The type of
wheelchair transfers I do are called “stand – pivot.” The reason that I can
stand at all is because of the spasticity in my legs and Kim’s firm grip on the
back of my pants, not because of actual standing ability. During this type of
transfer there is a critical maneuver where I rotate 180° and land at my
destination. It works pretty well, almost all the time.

But last
Friday morning my legs lost their spasticity halfway through the pivot, and I
started crumpling to the floor in slow motion. My legs were stuck in an awkward
and painful position under my full body weight. “Pull me forward. Pull me
forward!” I implored Kim. She was able to do that and I had a semi-smooth
landing, face down on the carpeted floor.

Kim rolled me
over and placed pillows under my head and under my knees. I was comfortable. We
did the usual roll call of body parts and found that, once again, I had fallen
without significant injury. She then went out into the garage to gather up the
various pieces of our portable Hoyer lift. This would be the second time we had
used this lift in the last year to raise me off the floor.

Did I mention
that my daughter and her longtime boyfriend have moved into our house? There’s
probably enough interesting material on this subject for a future blog post.
Anyway, Nick heard Kim making noise while gathering up the Hoyer lift
components, so he emerged from their luxury accommodations at the back of the
house (which I fear are so cushy that they will never leave) so that he could
help get me off the floor. The Hoyer lift is barely adequate for transferring a
disabled person from a wheelchair to a bed, or vice versa. But this lift is not
set up well for picking a large person off the floor. Therefore, Nick had to
support my head and back while Kim operated the lift. Before long I was back in
my wheelchair, only slightly battered and bruised from the ordeal.

Each of my
transfers is now a near fall, except
for the ones that are actual falls. I
know that you are tired of reading about this sort of thing, and I am tired of
writing about it, not to mention living through it. I realize that there are
several choices for safer transfers. Instead of the stand – pivot, we can do
the squat – pivot. Kim has been trained on this procedure. We can also use a
slide board. I ordered one and it arrived last week. But these
are merely incremental improvements. I’m inclined to make a dramatic improvement.
What if there was a system that provided much safer transfers and actually
allowed me to accomplish these transfers independently? How cool would that be?
Well, there is such a system, and I’m trying to get my hands on one.

Stay tuned to
this channel for further updates….

Here’s one
parting quote on the subject of falling, by a man who ought to know.

“The greatest
glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”  ― Nelson
Mandela