CEREBRAL PALSY STORIES: Airplane Aisle Chair Basics 101-The Fundamentals Of Disabled Air Travel

The aisles of an airplane are very narrow.  Watch out for the safety of your arms and legs!

As many of you who follow this blog know, my family and I have a passion for traveling.  Ever since I was born, we've traveled to numerous places around the world.  Sometimes these traveling adventures are road trips.  Other times they involve using air travel to get to our final destination for whatever trip we are on at a certain time.

If you've been following our latest traveling adventure, then you know that we just went on another European excursion for the 10th time to Berlin and and Munich in Germany as well as Prague in the Czech Republic.  What you may not know too much about is the process involved in getting someone with a physical disability or impairment on an airplane.

Your basic Airplane Aisle Chair.  

These chairs are small in size because they have to to be wheeled down the narrow aisles of an airplane.

One of the most common tools that airlines use when helping someone who has a physical disability onto an airplane and into their seat is what is known as an aisle chair.  Now if your assigned seat is close to the the front of the plane, then it would probably be best to let the airline employees know that you can manage to board without the use of an aisle chair if you are able to do so with assistance from your caregivers.  I should also mention for those who might be wondering just when a person with a disability or any other special needs boards an airplane, we usually are the first ones to get on the plane in the boarding process and the last ones to get off.  

If you are not assigned a seat towards the front of the plane and are given a seat in row 29 for example, then the use of an aisle chair is probably required unless an airline is nice enough to upgrade your seats closer to the front of the airplane.  It's during those times when all options for potential seat upgrades have been exhausted that people with disabilities and those they are traveling with (family members or otherwise), need to know what to expect and do while using an aisle chair when traveling by air.

To begin with one of the first things to take into account about an airplane aisle chair is just how narrow, skinny and cramped they are compared to a regular manual or power wheelchair.  The reason for this is because the aisles in an airplane are pretty narrow and cramped to begin with, so it wouldn't make sense to design any aisle chair using the specifications for a regular manual or power wheelchair.

From my own personal experience of using aisle chairs, I can tell you that it does get easier to use one the more you practice with it and the more you travel and see the world.  As an example, one of things that I started doing to practice and prepare myself for this latest trip to Europe and even as far back as our trip to Costa Rica last year was seeing how well I could fold my arms in for those tight spaces on an airplane between the arm rests of the seats and the aisle.  Based on this latest traveling adventure, I feel that I've got the arm-folding move down pat.

Another thing to consider about airplane aisle chairs is the kind of straps they use to secure you in place when boarding for your flight and where they are located on the chair itself.  Usually there are two sets of strap restraints that go across both the chest and arm area of your body and another set of restraints that go across your legs and feet.  Most aisle chairs even come equipped with arm rests on each side to give you even more of a secure feeling when heading to your seat on the plane.

Even with all the security the aisle chair restraints helps provide, it is very important that you practice with the arm folding movements I mentioned above and see how well you can do with it if your are considering traveling somewhere on an airplane because it is only going to help you in the long run when traveling by air.  Not to mention the fact that that is one of the questions the airport employees who are responsible for getting you on the airplane and to your seat will ask you before or even when boarding the plane.  Another thing that is important to keep in mind while on an aisle chair is that once you are strapped in and secured as best as possible is to stay as still as you can, keep calm and not panic if anything goes wrong because any movement you might make while on the chair will have an impact on how fast you are able to be transported off the plane.

One particular aisle chair adventure that didn't go quite as planned on our latest trip was when we had to get off our flight from Philadelphia to Dallas while heading home from Munich Germany.  Let's just say that the two gentlemen who were in charge of getting me off the plane did not know what they were doing at all.  By the time I was off the plane my body had slid almost entirely off the aisle chair.  It also didn't help that the two guys who helped me off the plane with very limited English speaking skills didn't do a good job of listening to the instructions given by my Dad who was also trying to help with the deplaning process.

It's nice to know that even with that little deplaning obstacle, my family and I made it home safe and sound once again from another successful vacation adventure.  In terms of your future travels whether you are disabled or not, I hope this post give you a little insight into another aspect of traveling with a disability that not too many people think about and may take for granted.

Tim Musick
Copyright 2016
All Rights Reserved.  

  

CEREBRAL PALSY STORIES: Adventures Of A New Power Traveling Wheelchair - UPDATE

UPDATE ON THE POWER CHAIR FROM DARRYL - NOVEMBER 2017:

Well, it's no secret that the power chair from GeoCruiser came out of the gate underwhelmingly. As you can see from the story below, the chair actually started falling apart while we were in Germany (necessitating a visit to the Berlin version of Home Depot to find wrenches and parts for an 'on the fly' repair) and went so frustratingly slow that I ended up pushing it in manual mode for most of the trip.

While that was good for exercise and weight loss on the trip, it was also very frustrating and was making me rethink what I thought was a good idea to buy this light-weight fold-able power chair for traveling.

The chair comes with a one-year warranty so off to San Jose it went, via UPS, for the company to make it right.  It came back within a month.

Fast forward to May when we went to Texas and the Florida Keys. While at first the chair seemed a bit better, as the time went on, it went right back to just crawling after about five minutes of operation.

At least this time, it wasn't falling to pieces on us.

Phone calls for help were made to GeoCruiser's dealer in San Jose, who walked me through various tips to try to improve the speed of the chair. Among the advice was to turn the batteries over and, when I told them one of the batteries wouldn't lock into place, to push it in very forcefully.

Nothing worked so off the chair went to San Jose (this is where I found out that the one year warranty only covered shipping back for the first two months - I had to pay shipping back this time since it was the 11th month).

I got an e-mail saying that they might not cover it since one of the battery connectors was smashed, the same one they told me to push in "forcefully." Several e-mails, with increasing anger, back and forth convinced them that it was their tech support that told me to mash in the battery as hard as I could.

When the manager sent back an e-mail complaining that they had to spend over $1,000 for parts to fix the chair, I basically lost it with them and reminded them that I had paid far more than that for a chair that was basically useless and that their contract with me gave me 12 months to force them to make it right...I really didn't care if they were losing money on this since the chair was a lemon from the get-go.

A week later the chair returned. Tim and I took it out for a long walk.  It worked and went much faster this time and was working very well. We decided to roll the dice and take it with us to Canada for a two week trip. I was knowing that I'd be doing a lot of pushing...in the mountains...if this happened again.

To make a long story short, the chair performed brilliantly with absolutely no problems. I just wish it had been that way from the beginning...it would have been nice not to push this chair to the heart of Europe and southern Florida.  

Now, finally, the chair is worth it.  If you do decide to buy a chair like this, make sure it really works as promised as soon as it's delivered...and hold the vendor's feet to the fire if there is anything at all you're not happy with.

Our most recent European traveling adventure to Germany and the Czech Republic was special enough that it is worthy of not just one, but two...YES TWO...Cerebral Palsy Stories.  The first Cerebral Palsy Story from our time in Europe was about the basic fundamentals of using an aisle chair while boarding and getting off an airplane.

The second Cerebral Palsy Story from our time in Europe comes courtesy of a new traveling power wheelchair we bought from a company called GEO Cruiser up north in San Jose, California.  When we were looking at the different models they offered, we opted to go with the elite model in the Geo Cruiser line of power wheelchairs for a cost of about $2,500.  Considering that there are only two models of the wheelchair offered, the choice of models wasn't very hard for us in terms of the number of models offered.  We just had to make what we felt was the best decision for us in terms of which model of the chair we thought would give us the best bang for our buck.

We also wanted to get me a new power wheelchair for traveling purposes so that I could have some independence while seeing the sights in Europe by driving myself around and not having to rely on my parents to push me around all the time to wherever we went.

There are a couple of different electric chairs to choose from. To their credit, when we called Geo Cruiser, they suggested we also look at their competitor's chair before buying. This was the EZ Cruiser wheelchair.

EZ Cruiser's warehouse is located in Van Nuys, California and Geo Cruiser is in San Jose. We were heading up to Northern California so we decided to visit both locations in person to test drive the chairs.

EZ Cruiser seems like a well-built chair and has a nice turning radius and a good warranty.
The problem with it is that the back is at a too-severe angle and it feels like I'm reclining.

Geo Cruiser is more comfortable to sit in but takes a little getting used to with it's wider turning radius and slower speed. The warranty is good but not as good as EZ Cruiser's.

The price for both chairs is almost the same and both weigh around 60 pounds, including lithium batteries. They both fold up to easily fit in a regular sized car trunk, although the Geo Cruiser folds up just a little smaller than the EZ Cruiser.

As I mentioned above, we chose to go with the elite model of the Geo Cruiser when purchasing a new traveling power wheelchair a few months before we left for Germany mainly because it's a more comfortable chair to sit in.  As with most of our other purchases, we had the wheelchair delivered to our house similar what one would have delivered to them from an Amazon.com purchase.

During the time after the new chair was delivered, my family and I took full advantage of the time we had left before our trip so that I could practice driving it around and get more comfortable with it.

Those weekly driving tests consisted of driving it to and from our backyard and back inside the house.  From what I can remember, the only negatives we discovered from these pre-traveling weekly driving tests was that the new chair didn't have quite as nice of turning radius for tight and sharp corners compared to my regular power wheelchair and that it wasn't as fast.  We even got in touch with the company again before we left to ask how we could adjust the speed and they walked us through the steps on how to make it go faster.

Fast forwarding to the week when we leave for our trip, I can already feel a difference while driving it around the airport before our first flight leaves in terms of feeling better about how to use it when navigating it around tricky turns and sharp corners, so I can't say that the weekly driving tests I did before we left didn't help because they did in terms of making me feel more confident and comfortable about my skill level when driving it.

What my family and I didn't find out until the trip was in full swing were are the cons of the wheelchair that weren't present before we left.  For instance, when I had my chair at its top speed at times, it would suddenly decide to start slowing down for whatever reason even though I hadn't turned it down to a slower speed in the first place.  When this happened, I kept having to remind my parents to slow down their walking pace just so I could keep up with them.  When that didn't work, I had to have my dad put the chair in manual mode and push it so we could get to where we were going faster.

Then there were times when some of the screws and bolts on the chair would come loose from going over the lovely cobblestone sidewalks and streets that Europe is famous for.  To manage this obstacle we ended having to go to a hardware store near our hotel as well as borrowing a wrench from the helpful staff at the hotel's front desk to tighten the loose screws and bolts.  This became a nightly ritual during our time there.  So much so that one night, the lady at the hotel's front desk already had the wrench in her hand when we returned from our sight seeing one night and said that we could give it back before we had to leave.  The good thing about that is we didn't have to hold on to it and give it back since we went to a nearby hardware store and got the necessary repair supplies.

One final downside that the chair presented during our trip was a problem with one of the chair's motors that was making it even more difficult to use because it went even slower during these times and it was also making an unpleasant grinding noise in the motor while driving it.  At this point, I was already having enough of a hard time trying to keep the chair on the right side of the sidewalk to avoid any oncoming pedestrians and bicycles that it was getting really frustrating for both my parents and myself that more often than not, we had to put the chair in manual to save us from even more headaches.

About the only silver lining we found for easier navigation of the chair for future trips came at the end when we discovered by accident a little trick where we would put the right motor on manual while driving the chair and somehow this seemed to improve the overall performance of the chair and it also seemed to go a little bit faster once we discovered this trick.  It's too bad that it took us until the trip was over to find this out for ourselves since it would have made things a lot easier for all of us in the beginning.

Since the chair is under warranty, we shipped it back to Geo Cruiser to repair the problems that we had with it. The company took about a week to make repairs and ship it back to us. We will see if the problems we encountered are fixed.

Tim Musick
Copyright 2016
All Rights Reserved.        

CEREBRAL PALSY STORIES: Mom And Dad's Night Out

As many of you may or may not know, one of the most important things to consider for any person like me who has a disability like Cerebral Palsy who has to live and go through life with it is the need to have a very dependable and very reliable set of caregivers to help take care of our daily living needs.

For me my primary caregivers right now are my dad Darryl and my mom Letty. Throughout my 30+ years of living, both of my parents have done a very good job of taking care of whatever care giving needs that I have faced on a daily basis throughout my life.

There are and have always been times though when both of my parents have needed a break for some time off from the daily grind of my own personal care giving needs. In an effort to come up with a solution for giving both of parents some time off throughout the years, we have been very fortunate and blessed that my grandmother on my dad's side of the family named Rosemary has been very able and very more than willing to take a few hours out of her day during every Tuesday night usually to watch over me and attend to any care giving needs I may have while my mom and dad get to go out for a weekly dinner by themselves and enjoy some well deserved time without me for a change!

These weekly couples only dinner gatherings have become such a big family tradition and staple in the Musick Family that my dad started referring to them by name officially as "Mom and Dad's Night Out" on his personal Facebook page with posts about where they go to dinner every week with pictures of whatever food item or dish offering they had at a given restaurant for that week.

This weekly respite time for my parents and I has been a part of our weekly routine for as long as I can remember and goes all the way back to when I was just a baby! As a matter of fact, my grandmother still lives at the same house that she rented out to my parents and I during the first eight years of my life. 

The main thing that I remember about living where we lived for the first few years of my life was that it was quite a rough neighborhood. Luckily for me and my family though from what I can remember, not a lot of bad stuff happened to us while we were living there other than one incident of a violent crime that happened at the house of the babysitter that I used to go to and a robbery that happened at our own house while my family and I were living there. 

For those of you who may be curious or want to know what the neighborhood is where my parents and I rented my grandmother's house for the first few years of my life, that would be the city of South El Monte in California.

I think that I've talked enough about some of the tough things that happened in my old neighborhood at this point. There really is no need to bore you with even more unnecessary details about what life was like for the three of us back when we lived there.

Getting back to describing in further detail what the Musick Family tradition of Mom And Dad's night out is all about these visits with my grandmother Rosemary and my grandfather Benny Joe (we called him Joe) took place a little more often during the week than they do now. Back when I was a kid, I used to go over to their house and visit with them for two days during the week for a few hours during each visit.

Unfortunately and on somewhat of a sad note, my grandfather Joe is no longer with us and hasn't been with us for the last 17 years or so.. He tragically passed away during Memorial Day weekend in 2000 after a lengthy battle with leukemia at the age of 71 just a couple months shy of what would have been his 72nd birthday in July of that year. It is somewhat hard to believe that if he were still alive today, he would be 89 years old and almost pushing 90!

That does not change the fact that in the many years that have come and now since his death, there is no doubt in my mind that he has been missed very much by everyone in my immediate family including myself. To that I say that I hope he is still resting in peace today and everyday! I hope that he might be still enjoying reading some of his favorite books or riding his favorite Indian or BMW brand name motorcycle! 

If he was still here with us, I am sure that he would also be more than happy to find out that in the years since his died, that I have not only graduated from both high school and college successfully, but I have also used what I have learned from both places to write many stories like this about traveling, family life, sports and other various subjects that I enjoy talking and reading about everyday.

Even though my grandfather Joe is no longer with us physically, I still consider myself to be very fortunate that my grandmother Rosemary is still alive and doing reasonably well in terms of her overall health for a woman of her age. In any case, in the days and years since my grandfather has passed away, the time that I get to spend with my grandmother has not only been a good source of rest and relaxation for my parents, but it has also been very beneficial to me in that I actually have someone else in my family who can come over to our house that I can talk too other than my parents for a couple hours each week. I don't really get out of the house all that often to begin with because of my disability and the fact that I don't work or have an actual paying job to go to everyday for working purposes. That aspect of my life is another long story that I might write about some other day but not right now.

As it has always been over the last several years of my life including now, my grandmother Rosemary has always been very nice and more than willing to bring me over some dinner on the days when she comes over to our house for a couple hours to watch and take care of me while my parents go out and enjoy their dinner and some much needed and well deserved quality time alone.

The weekly dinner portion of Mom And Dad's Night Out for me consists of placing a fast food order for my grandmother to pick up and bring over to my house where I live with my parents from a rotation of three or four fast food places. Those places are Wendy's, Wienerschnitzel, Burger King and sometimes McDonald's. The food orders from these four fast food places places usually consists of a double cheeseburger or a the Baconator burger with a side order of fries or a baked potato from Wendy's, an order of chicken nuggets and fries from Burger King, a polish sandwich or chicken schnitzel sandwich from Wienerschnitzel with fries and lastly a quarter pounder with cheese and fries from the restaurant with the golden arches that is McDonald's.

After I finish eating dinner from whatever fast food place that I have placed an order for in a given week from the places that I have mentioned up above, my grandmother Rosemary will then help me get set up to watch some TV in the front living room of my house by putting on the lap tray that my mom Letty made many years ago for as a place to put the various remote controls for the TV so that I would not have to hold them in my hands all the time. I should also mention that there are times where before my grandmother attaches the lap tray to my wheelchair, she will also set me up to go bathroom beforehand if I need to do so.

Once the lap tray has been put on my wheelchair and all my other care giving needs have been taken care and squared away, my grandmother will then sit down on the couch and relax as well and watch TV with me too until my parents come back home from their dinnertime out together. 

Since both of us are big baseball fans and fans of the Angels, we will try to watch whatever baseball game is going on at the time. Since we have the MLB Network channel at my house, I will usually turn it to that channel first to see if they are showing a game during that time of the night. If the Angels are playing a game while my grandmother is at our house, then I will put that game on especially because she does not get to see too many of their games anymore since she does not have any cable or satellite TV service at her house. 

When we do get the chance to watch an Angels game on TV together, things usually do take a not so funny turn at some point because if they are losing in a game, my grandmother Rosemary will usually start complaining about why Mike Scioscia does not go to the bullpen earlier than he does sometimes to replace a pitcher who might be struggling. For my grandmother, this kind of scenario can play out as early as the first or second inning of a game. 

Given that the Angels team has not been as good as it should or could have been over the last few years, both she and I have gotten very used to talking about why the team has not been that good for the last few years and the lack of moves made or not made by Mike Scioscia and the rest of the Angels team during a game.

If there are no baseball games going on during this time, then I will usually turn the channel to either one of our local news stations here in the Los Angeles area or to the FXX channel to watch a few repeat episodes of The Simpson's which she does not really care too much about. Other than those channels, there was a time when I would put it on the NBA TV or NHL Network channel but my grandmother is not a big fan of the sport of basketball and she also has a hard time keeping track of where the puck is while watching the action that is going on during a hockey game.

So there you have it. That is pretty much the whole story behind the Musick Family weekly tradition or ritual of Mom And Dad's Night Out! The last thing that I always do at the end of the night each week is to say goodbye to my grandmother before she goes back home to her house and wait until the following week for the fun to begin again at the same bat time and the same bat channel in the same bat location that is Casa de Musick or more simply put: my house!

Tim Musick
Copyright 2017
All Rights Reserved.

 








  

CEREBRAL PALSY STORIES: Keeping Up Squeaky Clean Appearances-Taking A Shower

Showering! It's a dirty job but everybody has to do it!...Even those individuals who are disabled like me. Since I am disabled from having had Cerebral Palsy all my life, I do have to have my dad help me in getting my weekly showering needs taken care of.

For us, there are two important things that help make all of our lives a little easier when it comes to giving someone like me a shower. The first is that the shower in my bathroom is a roll in shower instead of a bath tub. For people with disabilities of any kind, having a roll in shower in the bathroom is much easier to work with in the long run as compared to a regular bath tub.  The second thing that makes it easier for me and my family is that we also have a shower chair for me to sit on that we can more or less easily maneuver into the shower without too much difficulty.

Another thing that I should point out about the roll in shower and the bathroom that I use in my house is that when we first into the house where my family and I live at now, the bathroom that I use for all of my bath rooming and showering needs was not fully accessible enough at that time to meet my specific bath rooming needs. Just to give you an idea as to when my family and I moved into the house we currently live at -we moved there in December of 1995 when I was 8 years old.

As I mentioned above, the bathroom that would eventually become mine to use was not fully accessible for me to use at the time when we first moved in. To overcome this obstacle of what would be an obvious remodeling job to the bathroom in order to meet my specific needs, we enlisted the help of the San Gabriel/Pomona Regional Center who provided us with a grant to help pay for the bathroom remodeling job. For the record, our house has a total of 2 bathrooms. The one that I use for my needs and another one that my parents use.

To make a long bathroom remodeling short, it was successfully remodeled pretty soon after we first moved in to meet my needs for the most part and it's pretty good to me in the 20+ years that I have been using it.

Getting back to what this post is really about though and that would be how I take a shower, when it comes to my weekly showering needs and routine.

During the  week, my routine usually begins with an initial shave, a full body scrubbing, and cleansing with help from my dad, Darryl. On Saturdays, I have what is without a doubt the most relaxing one of the week that get to have. That is because on Saturdays, my dad will give me the opportunity to have a nice relaxing spa day in the shower to start the weekend in which I do the best I can to my capabilities and or abilities to give myself a shower. The main reason why I don't get to have a spa day during the week is because there is simply just not enough time to take advantage of the benefits of having a spa day.

When I have my Saturday spa days, I am usually able to wash my body with a wash rag consisting of the upper portions of my body including my face, arms, chest and stomach. I can also wash and scrub the upper parts of my legs right up to about to where both of my knees are. My disability with Cerebral Palsy does present some physical challenges for me in that I am pretty much unable to thoroughly wash the part of my body that my dad and I like to call the nether regions which includes the private parts on the front end of my body and the buttocks on the back end. 

Another thing that is sometimes physically challenging for me during some of my showers is that either one or both of my legs or feet will go numb from having to sit on the shower chair over a prolonged period of time. When this happens, it will usually take a while for my legs and feet to wake up and for the numbness and tingling sensations to disappear. By the time that I am transferred back into my wheelchair, the numbness and tingling sensations in my legs and feet will usually dissipate and go away once I am back in my wheelchair safe and secure.

Once the soap scrubbing with a wash rag is complete, the next of my spa day Saturdays is for me to grab the shower head that is connected to a water hose so that I can be able to rinse off the soap that is still on my body at this point. During this time that I use the shower head to rinse off my body I should also point out that just like mostly everybody else, I sometimes do sing in the shower while I rinse off just for fun and to help relax me even more than I already am at that point during my spa days.

After I finish the washing and rinsing off portions of the shower, my dad will then come back and help me with shampooing my hair and brushing my teeth with an electric tooth brush. Once that is complete my showering usually comes to an end and all that's left to do dry off and get dressed with my dad's help once again.

To help dry me off and get dressed, my dad will help me do so while I'm still in the shower. 

Once the drying off phase in the shower is finished, my 
dad will then roll me back over to my room to help me get dressed and ready for the rest of my day or night. What I wear usually depends on what time it is during the day. If I have my shower during the morning or if we have to go somewhere afterwards during the afternoons or at night, then I will usually wear my regular articles of clothing just like everybody else such as a T-Shirt, shoes, pants, shorts, leg braces and so on. If I don't have to be fully dressed to go out somewhere, then I will usually wear just my T-Shirt, some socks and a pair of boxers or briefs so that I can relax and be more comfortable during the night at home.

After I'm finished getting dressed, my dad will then transfer me back into my power wheelchair so that I can be free to roam around the house again on my own and get on with the rest of our day or night in our life until the next time my showering schedule returns. With that in mind, it's time to wrap things up and for me to get ready for the next wash, rinse and repeat cycle of my weekly showering routine.

Tim Musick
Copyright 2017
All Rights Reserved

CEREBRAL PALSY STORIES: The Musick Family Sunday Day Of Rest-Enjoying The Great Indoors And Outdoors

Sundays at the Musick Household are usually known as The Day of Rest for all three of us as it gives us a chance to unwind from the daily grind of a busy stressful week Whether it's my Dad needing to unwind from a busy week at The Office or my Mom needing a break from her daily caregiving duties for my needs, Sundays are a time when we come hang up the virtual 'Do Not Disturb' sign, get together and relax to spend some quality time alone as a family and recharge our batteries.

The first part of that Sunday relaxation ritual consists of a leisurely walk and roll between me and my Mom.  I say walk and roll because while my Mom does the actual walking, I go out in my wheelchair to face the elements of a hot sunny day or a cold and windy one.

We are fortunate enough to live in an area that has a walking trail outside directly behind our backyard wall.  This way, we already know there is a great place for us to walk that is within walking distance from our house and we don't have to get into our van to drive to it.

Once my Mom and I make our way outside, we use this time to greet our other fellow joggers and friends on the trail.  We do have to be careful though when leaving our house that we don't get hit by any cars since we live on a busy street.  We also make sure that we are fully equipped with the appropriate pieces of clothing depending on what the weather is like when we get up in the morning. If it's a hot a sunny day, I usually have to put a hat on to protect my head and eyes from the bright sunshine.  On the cooler days and months, I usually have to wear a jacket and a pair of gloves to keep my hands warm.

The length of the walking trail is about one and three-quarters of a mile and starts at Buena Vista Street at one end of the trail and finishes at Royal Oaks Park at the other end. As I mentioned above, going out on the trail is a great opportunity for my Mom and I to go out and just simply get some exercise, socialize with the other people out there and enjoy some fresh air. My Dad also uses this time that my Mom and I spend on the walking trail to cook breakfast for both him and her and then to get my weekly lunch of chicken nuggets that he wrote about in a previous edition of Caregiver Chronicles.

After my Mom and I finish up our walk on Sundays and after we have our breakfast and lunch, the next part of our family's Day of Rest routine involves a usually smooth transition to our outdoor patio in our backyard. I say usually smooth because sometimes during the Fall and Winter months, we do get some rainy and stormy weather that pops up every now and then which forces us to enjoy our time and make the most of our Sundays from the comfort found inside our house in the den area known as the Family Room.

On those days when we do get to enjoy our Sunday family time outdoors, (which is most of the time), we have our fun by taking my iPod Classic for musical entertainment and background noise purposes. Fairly recently as well, my Dad and I have been taking a small collection of board and card games such as Sorry!, Checkers or Uno to keep the good times going and keep ourselves even more occupied and busy on a Sunday morning/afternoon.

Another staple of the Musick Family Sunday Day of Rest are the multiple round of drinks that my Mom and Dad have either from a selection of  one of our famous Cocktail Hour recipes or sometimes it's  simply just a glass or bottle of beer or wine. During the cool Fall or Winter months, my Dad will also use this time on the backyard patio to light a fire in our outdoor wood burning chimney to keep us all warm and toasty.

Finally the last part of the Day of Rest for us Musicks' involves my Dad continuing to take his weekly turn of being in charge cooking a dinner selection of some sort either on the grill outside in the backyard or the stove inside the kitchen of our house.

After we finish our Sunday dinner, we wind down the end our week with some very nice and well earned relaxation time in the Family Room watching TV from the comfort of our nice leather recliners we affectionately like to call "The Cloud." The only bad thing about enjoying our Day of Rest is knowing they all have to come to an end. That is until the next rolls around and we can begin to look forward to the next one and let the Sunday rest and relaxation cycle begin again.

Tim Musick
Copyright 2017
All Rights Reserved.

  

CEREBRAL PALSY STORIES: The Handy Lap Tray

Over the years while I was growing up, my family and I have done everything possible to make it easier for me to things for myself because of my disability.  One of the prime examples of equipment that my Mom made years ago is a lap tray she got while shopping at Ikea.  When she originally bought the tray, that's all it was-just a tray.

Fungera Tray at Ikea

Now you might imagine that for someone like me, it would be somewhat difficult to use a tray while worrying about whether or not it slip off my lap and fall to the floor, but my thanks to my Mom's good skills at adapting special equipment for me over the years, she thought of this beforehand while designing it for my use.  

To make thing easier for me she did two things.  First, she put a pillowcase cover on it so that whatever we would put on it, I would be able to move it around easier with my hands since the surface of the tray was originally much more grippier that before the pillowcase was added. Secondly, she added a pair of hook straps to the tray so that it could be tied around the armrests on my wheelchair.  

The train sits on my lap and I loop the straps around the supports for my wheelchair's armrest.

Then, I hook the straps together to keep the tray from sliding off.

As for how the tray itself comes in handy for me, its main purpose is for the TV and sound remote controls while watching television.  I also use the tray to put my snack plate on during the day when I'm feeling hungry for a snack as well as my cell phone when my Mom goes for her morning run. Without it my hands and arms would definitely get stiff and tired from holding these various objects myself.  

The Handy Lap Tray has definitely proven its worth and value to me ever since I started using it many years ago.  I would say my favorite thing about it is that I don't have to roll up to the TV and change the channel like people had to in the old days.  So if you are in a family of someone who is disabled, a lap tray like mine could be useful in allowing those members of the disabled community some freedom and independence while either watching the local news or a Sunday football game in peace.

Tim Musick

Copyright 2016

All Rights Reserved.

CEREBRAL PALSY STORIES: Physical Therapy Tuneup-Going To The Gym

For anyone who has a disability like me, physical fitness is another important factor in leading the healthiest lifestyle possible for those who are physically challenged or can't walk.

My weekly workout routine consists of going to Movement Unlimited Fitness Center in Monrovia twice a week.  It's good that they are a gym that specializes in providing physical fitness services to those who are disabled.  They also offer the same services to people who are not disabled.

Some of the exercises I do at Movement Unlimited are the stationary bike for my arms and legs on Mondays for about 20 minutes or so and ten laps in a walker in the aerobics room on Fridays.

Ten laps is the goal each week that I shoot for. even though I don't always reach that goal during my walking routine.  For the weekly walking exercise, I use a specially designed walker called a Rifton Gait Trainer that is equipped with two ankle straps to keep my feet in place as well as another strap that goes around my waist to help me stand in a more upright posture position.

The laps in the aerobics room are probably the most physically demanding exercise I do on a weekly basis.  By the end of the ten laps, I usually have to take a few minutes to rest and catch my breath. I also keep track of how fast I complete the ten laps from time to time, but my Dad and I have a rule that if I stop at any point during the walk to take a rest, then we don't keep track of the time it takes to finish the laps.  On that note for those inquiring minds, my fastest time of doing tens laps in the aerobics room is around seven minutes and ten seconds.

When it comes to using the stationary bike, I recently started a new workout regimen where for about a month or so, I will spend the entire workout time on the bike in an effort to shed even more pounds off my body weight.  Up to this point, I've been keeping my body weight at a consistent 163 pounds.  So far, I've spent two complete workouts on the bike up to this point and I have to say that at the end of the first one, I could definitely feel a difference in that I felt like I was using up more energy than I would have if I was on there for the regular allotted time of 20 minutes.  The toughest part of staying on the bike so far for almost an hour is maintaining the mental focus required for such an exercise, but if it's going to help me lose a little more weight then I'm all for it.

Some other arm exercises I do are the Lat Pull to strengthen my lat muscles.  I also use the Bench Press to exercise my shoulders, but instead of laying on the bench, I put my chair in a forward-facing position to use the machine.  I also do ab crunch exercises, which are probably the second toughest exercise I do after the ten laps in the walker.  On each of these arm exercises, I do about three sets consisting of anywhere between 30-50 repetitions in those sets.  If I'm lucky enough to feel extra bursts of energy, I sometimes do one set of 100 repetitions on some of the arm exercises.

So there you have it.  An quick inside look at a workout routine from someone who is physically challenged to show you that even though someone like myself, lives life with a disability everyday, that doesn't stop me from doing my part to stay as physically fit as possible.

Tim Musick
Copyright 2016
All Rights Reserved.