I’m In A Very Good Mood

Lately I’ve been in an especially good mood. It’s Spring. I’m enjoying exploring and researching my new neighborhood. And finally, I have my power wheelchair back. 

In the Summer of 2015 my 7-year old wheelchair had a problem unlike it had experienced before, it appeared to be an electrical short somewhere. It wouldn’t come on at all.

The company that sold & serviced the chair brought out a loaner and took mine to their facility for repair. Within a few weeks they delivered it and took back the loaner. I immediately go in the chair and went out for a spin. I broke down a couple of blocks away, I had to release the drive wheels and push it back home. Very unpleasant.

The company brought back the loaner chair and took mine back for repair. Again, that was the Summer of 2015.

The loaner wheelchair was lighter, slower than mine, but I got used to it. I gave up bugging them about repairing my chair. I had them out in January 2017 to replace the batteries & tires  on the loaner chair.

When they came out this January to do the same is when they realized I still had a loaner since 2015 and that they still (hopefully) had my chair.

By this point the batteries in the loaner chair were two years old, they’re usually replaced annually. Medicare covers most of the cost, but my co-payment isn’t insignificant.

I could get to the downtown YMCA, where I’d charge it while working out. This required me to lug around an external charger. Then I’d go to Culinaria where I’d need to charge it again, though not as long, to be able to get home.

Even when the batteries were new it just didn’t have the distance of my chair. I had the loaner for at least five trips to Chicago. Unfortunately I had to limit my pedestrian activity, reply more on transit, and keep charging while out.

I think I’ve only been to the Missouri Botanical Gardens once with the loaner, we had to get lunch afterwards in their cafe so the chair could recharge, it wouldn’t have made it as far as the bus stop on Tower Grove Ave otherwise.

In the weeks since my wheelchair was returned I’ve been able to go to the YMCA, Culinaria, and back home all on one charge. I’ve gone out exploring on my own, plus my husband and I went out Saturday for a mile plus journey.

Increased mobility really does increase happiness!

— Steve Patterson