A new wheelchair tech came to my house to work on my wheelchair this morning. He arrived at my house just after Peter Schrager showed the highlight reel of his #2 in his top 10 recruits going to the NFL Combine. It was Rashan Gary! He is a D tackle from Michigan! I’ve watched him a lot this season! I had to turn the TV off once he got into my house.
So far, in the life of my disease, I have a had four wheelchair techs. Tyler only worked on my manual chair years ago, Christine was at the appointment I had at RIM with Diana to get me fitted for my custom manual chair. Dave was at RIM when my Mom and I went to try out my motorized chair for the first time. He brought it to my house a few days later. I have liked ALL of my wheelchair techs but for some reason, I REALLY liked Brad, whom I met today.
He came in with his bag of tools and completed all of the adjustments I needed. The top of my joystick on my control panel fell off, my head rest needed to be adjusted, and we talked about my feet falling off of my foot pedals and ways to prevent that. As he adjusted the guards on either side of my thighs to make it easier for my cupholder to stay affixed, he sat on my couch as he adjusted the guards and asked how long I was in a manual chair.
Now that I have a motorized chair, I can’t believe that I was in a manual chair for as long as I was! I didn’t get fitted for a custom manual chair till about two years ago. Before that, I used to just order generic orthopedic wheelchairs online. I did that for about 11 years. We talked about my resistance to getting a motorized chair and wanting to keep my upper body strength by propelling myself in the manual chair. My Mom brought my manual chair out for him to see.
He completely understood when I told him that I thought I was going to beat MS! I thought I was going to be that one success story! It took Christine coming to my house to make adjustments on my manual wheelchair’s brakes for her to see the amount of energy I was exerting just by moving around my house. Christine was the person who convinced me to get the proper paperwork from my doctor to get a motorized chair.
When I told him that I thought I was going to beat MS, I was a bit embarrassed by my ignorance and my foolishness. He listened to me thoughtfully and told me that that was a good mindset to have! I really appreciated them saying that to me!
He also told me that I had a really good manual chair in addition to my motorized chair and asked what kind of exercise I did in my chair. I told him about going to Barwis Methods and I told him about my knee injury and surgery. My knee is STILL not the same! Hence, it was good that I got the motorized chair! On the rare occasion that I leave my house, I use my manual chair because I do not have a vehicle to accommodate my motorized chair.
When he was finished making all of the minor adjustments and we talked about my foot pedals, he wrote a bunch of stuff down which is when I realized that he was left-handed! I commented and he smiled and looked at my motorized chair and told me that I was too! (the control panel for my chair is on the left side).
Before he left, my Mom told him that, “Brad” was a good name and she has only known good men with the name, “Brad.” I told him that I wanted to name my son, “Brad.” Because I too have also only known good men who are named, ”Brad.” Mr. Flint, my high school religion teacher, was named, “Brad” and my cousinT Shannon had a close friend named, “Brad” as well. Two of my physical therapists were named, “Brad!”
Brad told me that he comes to Dearborn schools all of the time to make adjustments for students. He gave me his card and told me to call him if I ever need any further adjustments.