Stranded in Philadelphia

It's a rare event when I am without my power chair, but like any other electrical item it does break down.

I've been extremely lucky with my current power chair but the wear and tear was bound take it's toll eventually, and last Tuesday the inevitable happened, my chair died. Unfortunately for me it happen to die right in the middle of crossing a busy intersection...one with out a light at that. Luckily for me I was traveling with my Mom and she was able to put my chair in manual and wheel me into a near by parking lot. Once there however we were pretty much stuck. The nearest public transportation to take us home was about a half a mile up hill and my Mom is just not strong enough to be able to push my 300 lbs chair that far let alone up hill. So I immediately get on the phone with the repair company for my chair and relay my dilemma. Luckily, the repair guy happened to be somewhat in the area and could swing by to attempt to fix the chair and/or take it into the shop. The catch was that if the chair needed to be taken into the shop then I needed to find alternate transportation to get home since the repair guy's van neither had the room for passengers nor had insurance to cover them. I could only think of one person that was somewhat in the area who I knew I could count on to help me get home. I contacted her filling her in on my desperate situation and she agreed to come help me without question. I felt guilty for having to ask her to take time out of her day to rescue me even though she knows I'd do the same for her if I could and I knew she'd do whatever she could to help me.

After making arrangements with the repair guy to look at the chair and my friend to pick me up all I had to do was wait for the Calvary to arrive. Ironically enough my friend and the repair guy arrived within minutes of each other. The repair guy starts checking out the chair hoping it was just a lose wire or blown fuse and he could fix it on the spot, but deep down I knew that he was going to have to bring the chair into the shop. My fears were confirmed when he's testing wires with some sort of reader or tester and goes "Huh, I've never seen that before" (not a good thing when you stump the professionals). After a few last ditch efforts to try and immediately get me mobile again he comes to the same conclusion I suspected all along. It was beyond just a quick fix repair and needed to be taken into the shop. So I watch as my chair is loaded into the truck knowing all too well that I could end up being without it for quite some time.

The next day I found out just how bad the damage was. Turns out I blew one of the electrical wires and power wasn't able to get to the remote control, rendering the chair useless until it was replaced. Luckily I work with the best repair company and instead of just wanting to replace the faulty wire they decided (and I agree) that it was best to replace the whole wiring system to ensure this doesn't happen again in the near future. This meant that all the parts needed to be ordered from the factory in California and was going to take a whole week to ship. To make matters worse Columbus day was that Monday so shipping the parts didn't ship until that Tuesday (a whole week after the chair broke down). Meaning I was going to be two whole weeks without my chair.

The idea of having to be without my power chair for two whole weeks was very depressing. It's like someone tying your legs together and saying they weren't going to untie them for a couple week. I rely on my chair for everything from getting me to point A to point B to transferring to my bed, bathroom, etc. Being as independent and restless as I am the idea of having to rely on someone for everything was painful. All I wanted was my freedom to do as I please without having to ask for permission or wait until they're not busy. Towards the end I was definitely reaching my limit...I was frustrated with everything and everyone and found myself getting angry for things that I'd usually just let slide.

So when I received a call from the repair man this morning you can imagine my excitement. I was finally able to get back to normal both mentally and physically and I couldn't be happier. Here's hoping it's a LONG time before it breaks down again :).