ysobel | Well, crapadoodle.

My chair is not working.

Problems started last night, roughly 8:45, where it stopped working -- the joystick unit would turn off and on but none of the functions worked, the mode toggle button didn't cycle into tilt mode, the sideways tilt didn't do anything, and cycling off and on didn't help. I called roommate in to do a visual check, but at that point it started working okay.

Repeated five minutes later, again started working after a few minutes.

Repeated about five minutes later and DIDN'T start working. None of the functions work (if I e.g. press the lights button, the little blue indicator light on the joystick saying it's on will light up, but the lights don't come on). The panel of buttons in the back that I never use (that give non-joystick control over tilt functions) don't work. The sideways tilt doesn't work. And it doesn't sound like anything even tries to engage, there's just no response.

None of the times was there any particular trigger.

Luckily the third time I was mostly in position to go to bed, so transfering out was not a problem. I pulled the backup chair out of the closet, it does work (yay for remembering to keep it charged), but AUGH. It isn’t really set up for my current physical situation (it’s about ten years old now, and when I got it I could still move enough to go to the bathroom by myself most of the time and dress by myself and stuff, so a lot of the switches and buttons and whatever are neatly out of the way where I can no longer reach them), and it's way less comfortable.

...I was half tempted to just say fuck-it and stay in bed all day anyway.

(Except for the bit where I can’t really drink anything in bed, and dehydration on top of caffeine headache may not be the best idea ever.)

And the situation is not likely to resolve quickly -- between the whole insurance stupidity of requiring preauthorization for wheelchair repairs, and then once they get that and diagnose the issues they’ll probably have to order parts. So the next few days are going to suck rather a lot.

Meh.

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synecdochic

Oh, no. Oh, that's the last fucking thing you need right now. :(

It seems like you've had tons of problems with the chair lately. How often will the insurance pay for a new one? (Or will they not, until/unless it breaks completely?)

Barring that, is there a basic-but-more-comfortable chair that would work for you as a backup chair? We could pass the hat for it, and that way at least you'd have a backup chair that works more comfortably for you.

ysobel

Insurance pays for a new one after five years, and it's close to that if not over ... *but* I am kind of wary about getting a new chair because my current one has the side to side tilt (when you have zero mobility, an extra few inches to the side can help, plus it makes repositioning and pressure relief stuff a ton easier) and they don't make that any more. So I've been hesitant.

(And for example, because I can't reach to the side, locking/unlocking my front door is fuccrently only possible by tilting to the side. And by fuccrently I mean currently, wtf fingers)

Really I just need the ability to produce an original clone of the current chair on demand *wry grin*

(And there really is no option for a basic chair that I can still use ... way back a long time ago when I had a lot more leg mobility I used to have a regular manual chair that I could maneuver by "walking" with my feet, but that isn't possible any more; a basic power chair without tilt wouldn't allow me to reach anything, since I would be pretty reclined; and once you start getting into tilt and other functions, it's not really basic any more.)

Oh, argh, yeah, if they don't make the side tilt as an option anymore I can see why you're clinging to the existing one.

And yeah, I ment basic power chair, but I hadn't realized the tilt added so much to the price. ....Now I'm curious. I'm totally going to lose a day to researching this at some point, I just know.

Re the basic power chair -- there is also the complication that (since I can't reach to the side) the steering has to be remounted on an extension, and rewired for the length, but said extension needs to be able to move out of the way so I can use my hands for stuff and also get out of the chair, and that is not so much expensive as hard to arrange and get set up and stuff.

My life is fun. /o\