Feeding Chair

November 24, 2009

Feeding Chair

Good news!! I have been working on getting Waverly a feeding chair for 6 months. The process is quite tedious - prescription from the doctor, letter of medical necessity, letter of support from the PT, many forms, insurance requests. Whew! And of course insurance will deny the request and so you have to begin the appeal process. Well I finally received a letter last week stating approval for a positioning chair. Today we met with a durable medical goods supplier. He came to Wavey's PT appointment to fit her for the best chair. It looks like we have a winner. She will be getting a chair from Prospect Design. It has a comfy seat, lateral supports, head support, footrest and tray. This little piece of equipment is going to change our lives. Currently she is in a booster seat and is able to fall out/tip it over. So we have to hold onto the chair while she eats to keep her safe. I also have no place to put her safely if I need to tend to Oliver or even take a quick shower. The chair has wheels and it is close to the ground, making it easy for me to back her into it without lifting her. (65 pounds is getting heavy!) I am so thoroughly excited!! And we should have it in just a few short weeks. It is the little things.

Comments

Jenkins said…

The chairs looks so cool and seems like it would be great support for her and comfort for you!

November 24, 2009 at 9:26 PM

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.