Tuesday, September 6, 2022

VlogVenture: Will My Batteries Make it. Wheelchair Test

 Lately, I've discovered that my power tilt wheelchair suddenly turns red indicating that there is no more power in the batteries. The batteries in a wheelchair like mine look like the size of a car battery. There are two 12 volt batteries. Back in the olden days, my first power wheelchair came to me when I was
about 17 years old, the batteries needed to be changed out every year. During the modern era, my batteries seem to last for years. About three or four. Mind you, I don't trek around the countryside like I used to. Once we got married and had a vehicle, there was no need to be bouncing around the streets. But recently when I spend the night sleeping in my wheelchair, (that's if I even sleep, I'm usually waking up and moving around napping and moving around again). By the next evening my chair battery light jumps from having power to no power. Which is a very alarming thing when your wheels are your legs. 


Watch Video Below


Craig and I have a seating clinic to go to this week. We are both qualified to get new wheelchairs through the governments assistive devices program. This program cover is 75% of the cost of a wheelchair. The bizarre thing is they do not cover batteries which are quite expensive these days. So far I haven't decided if I want a whole new wheelchair, because we have to cover the other 25%. And since this time I definitely am in need of a power tilt, with the reclining feature which also means electric foot rest that go up and down... I am guessing the entire price goes up another $10,000. Because my chair is a special teacher, and it's quite expensive the provincial government technically owns my chair. Even though we pay 25% and have to pay for maintenance and new batteries for however long we have it. I am thankful that we are blessed with such a program. At the same time a bit confused but that's OK. in the meantime I have this chair, dying batteries and an odd sound that's been coming from my left we'll pretty much the whole time I've had the chair. I have been paid for a couple of check ups, to find out what was wrong but to no avail. That's one of the main reasons why I also think I might go for the new chair and not just a new cushion and a new back. You are entitled to get a new cushion and a new back every two years through the government program.

Unfortunately when I started filming this video, the phone was having problems with storage space. I thought I cleared everything out to film but then sure enough it cut out after four minutes. The silly thing is I kept talking and filming not knowing it had cut out. So I really was talking to myself.

The answer to the question that I set out to answer by going for a walk to the location of our seating clinic this week is..... Yes. Made it there and back and my battery light says full. I will see what happens this evening because that's when it could jump to red meaning empty. The nerve-wrecking thing is the chair still moves around on red so I don't know if it just stops suddenly or what. All my older wheelchairs I always gave me a warning and they literally started to slow down to a tortoise pace.

Thanks for stopping by Hope you have a great day.

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