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I can now sit for about a half hour, but I can't sit well in my chubby wheelchair so I went to a rehabilitation centre to check for a wheelchair. I was thinking about a sports wheelchair or so, but I had no idea if I could sit in a wheelchair with a low back support. A couple of years ago I accidentally got the wrong wheelchair with a low back support and I just couldn't sit in it. But hey I even couldn't sit in bed with support so I was just too ill. Anyway I first wanted to try it before I went for it. The woman there saw immediately that I didn't sat right in my chubby wheelchair, all crooked and leaning. She showed me and let me try a sports wheelchair and it sat comfy, after she had adjusted it to my body. It sat better then I thought. He rolled very light, so light that I was afraid to fall over. For years now I have wondered how those people do that to roll in a wheelchair on the rear wheels, but now I know it, it is easy, it goes by itself. Then she showed me a wheelchair which is both for active and passive use. It can also roll almost as light as a sports wheelchair when you place the wheels a bit forward and also here the wheels are a little bit diagonal (sorry, I don't know another word to explain it so I hope you understand what I mean). The wheels of a sports wheelchair are more diagonal, so it is easier and lighter to roll. The wheelchair for both active and passive use however has more comfort than a sports wheelchair and so it is more suitable to be rolled in. This wheelchair however sat less comfy. I asked if I could borrow the wheelchair so I could try if it really was that comfy, because you can't tell this in just 5-10 minutes try. Henk could pick up the wheelchair on Friday and then they would immediately make the back support a bit lower (this was probably the reason that it was a bit less comfy than the sports wheelchair, because when I wanted to roll myself my upper arms touched the back support). Accidentally that weekend there was a fair in my town and so I could try him really well. I went with my parents to the fair in my new wheelchair and they were right, now that the back support was a bit lower it sat more comfy even as comfy as the sports wheelchair. They also had adjusted the rear wheels a bit forward so it rolled lighter. Well I can tell you that I really enjoyed that weekend in my new wheelchair. I even went for the first time in 6 years all alone and by my self for a hamburger about 75 meters from our home!!!! And I didn't get sick from the hamburger. I know that I am also a bit more independent in my electric wheelchair, but there the motor does the work and now I DID IT ALL BY MYSELF!!!! I feel just like a small kid with a really nice and big present.
Here in the Netherlands you can get things like a wheelchair from the government if they also think that you need it. There are several congregations and each one works on itself, so it can be that when you live 100 miles further you won't get a wheelchair. Luckily where I live they don't do that difficult. They even have some kind of contract with the rehab that if a patient comes for for example a wheelchair and it suits and the procedure is started, the rehab may give the client the wheelchair. So guess what?! I may keep the wheelchair!!!!
I did call Tuesday however to tell that I was really glad with the wheelchair. The person from my congregation was also happy for me and he said that he would shorten the procedure and that I may keep the wheelchair, it was then only a matter of putting it on paper!!!

And this is my new wheelchair:

As you can see you can fold him very easy and very small, which is ideal to take with you in the car.

Maybe you remember that last year April I had asked for more nursing hours and that this has been rejected and that they took me hours away. Of course I appealed against this decission from RIO. Just before Christmas I got the offer:
or a new examination by another examinator and what they say is binding, or the old contract (22 hours pgb) till it ends in April 2003 and then a normal examination. In this case I do had to recall my appeal.
After consultation with the SPD (a free organisation for disabled people) I choose the last option, because I didn't want to have more stress due to another examination during the holidays. Because I chose this option I afterwards had a bit of luck. That contract of 22 hours pgb would end April/May 2003 and so I called by then RIO for an examination, but according to their computer that wasn't necessary yet because the contract would end June 2004. It really confused me, but they told me to call the care-office and so I called them a couple of days later.
First of all, the one on the phone was mad at RIO, because they should have called them instead of letting me do all the work... I have to say that I liked it that she was mad at RIO. Then she checked it out and it appeared that RIO has the new contract of less hours in their computer, the one I objected to. And it seemed... they (the care-office) had written down the wrong end date for mistake of the old contract of 22 hours pgb, so that instead of April 2003 it now was December 2003. This was their mistake (in my advantage) and they didn't correct this, so now I have 22 hours pgb till December 2003 and only in November I have to ask for a new examination.
If I then will be examined it will be according to the new rules, so I am curious what it will get me... so will be followed.

June 2003 part 2

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