Wheels For Eastie

So for the last several months, Eric and I have been going back and forth on whether we would get Easton a power wheelchair or a manual one. A power chair wasn't even in our thought process until last summer when Easton's PT said that she felt like he would be both physically and mentally capable of handling one. AWESOME! I thought. Lets do it!!! Lets give this kid the most independence that we can.

 

A month or so ago I told his PT that we wanted to be able to pick up and pay for the chair in September and she told me that we had better start trying to get him qualified then. What?!? What does that mean? Well, in order for the insurance to approve and pay for their portion of a power wheelchair, a person (no matter the age) has to be able to show that they can operate it. Meaning, if I tell Easton to go left, he will go left or if I tell him to go to his room, he will navigate down the hall and into his room or he has to be able to go up and down the ramp that would let him in and out of the house. Makes sense, but COME ON! What two year old is going to be able to do that?

 

Insurances will only pay for a new wheelchair every five years so if we don't go with a power chair now we would have to wait until he is seven or eight before we could get a new one. So why not wait a couple of years until he qualifies? Well, for one he is getting hard to haul around. I think of myself as a pretty strong lady, but 25 pounds of dead weight can be alot after awhile. Also when he turns three next year he will start preschool with the school district and they STRONGLY recommend kids have a wheelchair for class. Kind of a Catch 22 situation.

 

Well, on Wednesday we got a loaner/practice wheelchair from the nice folks at Intermountain Wheelchair. We will hopefully be able to use it for the next few months to get Easton comfortable with the idea of a power wheelchair and also give him enough practice to qualify for one. We will have to videotape what he is doing and hope and PRAY that it will be enough to get him his own chair sooner rather than later.