Just a quick note to apologize for being out of the loop re: Shailey’s recent incident. I only became aware of it this morning while doing a quick check of my email. I had replied to a comment in my previous post that Shailey was okay. I based my remark on an email I received from Shailey a few weeks ago.
I haven’t been spending much time online lately since my husband recently had a below the knee amputation. In spite of my own health problems, I have been almost entirely responsible for his care since he came home from the hospital/rehabilitation center.
Both of our lives have changed drastically. While my husband is dealing with learning to live without a vital body part, I have had to push myself to do things that I am not physically suited to do such as lift his wheelchair into the car.
Until this happened, I hadn’t even been behind the wheel of a car in over a year. Now, I am driving on a regular basis, often alone, which is something that I had only done infrequently many years ago.
I am now in charge of all the household chores including cooking, most of which my husband used to do and grocery shopping.
There are also a lot of extra things to be done because our bathroom is too small to accommodate a wheelchair. Bathing and toileting is done in the bedroom with a wash pan and bedside commode.
Home health nurses visit every other day to change the bandages on his stump. I am very thankful for that because I know that they will spot any signs of infection or other problems.
We are under a lot of stress, physically, emotionally and financially. It is difficult getting my husband to the car to go for his medical appointments because our ramp is too steep. We have applied to a local agency for help with modifications but there is a waiting list and we don’t know when they will get to us.
Getting him to the car isn’t too bad unless the ramp is wet. We had to cancel an appointment yesterday because it was raining and if the ramp is even a little damp the wheelchair slides down which is dangerous. The hardest things to deal with are getting the wheelchair in our car because I have trouble picking it up and getting back into the house when we get home. I can’t push him up the ramp and he can’t propel himself. We have had to rely on our neighbor to push him in but I worry every time we have to go out because we never know if the neighbor will be home when we get back.
If anyone has any tips on ways to load wheelchairs into the back seat of a car or tips for dealing with maneuvering a wheelchair on a ramp that has too steep of a grade, I would appreciate some advice.
You can reply here or email me.
Blade
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