Pissed

Pissed.  Seriously pissed.  I’ve done everything I’ve been told since entering rehab! I told the staff what I needed and they told me how to go about it.  I told them that I needed to be able to drive.  They told me no problem.  They came up with the drive from wheelchair solution.  They even filled in the forms for motability for me.

I’ve previously mentioned the confusion over the branding of the chair.  I thought that things were now sorted.  All I needed to do now was put everything in writing and get the modification for the chair approved.  I was told that this was just a formality.

I sent off the email and got a phone call today telling me that the modifications cannot be approved.  That all such modifications are on hold as someone has taken up a legal case, I assume they had some form of accident.  

I don’t know where this now leaves me.  I explained on the phone that it was the Trust staff that directed me down this current route.  That it was them who filled in the paperwork and made recommendations on chairs and vehicles.  She's going to get back to me.  But in the meantime, my life again is up in the air!

To top things off I’ve had hiccups for the last 2 hours! Not happy! 

Nothing’s ever simple! AKA RIP Dead Man's Chair

Got my new chair yesterday! So happy! The old one had just been doing my head in in recent weeks.  I’d had the engineers out so many times with bits and pieces changed.  It not only was the ‘Dead Man’s Chair’, but it had become the ‘Chair of Frankenstein’.  It had been patched up and taken apart and brought back to life with bits and bobs added and removed.  It had just become a farce.  But I can breathe a sigh of relief now as my new chair is here and going smoothly.

Well, I say going smoothly... the chair itself is working but there are now problems with the car.

The ‘Chair of Frankenstein’ was a Pride Quantum Jazzy 1420.  That’s the make and model.  That’s the chair that I chose and made sure would work with the tie down system used for the car before agreeing to both the new chair and the car. 

I asked for the same chair when it came to my new chair.  I’ve got the same chair.  Except that on the order form that the hospital used it’s now known as a Pride Quantum 1420.  The word Jazzy has been removed.

The car converters contacted the Wheelchair Services team as they have to get permission to make modifications to my chair.  It’s standard procedure.  It’s nothing to worry about.  This is unless the tie down system is approved for the Pride Quantum Jazzy 1420.  Wheelchair Services cannot find a suitable tie down system for the Pride Quantum 1420 and therefore can’t approve the modification.

It’s the same bloody chair! I had the guy from Wheelchair Services out yesterday along with the suppliers of the Pride chair and the Pride supplier confirmed that I was correct that it was the same chair, that it’s simply an issue of some rebranding within the company and that it would be fine (and correct) to use the approved tie downs.  Wheelchair Services need to have this in writing before proceeding.

The best thing about it is, is that once they’d left I’d not only noticed that the user manual refers to my new chair as being a Pride Quantum Jazzy 1420, but the chair itself also has the bloody name emblazoned along the back of it!

World Book Night - Part 2

World Book Night turned into a book day for me.  The night part was something it turns out I wasn’t to be part of. 

It was an interesting day.  At first I thought the task of distributing 48 books would be daunting.  By the time I’d separated out what I'd already promised and what I needed to randomly hand to strangers, 48 books really wasn't that much at all.

When I’d gone to my local Waterstones to collect my books the nice and friendly member of staff I spoke with informed me that they were hosting a World Book Night event on the Saturday evening and that I should call in.  It sounded good, I selfishly thought it may be a chance to grab a few free copies of other books on the reading list.  I called round a few friends and made arrangements to change our plans so that we could attend. 

When separating the books I kept some in reserve for the book event and along with a friend took the rest to the local farmers/cultural market. 

I’m used to approaching random people these days.  I’m usually asking for some assistance, but when people see you with something in your hand they automatically become suspicious.  Some automatically told me that they weren’t interesting in anything religious.  My book was set in a Monastery, but didn’t think that counted, so told them it wasn’t.  Once past that most were receptive.  Some had heard about the event and seemed quite pleased.  Others bemused.  Some just not interested at all.  But it was quite a nice experience and over all too quickly.

When it came to the event in Waterstones things didn’t go as planned.  I’d arranged to meet some friends there.  When I arrived one of my friends told me that he thought the event was upstairs and he couldn’t see a lift anywhere.  We asked a member of staff.  He seemed bemused and ran off upstairs to find out.  When he returned he told us that the event was indeed on the first floor and that they didn’t have access to a lift during the weekends as their lift access was in an adjoining office building which was closed at the weekends.  He whimpered an apology and then he left us to it.

I was slightly in shock.  The girl I’d spoken to on Thursday was clearly aware of my chair, but hadn’t thought that it might be an issue.  We were still waiting on another friend to join us and as it was cold outside I told my friends we’d wait inside.  After about 10 minutes a lady came and introduced herself as the manager and apologised, again explained the situation about lift access and told us that she was embarrassed.  She was embarrassed? I couldn’t even begin to tell her how I felt.  What I did do, though was tell her that it was her staff who’d originally informed me of the event and invited me along.  They were aware when informing me that I was using a chair.

At this point, as way of an apology and my inconvenience, she offered me a £25 gift card, which I of course took, but it did still put a bit of a downer on the night.  My friends obviously didn’t get to the event in the end as they came with me to grab some food.  The food was good and the company was good but at the same time I was still aware that we should have been elsewhere.

All in all though it was a good experience and one I’d offer to partake in again.