~*Show Your Ability Roadshow*~

Show Your Ability Roadshow is a one day show in six different places in New Zealand. Invacare and Hatfield Mobility are supporting the Show Your Ability again this year. Pulling together suppliers of rehab and home healthcare equipment. It's an event where occupational therapists, phsiotherapists, Needs Assessors, ACC case managers, and Service Co-ordinators can meet and try out NZ's disability equipent. Also there for Jenn to view equipment and try some powerchairs.

I was at Show Your Ability Roadshow today, which was really neat, lots of new and updated equipment to see and hear about. Invacare's stand was right near the door and it was a huge stand with some new powerchairs to see and try out. I didn't try any of them, but did see how the New Standing Dragon Vertic powerchair working. Invacare also had a new powerchair called the Adventure Alber.

Standing Dragon Vertic Powerchair



Grant Demoing the Standing feature
Link to PDF brochure for Invacare Dragon Vertic

Adventure Alber Powerchair - Good outdoor chair

Click here for more info on the Alber

Invacare also had the TDXA powerchair there which isn't a new chair. It's made at Invacare in Australia and the TDXA has Rollerchair seating on it, comes with 4 pole motors and Dynamic controls.
TDXA powerchair with Rollerchair Seating


This is the Typhoon
with Electric Tilt/Recline, Seat Lift and elevating legrests

Ok that is all Invacare's powerchairs.

Now here is something a bit different, it's called
The Explorer
Great for sand, farms and area's a normal powerchair can't drive on

WOWZERRRSSSSSS

~*Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony - Invacare TDX5*~

Great to see Vancouver Mayor Sam (a quadriplegic) waving a 16-foot Olympic flag in the ceremonial hand over at the end of the Turin Winter Olympics - using his TDX5 with a special attachment.

Vancouver Mayor's Special Flag-Waving
Device to Help Quadriplegic in Handoff - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/22/AR2006022202716.html

Here is a picture from the closing ceremony (taken from the Olympic website http://www.torino2006.org).



What a special moment for him:)

~*Speedway*~

I went to Speedway last night with my brother Ben and it was a good night. We found a good spot to sit at this time. It was the Sprint car championship tonight and I was going for Allan Wakeling (Kohan car), the car in the above picture and he won too!! The sprint cars were doing 30 laps and he started near the back, then was in second spot. Half way through the last lap the USA guy leading the race lost some control over his car on a corner and Wakelling (Kokan) took the lead and won the race LOL you should of heard the crowd roarrr. I went into the puts to have a look at the cars half way through the evening and at the end of the night I went onto the race track with a friend of mine also in a powerchair and we drove around abit. Ben and I then went through puts again before heading home.

Photos taken from http://www.springsspeedway.com/index.sm

~*I got a New Toy*~

I finally bought myself a new toy it's the Iriver T10 512 MP3 Player and it's so kewl!! I got it cheap too as I bought four!! LOL My brother Ben decided against the IPOD Shuffle since the Iriver had more battery life and the FM feature and a few other things he liked about it, which the IPOD didn't have, his wife Ang wanted one too, so we asked around for some good cash discounts on 3 Irivers. We got one, then my sister Anna wanted one too (she did want a IPOD Nano at first) so now we were looking for four of them. We got a great deal and I picked them up yesterday. LOL I was coming home with 4 Irivers heheh felt good too.

I had a play with my new mp3 player and it's pretty easy too use, light and small and it's red, not pink like some people say...think they are colour blind. Ben came over after work wanting to play with his new toy too and he was really pleased with how easy you can get around the settings and how compact it is. It was Ben's birthday on the 12th so he got his as a present. Anna should get her's today or tomorow and she can't wait.

Now I'll be wheeling around the streets listening to music from my Iriver

Here are the specifcations for the Iriver T10 512

FEATURES: Plays up to 17+ hours of music, 512MB internal storage, Supports subscription music services, Vivid color display, Up to 53 hours of battery life, Skip-free and sport-ready, Built-in sport clip, FM tuner and FM recorder, Voice recorder, Plays MP3, WMA and OGG music files, Enhanced 3D audio (supports SRS WOW), Fast USB 2.0 transfers, 1 year warranty.
PACKED WITH: Iriver earphones, USB 2.0 interface cable, Printed manual, Installation CD, AA battery.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Windows XP (SP1 or higher), Windows Media Player 10, CD-ROM Drive, USB Port

~*Sudoku*~

Yep I finally got into having a go at Sudoku. Mum is pretty addicted to the puzzles and while out shopping we saw some really cheap Sudoku puzzle books, so she told me how you do the puzzles which sounded not as hard as I thought, so we got two books. I have now done a couple puzzles and try and do one every night. The book has Easy ones then gets to the Harder ones. It's pretty easy to do, not much thinking and I like doing them. Check out the website too http://www.sudoku.com/

~*New Toys I Want*~

• XBOX 360 Premiere Edition:

Wireless controller, 20GB Hard-drive, Media Remote, Xbox Live Silver, HD Video & Audio connectivity

• New Computer:

Intel P4 3.2 GHZ, Windows XP Media Centre Edition, 200GB Hard-drive, 2GB RAM, 256MB Video Card, DVD-RW, 19" or 21" Monitor and all the other kewl features you get.

• Iriver T10 512 MP3 Player:

FEATURES: Plays up to 17+ hours of music, 512MB internal storage, Supports subscription music services, Vivid color display, Up to 53 hours of battery life, Skip-free and sport-ready, Built-in sport clip, FM tuner and FM recorder, Voice recorder, Plays MP3, WMA and OGG music files, Enhanced 3D audio (supports SRS WOW), Fast USB 2.0 transfers, 1 year warranty.

PACKED WITH: Iriver earphones, USB 2.0 interface cable, Printed manual, Installation CD, AA battery.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Windows XP (SP1 or higher), Windows Media Player 10, CD-ROM Drive, USB Port.

• Nokia 3G Cell Phone: I'm not sure which one I want yet, but with 3G
  

or

Oh what come's first??...decisions, descions..money..money...sighs..WIN LOTTO

~*XBOX 360*~

I've been debating about Pre-ordering a XBOX 360 Premier Box and VIP Premiere Pack for awhile now. I have never had an Xbox, only a PS1 which was good at the time. I've never been a serious game player so this is one reason why I'm debating over it at such a big cost too. But since I'm jobless and not doing a lot, I might get into playing games more on the Xbox and using it's other features, as playing games on a PC is a bit slow. I was thinking I could use the Xbox for playing games and watching DVD's (even though I have a non-multiplayer DVD Player) and also download some Arcade games. I would use my PC for my usual surfing, emailing, forums and the games I already have for my pc. I have also checked out the Xbox.com website and found two games I think I'd enjoy playing, which are The Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion and Kameo: Elements of Power.

The XBOX 360 Premier Edition Box $719.99 includes:

1. Wireless controller
2. 20GB Hard-drive
3. Media Remote
4. Xbox Live Silver
5. HD Video & Audio connectivity

VIP Premiere Pack $169.95 includes:

1. Wireless controller
2. Game: Perfect Dark Zero
3. Limited Xbox 360 Faceplate
4. Xbox 360 DVD & VIP Access to the 360 Website
5. Demos
6. VIP Premiere Card for giveaways (not sure if this is from the shop I pre-order from)

I have up till March 20th to get my pre-order in if I want it. If I pre-order the Xbox 360 and the VIP Premiere Pack for $889.95, then I get $200 FREE Surival Pack, which includes, Xbox 360 carry bag, Xbox t-shirt, Xbox cap and playable demos (which I don't really need..but it's FREE). I also get my name put into a Draw for a Plasma LCD TV. Or I just buy the Xbox 360 Premier Edition Box for $719.99, but still, that's a lot of money. Errrr Decisions..decisions

Oh I found this XBOX Song LOL http://www.ggl.com/news.php?NewsId=2106

~*My Struggle with Ulcers!!*~

I don’t wish ulcers upon anyone! They are painful, interfere with daily activities and take months to heal.
Sometime between January and March 2004 I had many mosquito bites on my left ankle from wearing nothing on my feet, had a couple bites on my right foot too. In that time I had noticed that one bite on the side of my left ankle must have got infected and had a small oval scab over it.
Near the end of April the scab looked bigger and was getting sore and I couldn’t understand why, as I thought it was a healing scab. Few day’s later the scab had a red ring around it and the scab had spread over my Achilles tendon scar.
I was at the doctor’s picking up a prescription, while I was there I asked my nurse to take a look at it. The nurse said it was an ulcer, and I asked her what she meant. After finding out, she said I would have to get a dressing put on it, to ease the scab off to see what damage the ulcer has done and how deep it was. I kind of freaked out a bit as I didn’t want to find out how deep it was. My doctor did not come and see it, the nurse informed my doctor, and he asked her to organize the district nurses to come out twice a week to dress it. I was not given antibiotics at the time.

A week or two later the district nurse came over and talked to me about the history of it and how I got it and did the dressing. She arranged to get a district nurse out to see me twice a week. The scab eventually came off and the ulcer looked deep and I was in a bit of pain. I was taking Neurofen which my doctor said was OK to take for the pain.
I had not just one district nurse, but almost a different nurse each visit. This was hard as they hadn’t seen how the ulcer was before and what was being done, they just went by what was written in my chart. There was no continuity.

In September I developed an infection, this time I had two heavy infections in my ulcer called Pseudamonas and Staphylococcus A. These infections had given me two more ulcers, on the side of my ankle and my skin had broken down too. My skin and ulcers were being treated with many medical dressings, sometimes the ulcers would start looking good, then a different dressing and I am back to square one. My doctor had looked at the swab results and put me on antibiotics which I reacted too so I had to ring my doctor for something different, My Mum rushed up to the doctor’s to get the antibiotics as I needed them fast and I was too sick to leave the house. I reacted to these too and was quite sick for two weeks while taking them. I had to elevate my leg as much as I could as my leg was very swollen and at times felt like it was going to explode. I said to my doctor that I need more pain killers as I had finished a bottle of 96 Neurophen capsules. As the pain was still there and getting worse I was given Paracetamol but to take it only when needed.
Over this time the pain at night got so extreme I was crying in pain, having to sit up with my legs hanging off the edge of the bed due to the pain and pressure of the oedema in my feet and legs. I also found it very painful with the pressure of my ulcers against the mattress. There were times I wanted morphine or something stronger for the pain. I dreaded going to bed at night, knowing how much pain I was going to be in. This went on for three weeks to the point I couldn’t take it anymore. Paracetamol didn’t work so I rang back and I was given Codalgin which helped a bit.
My brother luckily had finished work for a few weeks and could come and stay with me and sort something out to reduce the pain at night. He put pillows under my leg so there was nothing against the ulcers and got up in the middle of the night a few times to recorrect the pillows and get my leg in a comfy position. After the first two nights, I was managing to get some sleep and having less pain, it felt good.

The ulcers were not healing, my skin was almost raw, was red, sore, swollen and still infected with Pseudamonas. My Mum had arranged a private appointment with a Wound Care Consultant. We discussed why the ulcers were not healing, what treatment options I had. I made my decision to get help from her. I needed to change my doctor to one in the same IPO as the wound care specialist nurse so the cost of dressings would be covered. The following week I went to the Medical Centre and the Wound Consultant told me the treatment plan. I was to have compression bandages done every day for two weeks to get the oedema down plus full elevation of my leg. The plan of attack was to get the oedema down, then treat the infection, then treat the ulcers. Two weeks later my leg oedema had gone down almost back to normal size and the infection was starting to get under control. The infection was treated with Iodosorb cream which needed changing daily. Four weeks later my ulcers were under control and healing was showing. After having nine months of treatment from the district nurses to 4 weeks of treatment with success is a huge improvement.

I developed an ulcer on my right leg near the ankle as I had banged my leg on my wheelchair and had some pressure there too, while the left leg ulcers were healing. We treated the new ulcer with Iodosorb and a batch of antibiotics for a while as I had a couple small infections of pseudomonas. I was using a compression stocking on my other leg now while skin was healing, so we started using a compression stocking on my right leg too as there was a little oedema there too. This took a couple months to heal and did in time for me to go to Australia in April 2005.

I am wearing compression stockings every day now on both legs to help the skin heal back to normal, this will take 12 months. Wearing the stockings will also keep away any oedema and help circulation. Ulcers and pressure sores are similar so I have to watch out for pressure on my legs too. Be aware of any scabs, pressure sores and red sore areas as you don’t want to deal with what I had to go through, with a lot of pain and exhaustion.

Ulcer Being treated by District Nurse: note swelling of leg

Ulcer's being treated by Wound Care Consultant

Leg in Compression Bandages

~*ProfessioNAIL*~

I'm so annoyed with the so called ProfesioNAIL ladies. I went to get my 'usual' gel overlay back fill done and my nails filed down abit as they are too long. It's really hard cause these girls do not speak English as a first language so for them trying to understand what I'm wanting is crazy. Anyhow I told them what I wanted, she started filing down my nails to the length I was happy with. She then said that she would have to remove all the hard gel overlay nails off my real nails, and redo the gel overlay so I said fine, $40 that be. It felt quite weird having hard gel nails being peeled off the top of my own nails. She had done that then she cut's my nails again, and I was thinking is she just cutting the ends off?? but noooooo she cut them so short, right down to my skin..I just about died!! Then she pulled out false nails, I said no I don't want those, I asked for gel overlay, like I always have. After some dicussion with another work mate then back to me, she said ok. She said do you like short nails?? I said no, you cut em short...duhhh She then filed them round, saying it's hard to file short nails. Then she painted them with clear nail polish as I requested. OH and the cost had gone up to $55.00. errrrr So anyway my fingers abit sore and I wasn't happy with what she did. I won't let her near my nails again!! I do like ProfessioNAILS as they normally do a good job and I can sit comfortable at there tables. I just have to wait till my nails grow to get nails:(

This is what my nails did look like when I went in, now they are very short!!