Thursday 28 April 2011

Success!

Today was my re-assessment at wheelchair services, a day I had both been dreading and looking forward to. Dreading at the prospect of being rejected and starting the process all over again, and excited because maybe I would finally be getting some help towards the wheelchair of my dreams!

To be honest, I'm surprised I was coherent at all during the assessment, as I was so sleep deprived from being up all night imagining all kinds of scenarios, that I was basically a zombie. Not that I'm not normally like a zombie, but this time I had the mental capacity as well as the staggering coordination of one.

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Fuelled by tea, we arrive at the hospital, prepared to do battle! After psyching myself up for ages, the assessment turned out to be a pretty straight forward affair - this time a wheelchair technician was present, and I was much better at being confident about what I needed and what I didn't want. After a discussion of the different options available and my hip width being measured, I tried out their Invacare XLT.

Considered lighter than my current chair, I still felt it wasn't up to the standard of the Quickie Helium and didn't suit my needs, so I told them I would most likely want to go with the voucher scheme. Next came the "BINGO!" moment, when the technician said that would be fine, and that to ring them when I had found a suitable chair and had a prescription for me, and that they would pay some of the costs.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

THE QUICKIE IS WITHIN MY REACH!

I don't think I actually absorbed this good news much at the time, but after regular top ups of caffeine, it is sinking in, haha. Good news indeed!
The next step will be to get in contact with the Quickie guy and settle the final finishing touches of the chair, and sort out how to pay the rest of the costs off. :D