Tools of the trade

Some of you are probably curious how I get certain things accomplished, so I thought it would be helpful to share certain tools of the trade and the skills you acquire when you're living in a wheelchair.

First of all there's the wheelchair itself. Mine is a Permobile M300 and it is quite a thing to behold (a cobalt blue body with black trim).  Important features include the high-tech seat with dozens of separate but interconnected pressurized air cells that gradually shift air back and forth as you lean this way and that, which makes for incredibly comfortable seating (of critical importance when you're in the chair 16 hours per day).  Three electric motors control the chair's angle of repose, and you can adjust the leg support and the back rest from a sitting position to nearly horizontal; haven't done it yet but it would be easy to take a nap in this thing. A separate motor drives the wheels, and the battery holds enough juice for up to 10 miles.  You can adjust the sensitivity of the joystick direction & speed controller to move with more dexterity in tight quarters and otherwise to power up when you're out on the street.

Eventually you've got to get out of the chair---like when its bed time---and how does that work? Well there's this thing called a transition board.  You tuck one end underneath you and you set the other end on the thing you want to transition to,  and then you do this miraculous skootching motion, where you defy gravity for a fraction of a second while you slide/hop your butt along the board without placing any weight on your feet or hands.  Takes practice to keep both ends of the board in place and to keep your balance on the way.

So you've transitioned into bed and drifted off to sleep, but eventually you're awakened with the need for a bathroom break.  Are you going to set up a transition and roll to the bathroom? No way!  Enter the portable urinal, an oblong plastic bottle with a wide mouth and a handle for easy manipulation. I don't know how this works for women but for men it's a fairly straightforward deal; just position the urinal and take care of business.  Of course it's very important to have a secure place to set the urinal after use and you never want to fall asleep without first moving the urinal back to its secure position. Messes ensue otherwise (or so I'm told)!  This portable urinal trick works throughout the day to avoid having to transition to a toilet.

Eventually though you'll need to transition to a toilet which isn't a big deal as long as you have another transition board ready at hand. One thing to consider though is the amount of time it takes to set up and execute a transition so you've got to be extremely aware of your body's internal time clock and anticipate the need because you really can't afford to be 20 seconds late.  Everyone has their own means of getting things moving but I have found a couple cups of coffee and a couple of prunes first thing in the morning insure that I've taken care of business before it's time to leave for work, which is actually kind of critical for me because I commute via Metro bus for over an hour and I would be totally SOL if urgency struck while commuting.

Rolling the tape back several weeks---right after the surgeries---while still bed ridden and with arm casts up to your shoulders, your only strategy is to endear yourself to the assistants who bring the bedpans and clean you up afterwards.  But once the casts are off and you or able to transition to a toilet all by yourself you are not necessarily completely in the clear. If your wrists are still fixed in place with plates & rods for example, then there are certain places that you just can't reach unaided.  Enter the bathroom buddy device. This little guy is worth its weight in gold!  It is a curved plastic handle with a paper grabber on one end and it totally solves the inflexible wrist problem.  Just don't drop it while in use, as it's not so easy to retrieve and kind of messy even in the best case.

No doubt you're going to unintentionally drop things (hopefully not in a toilet) so you need a means of retrieving them. The Grabber is a two foot long hollow aluminum pole with a handle and trigger on one end and a little grabbing device on the other end. You will get really good at using the grabber (just don't drop it)!

 Hmmm, so what other tools are there? I use a 20 liter summit pack (Zero Point by Montbell) to carry odds and ends while motoring around in the wheelchair.  Inside the pack resides a waterproof poncho and a puffy jacket with enough room remaining to carry food for the day.  I use Seattle Metro to get just about everywhere beyond a five minute roll; if I lived in a town without public transit mobility would become expensive very quickly.  Oh, . . . and I use voice recognition on a tablet or phone to create blog posts like this or any other longish email, text, or other virtual message.  Typing? Not.