In an average week, at least a couple strangers will make comments about my ventilator. The comments are usually variations on “That’s some contraption” or “That’s some set-up you’ve got there.” It usually happens in elevators when I’m facing away from the doors, giving fellow passengers a good view of the back of my chair. And to the untrained eye, my equipment probably does look exotic. My vent of choice is a boxy thing that hasn’t shrunk in size since I started using it in 1987. There’s also the attached humidifier, the external battery, my portable suction machine, and my supply bag. Taken all together, these items probably weigh almost as much as I do.
Comments like this used to surprise me. It’s not that I forgot about all the gadgetry on the back of my chair; it’s that I didn’t consider it that interesting. To me, this stuff is boring and utilitarian, like my keys or my wallet. But what I consider commonplace, most other people find incredibly foreign.
those buggars are heavy! haveing worked with them in the past I can see where someone who has never seen them would be facinated. I dont know about the city where you live but here it is just not so common to see portable vents. I have worked with only ONE in 13 years of nursing. In home or nursing home many many … its not the ones who do notice and see them that facinate me but the people who DONT see them or the person in the wheelchair…I digress. Have a great night!
Laura
I’d certainly put some text on the wheelchair: please talk about anything but my chair and its equipment.
You could certainly give some humoristic twist to this serious message.
Boredom is suffering, there is no soubt about it. Nobody has the right to say dull, boring, uninspired things to you and take away your precious time of “inner reflection” or sth.
My second thought is how nice it would be if we, your truthful readers, got your comment and ideas on the Youtube videos of the exoskeleton HAL 5 presented by Japanese professor Yoshiyuki Sankai!