Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely first Wednesday of August? I’m grumpy and annoyed and haven’t been sleeping well at all. I called Medicaid yesterday and wasted an hour and a half of my life. Like 70 minutes of that was spent on hold. First girl was sweet but useless (they always are because I think their entire job is to transfer people to where they might need to go). She transferred me to the special escalation unit where they can answer basic questions or forward you to higher ups. I just wanted to know if my renewal was actually received. Second girl (less cheerful but also sweet) confirmed that it has been received and is actually under review. They have until November 12 to make their decision. But I really just wanted a recording saying it was received in case they try to screw me around like last year. Anyway, I’m mostly grumpy and annoyed about the wheelchair, so let’s update the Wheelchair Saga! Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 can be found at their respective links. I’ll try to be quick because (believe it or not) this is not the last installment.

A little over a week ago, a guy named Randy brought my new wheelchair out and proceeded to start setting it up for me. Yay? Not really. There were things that were wrong. First off, I can’t reach the buttons on the joystick box, so I have to order special programmable buttons just to turn my chair on and off or control the speed profiles and seating. I currently have huge buttons that I have always hated aesthetically speaking. When I found a smaller two-in-one version, I was super happy. They cost Dad $525 out of pocket, which is fucking ridiculous. But for some reason, they sent a set that only had one wire. You have to plug the buttons in to make them work. In two different ports. Otherwise, only one button works. I checked. I told Mohamed I wanted the button that had two wires, so not my fault. I don’t know if it was ordered wrong or if Sunrise (Quickie maker) sent the wrong one. Either way, Randy told Mohamed and a Quickie tech what we needed and it was supposed to be shipped the next day priority after Mohamed signed paperwork. A week ago.

Another thing wrong was that I ordered thigh support pads. I got tiny ass knee support pads. I don’t know if any of you have seen my thigh fat, but it will destroy those tiny circles the first pothole we hit that jostles me into them. They could’ve sent either of the thigh pads and it would’ve been fine. Why knee pads? Who screwed up? Probably Universal, but I can’t be positive, so all I can do is grit my teeth and wait for it to be fixed.

The only other unplanned concern I have is the arm pads. I repeatedly told Mohamed that I need wide and flat arm pads. He said he would send out some different styles and we could try to make them work because Quickie doesn’t really have wide ones. They max out at about 2, maybe 3in. But there are no extra arm pads in the stuff left behind and the ones on the chair are indeed super narrow, so that’s concerning.

Other than that stuff, the chair looks great and we will make it work. I still hate the footrest hangers. They aren’t as ugly in person, but they also don’t match anything else on the chair. It’s black, purple, and green. They’re just a couple of random silverish bars. But the reason I really don’t like them is because I can’t operate them myself. The old system (like the manual hangers pictured below) have a paddle style release on the side that I can brush against a corner and they flip the footrest out sideways. The new ones are operated by a trigger style latch, so someone has to pull the trigger and twist the footrests out. I won’t be able to do that by myself. Hopefully, that’s my only loss when I finally get in the new chair. At least it’s a pretty chair.