Getting Taller

 

Tuesday, August 8 a company called Handi Medical came out and finally delivered me my new wheelchair. It took over 4 hours to transfer everything over from my old wheelchair and get everything programmed. I've been waiting for a long time for this. I first started this process in December 2015. Like I stated before, it has the ability to stand, so I won't have to transfer into my Easystand stander. It also tilts, reclines, and elevates up and down to meet different levels of need.

Standing helps prevent osteoporosis and also strengthens bones and muscles. Being paralyzed from the neck down is difficult, especially when it causes me to be uncomfortable in my own body. It's not easy to sit in one position for a lengthily amount of time, so I'm constantly needing range of motion or some sort of movement. That's where the freedom of being able to stand on a regular basis will be nice comes in while utilizing my new wheelchair, which is one of the things recommended for spinal cord injuries.

Getting started is always the hard part. Since I hadn’t stood in about eight months (last time I trialed the wheelchair), my body wasn’t used to it. I have hypotensive episodes, where my blood pressure drops when I change positions from laying to sitting. It's even worse when I go from sitting to standing. Most times I have to go really slow and gradual into a standing position. I’m on 2 separate blood-pressure medications to help elevate it.

Although, since receiving it my blood pressure has improved while repositioning into standing and hopefully soon I will be able to go straight up without having any issues. I have been standing at least one time a day, mostly for 30 minutes at a time. In fact, I’m standing right now while writing this blog post! The picture posted above is of me standing for the second time since receiving my new chair. I'm 5'8", but it is up off the ground so I stand taller than everyone who is helping me.

Jenni