Field Trip

Jon and 2 others with their families went on a field trip to Drew's house. Drew is also a quadriplegic like Jon. He has use of his arms, can bend his elbows and use his wrists but does not have use of his fingers. He lives by himself. He has Aides come in the morning to get him up and in the evening to put him to bed. A nurse comes around 5:30. He works fulltime and drives a van. With the exception of his bedroom, his house looks like anyone elses. The modifications were made with things that you find in any home improvement store, not special orders or special equipment. His floor plan is open so he has no hallways. His kitchen counter and table are lowered to wheel chair height, he keeps his microwave on the table so he can access it. His cupboards have the slide out shelves for accessibility. He had to re-do the office floor as it was a sunken room. He leveled it out and put down a hardwood floor. His computer mouse is the ball and has 4 programmable pads. He is a photographer and has a studio in his house as well as going to an office. He uses a pencil in a hand brace to type. His bedroom door has not been modified and Jon was able to get through it!! He had about a 2 inch clearance. The bedroom has a lift attached to a track system on the ceiling. It is much less bulky than the hoyer lift at the center. The track system goes over his bed and continues over to the bathroom. The bathroom has a door on it but is open above the door for the lift to go on the track. The lift ends over a shower chair. He moved the wall out 1 foot. It is a sweet setup. The sink is outside the bathroom like you find in hotel rooms. It was like that to begin with. He lowered the height, set the sink back just a little so he would not get his shirt wet. The trap under the sink was adjusted so that he could get his chair all the way under. The closet doors were removed and a closet organizer system (from Lowes or Home Depot) put in. It was really nice and very nice of Drew to open his house for us to see.

While we were there, Jon's friend Mark called me. I knew he was in town but didn't think he was coming until Wednesday night. It was nice for him to see the changes, since he is in Defiance and I am down here he can help Mom with some changes that need to be made. Our Uncle Frank is in construction and helped re-do our cousin Marks space and our cousin Dean is in construction so we have several people to help. Of course Dad also has construction experience. We will still need people to help with the actual work as Uncle Frank is in Florida and Dean is in Marion. After we got back to the center, Jon and Mark were able to visit and catch up.

Thanks for checking in.

Blessings,

Barb