23 March 2025
I've been losing sleep trying to think of ways to get Joyce from Golden Heights to Kaiser in San Francisco for her debridement on Tuesday with Jennifer the RN.
When we get to the exam room, Joyce has to stand up from the wheelchair and pivot to the exam table without the aid of a walker. That's about the same move she'd have to make to get into a car.
And getting off the table and back into the chair isn't a far cry from getting out of the car and into the wheelchair.
So can we take a car?
I asked Amy Bayley, who had volunteered last month, but she's going to be out of town. Then I thought of all my friends who have been driving me but all of them drive SUVs or trucks and Joyce would have to climb into them, which is not what she does at the exam table. Because she can't climb.
She's been getting there in a St. Mark van but because she's traveling across a county line, she has to pay for it. And it isn't cheap. The round trip is $240.
But on my visit today I had a thought.
I parked in one of the two handicapped spots whose passenger side is not obstructed, put the placard up and thought I just might try getting Joyce in the car by myself.
I'd preferred two able-bodied people for this adventure but my mother managed to get from her wheelchair to the Lexus when I took her home for lunches, so why can't Joyce? Joyce can certainly walk further than my mother could so it's worth a try, I thought.
After she got dressed, I rolled her out of the place to the car, a 2001 Honda Civic HX. I locked the wheelchair, unlocked the car and explained the game. Stand up, walk a step to the door, hold on, pivot and sit.
And she did it.
I had to help her get her legs off the ground and into the car, but she got the seat belt on and we were ready to go two days early.
How about getting out, though?
That was a little more difficult. She screamed because she thought she was falling back but the decorative belt I found in a drawer of her belts served as a PT belt and I kept her upright.
She turned and fell into the chair a little awkwardly. She was in too much of a rush. But she did it.
So by parking the facility's garage I'd be able to get her out of the car and into the chair for the two-elevator ride to the Wound Care Clinic.
But I left it up to her. Take the van for $240 or ride with me for, uh, $500, considering the entertainment. I texted the Julian the Transport Guy that either way would work but it's up to her. And he promised to let me know what she decides tomorrow.