My new best friend...the Quickie GP wheelchair

Ok, so my previous post today was suppose to be done last week but you caught me slacking. In tonight's class we simulated not being able to speak as well as some hearing loss. I will write about that later in the week, but right now I want to touch on my first hour with a wheelchair. You might remember me mentioning in the Disability Sport Class post that I would have to use a wheelchair for a week. Well this happens to my week.

Needless to say that within the first five minutes of having the chair I realized how difficult this week will be. First off the model chair I was given is a Quickie GP (a link I found from SPORTAID that sells these chairs) and the backrest folds down and rear wheels have quick release mechanism, so you know what I am working with. As I exit the building I quickly find out my chair has an alignment issue and pulls to the left. To counter this I must put more force into the left wheel to keep the chair straight. This wouldn't be much of a problem if I was left handed or if I was a body builder. Those of you that do not know me I am a runner and have a runner's body (i.e. I DON'T HAVE BIG ARMS) so I plan to be plenty sore after these seven days are up.

Next issue arises a couple of minutes later when I get to my car. I wish I had a Transformer model wheelchair that folds up into a little box but unfortunately that was not an option. The car I drive does not have a big trunk and after numerous attempts to get it in I got frustrated and just threw it in my back seat (we are allowed to get out of the chairs to load and unload out of our vehicles since we don't have wheelchair accessible rides). Yes, I probably should have went that route in the first place, but I could not figure out why it would not just fit in the trunk. If it wasn't so cold outside I would probably still be in that parking lot trying to get that chair in the trunk (some may call me stubborn).

Fortunate for me I have wheelchair access to the main door of my apartment. I never realized how steep the ramp was until tonight though. For safety sake I did have my girlfriend stand behind me (no wheelie bars on this model). I will admit that was a good workout and my abs (yes I said abs, not arms) hurt more than when I did a medicine ball workout earlier today.

I will be writing a few posts throughout the week as I am sure I will encounter more obstacles along the way. I may even attempt a video blog so you all can see the fun I will be having. So make sure to keep tuning in all week long and look for my post later this week about the non-speaking simulation we did in class tonight. Like I have mentioned before, feel free to leave comments, preferrably with advice and encouragement =)