So 18 months from when I first requested assistance from palliative care to transition to a power chair until delivery, but only 2-3 months after starting to work with a quality vendor, my new wheelchair arrived this week!!! It is a Permobil F3 Corpus and with guidance from the vendor, we were able to get everything covered by Medicare and Medicaid - chair, tilt and recline, motorized leg rests, transportation tie downs, adapted hooks for my IV backpack, etc.

For me, going from my manual chair (a TiLite Aero Z) to a power chair has been a bit of a challenging transition. I have never used any kind of power chair or scooter before (or played video games even like with a joystick) and I have the fine motor and visual spatial skills of a drunken toddler. My frustration tolerance for learning new things is quite low, and I have both the temper and stubbornness that come with being a ginger Irish German hybrid.

How long does it take before it gets easier? I’m nervous I will never master this enough to even go on the bus (my only transportation). Are there any adapted controls that might be helpful given I have the movement to use a joystick but seem to be lacking the fine motor skills? Is there any trick to making it less jerky upon starting to backup (or often just move at all)?