scooters

I'm a mid-level and I write for occupational health evaluations all the time for scooters for my pts. They do assess competencies and ability to be safe while driving. For some of my pts it has been a godsend.

i can only walk about 200 feet before i get really really pooped. i use a cane in fall, spring and summer and a hemi walker in winter. around the house, i just walk and hold on prn. for long hauls, i have a wheelchair and an electric cart. it's very similar to the ones in walmarts, except it is bright red.

we went into a medical supply house, i tried several, picked a style and the color. we paid and they delivered it. the man gave my husband and me a quick refresher on how it worked and that was it. we had already had a heavy duty outlet installed and it lives outside year round,covered in bad weather.

it gives me back my freedom (to a degree) and makes travel easier. i just go out the back door, unplug it, and off i go! usually to the library. i ride on the sidewalk, as i was requested to do. i obey the very same traffic laws i did when i drove. if you don't think "people like me" should be driving anything, get the ^&*% outta my way, because i am as safe a scooter driver whether i'm in my fire engine red scooter or the generic walmart scooter.

kathy

shar pei mom:paw::paw:

i do realize there are people who are hazards driving scooters. i really do. fwiw, i still have a valid driver's license with my neuro's approval. my point was that i would guess there are more unsafe car drivers than scooter drivers on the loose. when you wind up in a scooter, you are so terribly aware every moment that you aren't who you used to be... if you were not always disabled.

when you used to be able bodied and suddenly find yourself in another body that doesn't work as well, you become safety conscious like you would not believe. despite the fact that i still have a valid license, i no longer drive a car because i don't feelit would be prudent. i wonder how many careless

wreckless scooter drivers were lousy car drivers and how many have become senile?

something else i have noticed is the sense of entitlement some persons in scooters at walmart and on the street have just because they are in a scooter. didn't have it before and don't have it now. i think that feeling accounts for some of the "scooter driver attitude."

i became a different person the day after my 54th birthday, but my mind was unaffected. not everyone is so fortunate.

kathy

shar pei mom:paw::paw:

i do realize there are people who are hazards driving scooters. i really do.

....

something else i have noticed is the sense of entitlement some persons in scooters... on the street have just because they are in a scooter.

i've seen this too, and it's the same with kids on bicycles and young people on motorcycles. i wonder if they care that they will absolutely lose if they get in a pi**ing match with even the smallest car on the road, regardless of the skill of the car driver.

i hate scooters, plain and simple. the bruises on my ankles are testimony to the rudeness and sense of entitlement of the new breed of motoring grannies in my grocery store. with a few exceptions, they all seem to be overweight with lots of junk food (or alcohol) in their carts. i know, i know, be kind and don't generalize.

i just seem to live in a place where the myth is the reality.

i'm not anyone's granny, i don't weigh 300 pounds, we buy organic or natural mostly, we are teetotalers, and to the very best of my knowledge and belief (one of my lawyer parent's phrases,)

i have never ever bruised anyone's shins or ankles, and i know i have never ever run someone down.

but, if i'm honest, i have considered it a time or two. ya know, some of us have hidden medical problems. i had a stroke when i was in my early fifties as the result of an earlier aneurysm rupture.

i look like my old self when i'm seated. my cousin with ms looks "normal" but is too weak some days

to walk around the supermarket. another cousin has advanced severe ra and she appears "normal" too.

we all have a handicapped placard for our cars.

i realize some people who use the scooters do have an entitlement mentality and some are too heavy, while some of us look like there is nothing wrong with us. i also know some people drive like bats out of hades, but not all of us. many of us have conditions that don't show at first glance. i've had lots of pt and my pt suggested that when i/we grocery shop, i walk some of the length of an aisle (as much as i am able) three or four times while there. it never fails!! some righteous soul takes me to task loudly because i dared to use a scooter when i didn't need it!

i guess the message buried in all this verbiage is: don't assume! also, only about half the scooters in a store are charged enough to work effectively. if the power is low, they go in spurts and run jerkily and come to a sudden unexpected stop. my own scooter has a blue light that warns me when i only have an hour of power left, but store carts don't. being in a position of having to become dependent on others when you weren't before can be galling. much of it can depend on how people treat you. we aren't all fat, lazy, entitled, booze-guzzling junk food consuming wierdos. try just looking beyond why we use a scooter. and, yes, shake your mental fist at the others because before they drove scooters in the street or the grocery store, they were probably lousy drivers who parked down the center of two parking spaces and ran their shopping carts up the backs of your heels.

kathy

shar pei mom:paw::paw: