We’re excited to be able to keep you more up to date on the goings-on of Oscar! We also hope this blog will help raise awareness about SMA and disability issues, as well as contribute to the online SMA community. We hope to post at least once a week but as Oscar recently said one morning at breakfast, “Life is life,” so please forgive us if we do let more than a week lapse between postings.
We couldn’t think of a better time to start this blog than just after Oscar got his “go power chair.” Last Thursday was one of the happiest days of our lives! Linda and John arrived from Fonte with the chair at about 9:30. With the incredible atypical March weather we’ve been having, we were able to stay outside all morning with the chair. There were a good two hours of adjustments to the positions of various parts of the chair: armrests, joystick, foot rest, head rest, lap and chest straps, and height and angle of back cushion. Oscar is so little that with the footrest at its highest position, his feet still don’t sit flat, so small blocks will be added to the foot rest for him. Ultimately this means he has a ton of room to grow with this chair, which is such good news. Time will tell, but it sounds like he should be able to get about three years of use out of this chair.
The adjustments continue
Throughout the adjustments, Oscar waited as patiently as a three-year old about to bite into his first real taste of freedom, independence, and speed could wait. At various times he was given the go-ahead to test drive his new wheels to see how the adjustments were working. At one point he took off into the neighbor’s yard to “hide,” at first, behind a tree trunk and then he disappeared in earnest behind their evergreen shrubbery completely out of view. As Linda called him to come back for more adjustments, he delightfully refused. We were all so thrilled. Oscar can begin testing the limits now in a way he has never been able to before.
Watch Oscar zooming away here:
Tags: independence, power wheelchair
