The Weight of the World

Maggie is better. She does not have pneumonia, but she's on antibiotic #4. Hopefully this is the ONE. They did do a culture, so if this isn't it, we will know what will work in a few days.

Today is the last day of school before the Christmas Break. Any other day I would keep her home, but I let her go today. I have to go by the school now to retrieve the power wheelchair so Maggie can practice over the break. I can check on Mag at the same time and drag her out of there if she's not doing well. Of course I can't fit both Maggie in her regular chair AND the power chair in the van at the same time, but we will figure that out. The power chair can come home on the bus if need be.

Unless you have to deal with it every day you cannot imagine how big all this equipment is. I learned yesterday that Maggie's wheelchair weighs 97.2 lbs. That's empty, WITHOUT Maggie sitting in it and without all the machines hung off the back. Maggie weighs 61.5 lbs and the suction machine, oxygen tank, communication device, tray , pole and emergency trach supplies always on her chair weigh another 20 lbs easily. Moving Maggie around requires manipulating almost 200 lbs.

Of course it's on wheels and designed very well, but perhaps you can appreciate the frustration we experience when we encounter the barrier of a step or two. There's a reason for curb cut outs. We cannot just lift her. And she's tiny. Imagine a grown man or woman.

Maggie cannot stand up or even sit up on her own. Therefore in order to weigh her, we simply just put the chair on a special scale and subtract the weight of the chair. Every time we get a new chair or change it around at all we have to re-weigh the empty chair. I had a sticker on the back of the chair with the weight, but it must have fallen off. Besides, I think we've added an additional part of the head piece since she was last weighed anyway. I'm putting the information on the back of the chair and taping it over with a see through tape so we don't have to do that again any time soon.

The medical assistant was not pleased at having to wait for us to unload Maggie and take all the equipment off the chair so we could weigh it. She suggested I get on the scale alone and then get on again holding Maggie.

Um....no. Thanks, really, but no.

The thought of my weight blasting through the clinic on the giant digital read out was not the least bit entertaining. Besides, we needed to know the information for the next time.

She was not happy with me and decided to stand impatiently while we stripped the chair of the equipment. I'll just unload everything, and take Maggie out. Once that was done she changed to a snails pace. I was trying to hold Maggie, who was coughing and squirming while the woman very S L O W L Y weighed the chair. By the time I put her back in I think I lost a pound or two.

SO it wasn't all for naught.