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.
No comments:
Post a Comment