As I write this today, I’m playing fetch with one of my cats, Fforde. It’s very distracting, but good for my cat, so I continue to play. After about a dozen throws, he will probably tire of the game, and disappear for a cat nap, and then I can concentrate on writing. But when he brings me a mouse to toss, I have to respond! He does not take “no” for an answer.
Jim and I have 4 cats – Jasper and Fforde (named after the author Jasper Fforde, for anyone who is curious), we picked up about 4 years ago. Shakespeare and Marlowe were the 2 that had surgery on their paws, a couple of months ago, and we’ve had them 2 years. They take a lot of my time, and cost me some sleep – literally! Shakes especially has a knack for disturbing my sleep – putting his weight on my stomach eventually wakes me up feeling very uncomfortable, or purring loudly while on the pillow next to my head (or on my hair) as I sleep, or deciding that he wants his brother’s spot on the bed, so consequently biting Marlowe on the neck to get him to move. But overall they are good cats, and I’m fond of them.
Today I’ve been reminding myself about what happened the last time I ordered a new wheelchair. I love the chair I sit in now, an orange Quickie 2. But it was my second choice for a new chair, not my first.
My memory was of first choosing another chair, having some pretty serious problems with it, and then returning it. The way my memory works, I’m very good at remembering an experience, but not necessarily the details. If I see a movie, even just a couple of weeks later, I can’t recall the plot clearly. I might remember where I saw it, who I was with, and whether I liked it, but the story? – poof! Gone!
I know this about myself, so I compensate, and often keep notes tucked away in a file when I think I should try to remember something important. And so, I wondered if maybe I had kept something about that wheelchair fiasco. And indeed, I kept 4 letters on my computer related to the whole incident, and it is a story worth telling, especially to myself, as a warning of how a wheelchair purchase can really go wrong.
In 2000 - 2001 I had physical therapy for some pain, shoulder pain I believe. And like my physical therapist I have these days, my PT then was concerned about my posture. This is a common problem with high level spinal cord injured people. We don’t have trunk muscles to hold our backs really straight. Wheelchairs don’t help, especially folding chairs. By their very folding nature, the back has to be of a flexible material. With age this material stretches and gets even more curved. And folding backs curve in the wrong direction in the lumbar area, absolutely no lumbar support.
Anyway, my memory has been jogged a bit by reading these letters. My PT then convinced me that I should order a new chair to help improve my posture, even though the dark green Quickie 2 I had was only about 3 years old, and in good shape. He didn’t focus on the seat back though, but was impressed with a chair made by another manufacturer that had an adjustable seat height feature, which made the angle of the seat adjustable as a result. The idea being that I could sit up higher and straighter as long as I could, then adjust myself down to be more comfortable when I got tired. Several chairs have something like this now, though I think the mechanism is different. I don’t know, for this isn’t a feature I care about anymore.
In February 2001 I ordered a fancy new chair, all the newest features. It arrived in late April, and immediately it had 6 serious things wrong with it – tires with hard inserts instead of pneumatic ones, the wrong type of wheel locks, push rims that unacceptably hurt my hands, anti-tips (little wheels at the back to keep a chair from flipping over when going up a ramp) that hit the ground on flat ground, push handles so low that only someone 5 foot tall could push me, and a seat that was too long – hitting my knees at the back.
And those were just what I could see on the first day! I sent the chair back for fixes right away. It came back to me one month later with as many fixes as they could do – tires and anti-tips. The push rims still hurt my hands, though they were smoothed out a little. The push handles were higher now, but wobbly. The wheel locks and seat length couldn’t be changed.
But then I realized I had another worse problem. The way the seat height was adjusted was with a large screw-like post under the seat. Turn it one way, the seat goes up. Turn it the other, the seat goes down. The problem was that it couldn’t hold and lock where you set it. I’d turn the seat up, and within 2 hours it would adjust itself, and put me 2 inches lower. After a full day I felt like I was sitting in a bucket.
To wind up a long story:
I owned the chair 6 months.
During that time it was in my possession 87 days, the rest of the time it was out for “repair” – including 4 different times for the seat adjustable feature alone.
I used the chair precisely 7 days, it was that bad. The other 80 days at home it was waiting for pick up for repair.
I documented all the problems in a letter to the medical supply company where I explain why I was returning my chair. All the issues are listed there, and the dates and measurements.
Plus, there is a letter dated 4 days after I returned the chair, that I now find amusing. I refer to a bill they sent me for accessories for the chair – you know, stuff like armrests! I’m going to put that letter at the end of this blog post for anyone curious enough to read. It speaks to some of the problems with our medical insurance and medical supply industries. But for those who don’t want to read it all – my chair had been processed as a rental, in network, as opposed to a purchase. But the options for the chair, like arms, were processed as an out-of-network purchase, and I was being billed for them directly as a result, though my insurance paid 100% of costs in-network. I refused to pay, and never heard from them again.
That was 2001. 9/11 happened during that time, as did my first marriage falling apart. Overall it was a rough year.
I didn’t have the emotional energy to spend on wheelchair research or a purchase until 2 years later. I bought my current chair in Fall of 2003, the same company and model as the green one I had already. For at that time, I was not feeling like experimenting. But I’ve been happy with this chair, till now, when it’s showing its age.
If I seem hesitant about trying something new, I think it’s understandable. A wheelchair is like an extension of your body. If someone bumps against you as they move through a crowded restaurant, you feel it just as if they had hit you on the head or arm. The person who did the bumping doesn’t think of it that way, to them it’s like hitting furniture. But to the person in the wheelchair it feels more personal.
Changing your wheelchair feels risky, a bit scary. A lot of women at some point take some risk with their appearance – dying their hair, plastic surgery, new style of clothes. There’s an element of that in buying a chair too, say in choosing a bright color, or sporty look. But there’s a greater fear that it won’t work, and will even make your life harder, and that you might get stuck with it. Imagine you can only have one pair of shoes - then you’d want them to fit perfectly, not cause you pain, and go with all the clothes in your closet. Though, who has only one pair of shoes? If they cost $4000 - $6000 each, then everyone would.
This time, I am doing my research a little better than last time. Last time I relied more on the impression of my PT of the time, a non-wheelchair user, and I was willing to try a chair that I knew no one who had had experience with. This time, I’ll either get another Quickie to be really safe, or a TiLite. I know 3 people who have TiLites, and like them. Plus, I’ll make sure that either the local rep shows me chairs and features, or I’ll find them at the Abilities Expo. And if I’m lucky I’ll even get to try some of these chairs out, and sit in them before I make up my mind.
XXXXXXXXX Equipment
XXXXXXXXXX Dr.
Baltimore, MD
October 22, 2001
To Whom It May Concern:
This letter is a response to the bill you sent me dated 10/15/01, see copy attached. I believe you are billing me in error for the following 2 reasons.
1. On October 18th, before I received the bill, I returned the wheelchair and all accessories to XXXXXXX, sales representative, at your Baltimore address. There is a serious design defect in the wheelchair, which causes the seat to slowly sink at the back over a few hours. It had been worked on 4 times and was unfixable. I suggested that XXXXXXX return the chair to the manufacturer, and to let my insurance company know the chair was returned. The accessories you are billing me for were all features attached to the wheelchair, and were consequently returned as well.
2. Even if I had kept the chair, I should not have been billed for those accessories, however. In looking at my EOB from my insurance company, of which a copy is also attached, you will see some odd things. I do not believe they processed your claim correctly. When I called them to say the chair had been returned and ask them how to handle this they said that this was fine by them, since it had been entered as a rental anyway and they expected it to be returned! Actually what happened is that the chair and cushion were treated as a rental, from an in network provider (because you participate with BC/BS of Maryland). But, for some strange reason, all the accessories, which would be useless without the chair in the first place, were handled as purchases from an out of network provider! If this were entered properly, as an in network provider as you clearly are, even on the same EOB paper for the chair, then I would not have a deductible and my insurance would pay 100%. I can't imagine that you sent a claim to them calling the chair a rental, and the accessories a purchase, I believe this is the insurance company's mistake.
I don't think it's worth trying to fix the rental designation of the wheelchair itself, so that the $969.86 they gave for the wheelchair and cushion is yours. The chair should be returned to the manufacturer with a strong complaint. The cushion can be sold as new, since it wasn't used. Regarding the bill for the accessories I believe you have 2 choices. Either you can tell my insurance company that the accessories were returned and take back the bill (my preference), or you can tell my insurance company that you are in network for BC/BS of Maryland, that the claim was processed incorrectly and ask for them to pay more. They will have to zero out the old EOB and reprocess. (I've gone through this before, and because I'm an out of state member this problem happens more frequently than I can stand.) Either way you have to talk to Patient Care Management, which I believe is 1-800-332-2566. I will not pay this bill. I see you as having gotten $969.86 already for nothing gained by me. The whole wheelchair, cushion, accessories have been returned, and are not in my possession.
If any part of this is confusing, feel free to call me for clarification. If you need to verify that the chair was returned, talk to XXXXXXXX or his supervisor. I will be sending copies of this letter and supporting materials to them. This mess is the result of a poorly designed product and a poorly run insurance system. You and I have been caught in the middle of it.
Sincerely,
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