Friday Shuffle - Progress! Edition

The wheelchair thing! The endless saga of the new wheelchair! We may finally be reaching the end. Is that light I see?

On Tuesday B called the insurance company's state headquarters in Stendal to speak with the lady who's been trying to get a hold of Mr. Medical Supply. She would call and leave messages for him to call her back and he wouldn't. One thing I'll say for Mr. Medical - he's consistently negligent. This time, however, we gave her the number for his cell phone and I'm sure when she finally reached him it was a conversation to be savored. At any rate, on Wednesday we got a call from the local office of the insurance company to make an appointment to come see B and find out just why he needed a new push wheelchair and why he needed a more expensive than normal one.

Shortly after 9:00am on Thursday the representative from the local insurance office came to our flat and I'll say it now. She was the weirdest woman I've come across in ages. For those of you who live in Germany, I can give you a bit of an idea of what she was like: I opened the door and for a moment I thought she was Cindy aus Marzahn. She wasn't, of course, but dang. And she sounded like her too. Anyway, she came in and B explained to her his reasons for needed this particular wheelchair, which she dutifully wrote down - and then proceeded to start some conversation about fishing for eels on the Baltic Sea. B and I both were sitting there with stuck on smiles and laughing when appropriate but I knew from the look in his eyes and he knew from mine that on the inside all we were thinking was "What in the hell is she going on about? And could she please just leave?". I didn't dare give any indication in any way that I thought she was batshit crazy because hey - we needed her to say to the office in Stendal that they should approve the request.

We must have been convincing because today when B called the lady in Stendal, she said the woman who visited us on Thursday sent the report and it was approved and notification of it had been sent to both us and the medical supply company. All that's left is for them order the wheelchair and have it delivered.

I'm secretly hoping that Mr. Medical Supply will be the one to deliver the wheelchair because making him squirm would absolutely thrill me no end but I don't think he's got a pair big enough to make him show up. In any case, he's not off the hook with us yet. Writing letters to companies to discuss their customer service is something at which I excell and I believe this will be no exception.

There's one last thing I should mention before we drop the subject of this push wheelchair and that's this: we can't get a chest belt for this wheelchair without getting a notarized statement from B that a chest belt for this wheelchair will be put on him with his permission. This chest belt is important because if we're on, say, a streetcar where there could be sudden stops that could make his body go out of balance it would keep him from sliding dangerously from side to side. Or if I'm pulling him up a curb or pushing him over cobblestone - you get the picture. There's one on B's electric wheelchair. However the insurance company told us one can't be put on the new one without this notarized request (and for those of you who don't know this - in Germany only lawyers are notaries) because things like wheelchair seatbelts/chest restraints and side rails on beds can trap in a person against their will and their need to be free superceeds their need to be safe. I then remembered our doctor telling us last year that her MIL slid out of a wheelchair and broke her leg but since she hadn't signed to be restrained in her wheelchair, the nursing home couldn't do anything about it and she would be free to fall out on the floor again. Let's think about this. People in wheelchairs - people who can't walk - need the freedom to get up out of their wheelchairs whenever they want. Okay! So if B wants this chest belt we're going to have truck him down to a lawyer's office to get a notarized statement - and pay a lawyer's hourly fee for it. The upside is that he'll have a new wheelchair to roll down there in. The downside is that he may fall out in the middle of the street while getting there.

We need to shuffle.

1. Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2. Under The Blacklight - Rilo Kiley
3. Somebody To Love - Queen
4. The Game Of Love - The Mindbenders
5. Come And Get Your Love - Redbone
6. Standing In The Way Of Control - Gossip
7. This Tornado Loves You - Neko Case
8. Seven More Times - Maria Doyle Kennedy
9. Tonight - Shooting Star
10. Leaving On A Jet Plane - Peter, Paul & Mary

Dig all those girls singing.