Problems with Wheelchair and sis...looking for advice

[Guest guest]

I can't afford an electrical chair for school, but need something that I can

afford but also is light. I'm looking at the Legacy Ultra-Light

Wheelchairs. Any experience here?

Thanks for reading all the way through.

Second part of post...............

I don't have energy to write this from scratch so I'm going to cut, paste

and edit a post from a BBS I wrote. I need some advice.

My roommate/sister/best friend has resentments about me using a wheelchair.

I do not yet have a RX for the chair simply because I can't get in to see a

neuro...something I've been trying to do for over 6 months-thanks to

insurance. Not that it matters, my insurance doesn't pay for any decent

chair. She uses this against me.

I use the chair when I leave the home because it places my energy level a

lot closer to what it was before I got ill. Also reduces my sx since I'm not

so tired. It also helps me when I get spastic and fall. In fact, the first

time I used it I had more energy than I had in over five years! When I

suffered from blurred vision in my typing class, simply using a wheelchair

to get to the classroom from the car allowed me an extra two+ plus hours in

the lab before the vision problems came out.

For years sis worked with a girl who had a birth defect that caused spasms

and her mother refused to let her use a chair because she wanted her

daughters legs to stay as strong for as long as possible.

She also doesn't like having to 'talk down' to me-it is hard on her bad

back. She also says having to raise her voice makes her feel she can't have

private conversations with me in public anymore. She has recommended a cane

or walker, both of which sound horrible as I suffer from vertigo as well as

spastic leg muscles. Just imagining using a walker gives me nightmares of

having to control the dumb thing.

She complains it takes too long to get places when I'm in the chair. (She

has a nerve disorder that prevents her from being able to push me.)

And she has told me that she is upset because it hurts for her to walk but

she does not use a chair.

I don't have to use the wheelchair, ie: I've have use of both my legs, but

if I don't I'm exhausted for the rest of the day. When I tell her that,

unlike her disability, sitting down every so often does not take away my

exhaustion-that I get less tired taking the chair up sharp hills than

walking and sitting. She just does not 'get it'. I was hoping to stay up

tonight but now at 6:30 a.m. I'm still up with spasms even though I have

blurred vision and exhaustion since 8 pm both from this stupid trip. By 8 pm

I was already trying to sleep.

Today I fell down at the zoo because I was walking and as she wanted to see

the apes and it was not wheelchair accessible. When I told her (I fell when

she wasn't looking) she told me I should have been holding myself steady

instead of against the Plexiglas panel.

We " agreed " that although we split the parking space in our apartment

building I will no longer store the chair in the her car when it is her turn

in the lot. I will have to transfer it from my car on the street. I have

also agreed that when we try to go to Disneyland and other places I will

first try to visit without the chair or I will not be doing 'social' or

'entertainment' activities with her. We used to always do these things

together.

She also told me that by attending a model United Nations class/simulation I

would be putting the teacher in a situation that is not fair and that I

should consider dropping out! Then she went on about how disruptive a chair

is, how it distracts from everyone and I'll be in the way

I felt so guilty for using the wheelchair at the end of our zoo trip today.

That I was taking the 'cheap' way out, that I don't need the chair. I ended

up crying softly when I got home. On the other hand, I'm so tired and don't

want to walk another inch. I wanted to go out tomorrow but I don't know

where I'll pull the energy for the rest of the day without the chair, and

she doesn't like the chair.

This ended up being a rant, but I am asking for help. Outside of sharing

literature (which I have) is there anything else you great folks can think

of to help me through this?

We were planning a trip to Disneyland Monday and she has outright told me

she will not go with me if I start the day in the chair, that it is too

slow, and people look at her etc (because she can't help me but they don't

know that.)

------------------------------------