My New Wheelchair Arrived!

 The most exciting and challenging thing that's happened in the past few weeks, while you've been visiting B.C. on this blog, has been the arrival of my new wheelchair.  After I started the process with my Occupational Therapist in, April, went through three trials, and waited what seemed like forever, it was finally delivered three weeks ago.  

Here it is.  Sorry you don't see much of it, but let me show you how it can make me stand up.  Keep your eye on that painting of Georgian Bay behind me as a reference point.

Here you can see the extra fittings that have to be used to prevent me from falling down.  There are knee braces in front, and a chest brace I can lean against.  If you look closely you can see there's an extra wide belt across my chest that will hold me from leaning too far forward.

And now, up we go!  Remember that painting as a reference point.  It doesn't make me stand up totally, and I'm not quite vertical, but I'm told being able to stand up this much is very good for my body, and since I want to live a good few years yet, it seems worthwhile..

Perhaps you get a better impression from the side.  I'm doing this twice a day for ten minutes, and it seems to help with blood flow.  Surprisingly, since I haven't stood up like this for seven years, I've had no changing blood pressure problems at all.  My OT (Occupational Therapist) will be very impressed.  And even if it looks like I'm still half sitting down, I can assure you that it feels like I'm standing!

It's also easy to do.  I can readily slip the knee and chest braces in place, and do up the chest strap.  Then I can select the controls and touch the joy stick to go up and down.  I originally decided to go ahead with the new wheelchair because the old one was proving less reliable; hopefully this one will operate perfectly for years to come.  Government and insurance programs pay for about 2/3 of this, but don't ask the total!