We did have a positive thing happen yesterday. Peyton FINALLY got her new chair! We've been trying to get Peyton some sort of adaptive seating system since OCTOBER last year! Actually, we had been trying for a few months prior with nothing happening. However, the pre-certification, denial, then approval, then order, etc. of Peyton's new chair finally went through. Ron picked it up yesterday. It's a "Special Tomato" brand multipositioning seat. It is a seating system which sits on a "push chair" base. See website link:
This company is not where we ordered the chair from, but it does give you a good idea of what her chair is like (except hers is a deep purple/plum colour and not blue as shown on this site). We also got the chair with the optional tray so that she can now play with toys in front of her from a sitting position!! This will be great for her.
This seating system is what Peyton will use for mobility for the foreseeable future. While we don't know what her future holds in terms of mobility on her own, we do know that a stroller doesn't quite cut it for her at this point and she needs something such as this seating system to allow her to be more fully integrated into daily activities.
While I am saddened at the thought of having my child in what is essentially a wheelchair, I am grateful that such equipment is available. I am excited about getting her into it and allowing her to experience her world from a sitting position! I think that this chair will also build strength in Peyton's upper body which will hopefully extend to her legs and perhaps help her mobilize herself in other ways such as crawling! Wouldn't that be awesome!?!
As for this chair, we're still trying to wrap our heads around how we're going to transport this to and from the babysitter's every day. Our '99 Neon is too small to easily transport this chair. The base folds down like an umbrella stroller, though much bigger, and the chair itself is larger and extremely heavy. We just got an '07 Ford Edge in June. While it is bigger, the chair and base will take up the entire back end. And then there's the minor detail of HOW I am supposed to get this thing in and out of the Edge (my car...and I'm the one who picks Peyton up at night). I honestly don't know if I can lift the chair! The base, probably not a problem. The chair - doubtful. Ah...the challenges we face!! Oh well, at least I'm in for a good workout! We'll work out logistics...we're just happy we finally have the chair!
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