There are two things I never imagined I’d own or need to own: a wheelchair and a minivan. Nothing against minivans, it’s just that I’m not your typical soccer mom. I don’t even like soccer. Also, I never dreamt that a wheelchair would cost more than a 4 year old car – thank God for Jen’s health insurance! When we came home six and a half years ago after spending six months in the hospital, my dad, along with my uncle’s help, located and helped us acquire a handicapped accessible van. Technically it’s called metallic chartreuse or something but it’s just plain purple to us so we call it Barney. Barney’s been good to us over the years and it’s still going strong (knock on wood). We’ve driven it to Florida once, Lake of the Ozarks a couple times and my parents’ house many times. Jen’s a great driver, me – not so great! Mostly though, we just stay local. In fact, if you ever see it in the parking lots of Shop’n’Save or Wal-Mart on Jungerman Rd. in St. Peters, stop by and say ‘Hi’. There’s a really good chance I’m in there listening to the radio (I don’t do those places anymore because I got tired of crashing into stuff!)

There’s not a lot to say about my wheelchair. I have sort of a love-hate relationship with it. I hate the fact that I need it but I love being in it. As far as power chairs go, it’s a nice one. Get this, it even unfolds itself into an upright position, allowing me to stand. (I know! I know! I need to take advantage of this feature more often.) It’s like a Transformer. I think it tops out at about 15 mph but I’ve never taken it past 3.0, too chicken.

When I’m in it we weigh over 500 pounds, when we’re on the move – I’m classified as a WMD. It needs a horn.

Pictured here is my on-board computer called the Omni. It controls all of the functions of my chair with the click of a switch. I can go forward, backward, turn right or left and stop. In addition, it has an easily accessible “kill” switch that Jen can quickly get to that completely powers down my chair to avoid catastrophe, should I start getting into trouble. I need her to hit the “kill” switch approximately every 3-4 minutes.

Here I am dangling from our Hoyer lift. It’s nothing more than a glorified “cherry picker”, a hoist that mechanics use to swap engines in cars. My nephew CJ calls it “The Wrecking Ball”. It’s powered by a rechargeable battery pack making it fairly easy to use. Since it’s on wheels Jen can take us wherever we need to go: the grocery store, the movies, Busch Stadium – anywhere! Actually, she just uses it to help her get me in and out of bed and my recliner. I know it doesn’t look too comfortable but it really is, it felt awkward and I didn’t like it at first but I got used to it after being in it a few times (like I had much of a choice!)

Well, that’s it. All of this stuff, along with Jen’s help, allows me to be somewhat mobile and lead a “normal” life.