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juldeaSo, Jason and I went up to meet Adriana last night. She has a badass wheelchair. I had a bit of a wrong impression - I thought that if she didn't have control of her arms and legs, that meant they wouldn't move. Oh, no. ;) The muscles twitch on their own. Especially 'Lefty', her left arm, which is so spastic that she can injure herself and others (hit herself in the ribs and break a finger, etc) and must be held down at all times. When she's in her chair, Lefty is weighted down and strapped down, and when you're helping her around out of her chair, you have to hold Lefty with one hand ALL of the time. Anyway, her wheelchair has a joystick that she moves with her mouth, and that's how she moves around. She can really zoom in that thing.
The apartment is huge. Very nice. It's kind of messy, with all sorts of thingamajigs that she needs, but I'll be happy with it.
So last night Anna, her friend, showed me a few things. And I put her to bed - unstrap this and this and this from the chair, grab Lefty, heft her onto the bed (lying on Lefty), push her to a nice space, put a weight next to her hip so she doesn't roll over, cross her legs at the ankle and put another weight there. It boggles me to imagine dealing with that.
Oh, and she's a really nice person. *grin* Guess I forgot to mention that part.
We spent the night there, and followed her to work this morning. She types using this long stick attached to a little helmet. It's not super-fast, but hey... I couldn't tell before I met her, so it's fast enough. At work there's a PowerMac I can use or a couch I can nap on or whatever... I just have to be there.
Then we went across the street to the mall for lunch and I fed her, came back to work, and I got to (dun dun dunn) help her use the bathroom. That was a chore... Had to keep my right arm under her right arm, wrapped around her chest holding Lefty, while my left arm and hand did everything else. Also I had troubles figuring out how to get her back into the chair. Eventually, the two of us all sweaty and exhausted, we were done!
So, basically, it's both better and worse than I expected. I really wrenched a shoulder muscle (managed to score a nice backrub from jason). I'll get really buff :) And the exercise walking to the mall and back every time... she zooms in that chair, lemme tell ya. I have to walk fast to catch up. :)
Anyway... finally got to sleep next to Jason last night :) Amusedly, that's all we did.
Well, gotta go earn my keep here and do some chores.
The apartment is huge. Very nice. It's kind of messy, with all sorts of thingamajigs that she needs, but I'll be happy with it.
So last night Anna, her friend, showed me a few things. And I put her to bed - unstrap this and this and this from the chair, grab Lefty, heft her onto the bed (lying on Lefty), push her to a nice space, put a weight next to her hip so she doesn't roll over, cross her legs at the ankle and put another weight there. It boggles me to imagine dealing with that.
Oh, and she's a really nice person. *grin* Guess I forgot to mention that part.
We spent the night there, and followed her to work this morning. She types using this long stick attached to a little helmet. It's not super-fast, but hey... I couldn't tell before I met her, so it's fast enough. At work there's a PowerMac I can use or a couch I can nap on or whatever... I just have to be there.
Then we went across the street to the mall for lunch and I fed her, came back to work, and I got to (dun dun dunn) help her use the bathroom. That was a chore... Had to keep my right arm under her right arm, wrapped around her chest holding Lefty, while my left arm and hand did everything else. Also I had troubles figuring out how to get her back into the chair. Eventually, the two of us all sweaty and exhausted, we were done!
So, basically, it's both better and worse than I expected. I really wrenched a shoulder muscle (managed to score a nice backrub from jason). I'll get really buff :) And the exercise walking to the mall and back every time... she zooms in that chair, lemme tell ya. I have to walk fast to catch up. :)
Anyway... finally got to sleep next to Jason last night :) Amusedly, that's all we did.
Well, gotta go earn my keep here and do some chores.