally these lifts are not used by peoplewho have the ability to transfer themselves.They are used by people whose arms are weak enough that they are unable to transfer.I had an interesting problem I was trying to solve.I was trying to figure out a way to get from the wheelchair into the hot tub on my deck. The idea of the lift West transfer me from the chair into the top . It didn't work because in order to transfer you have to slide the legs under the hot tub. We thought that there was room but were wrong. Now the lift was sitting about 3 feet from where I fell while we tried to figure out what to do next.

The answer was very simple. Verna brought the lift over to me. She slung me in the sling, raise me up and placed me back in the wheelchair. It was that simple. However,had we not bought a piece of equipment that I really did not need, I would've been sitting in on the floor with a huge problem on my hands. Sometimes life just works out that way.