SOME COOL ADAPTATIONS TO SHARE!

I am a member of The Paralysis Resource Center, which is an online community that was started by the Christopher Reeve Foundation to help connect people facing paralysis to each other. I have met lots of great people there, and one in particular has become a pretty good long-distance friend - a woman named Cheryl. She and I have alot in common - we're both married, have one child, and want to do this whole parenting-from-a-chair thing in as uncomplicated a manner as possible. We connected before Cheryl got pregnant, as she was looking for someone who had some first-hand experience with having a spinal-cord injury and pregnancy. As I had just been through it, I jumped at the chance to help someone else who was facing a similar situation to mine!

Cheryl and her husband welcomed their first son a few weeks ago, and it's been really nice to have someone to compare notes with! Her husband made some pretty interesting adaptations to some of their nursery gear that I thought I would pass on. The crib, in particular, is pretty clever, and goes to show that a little ingenuity can go a long way! Here's what she sent to me:

Here's what their Pali "West Point" crib

looks like when closed (notice the latches?)

Here's what it looks like when it's opened up so that Cheryl can reach in

Here's their Stokke changing table,

which they adapted by removing a lower shelf

so that Cheryl can roll her wheelchair underneath

Sometime, when I get my pictures organized, I will post about some of the solutions we came up with, as we did things a bit differently than Cheryl and Mathew did. Either way, it's nice to have options, as well as a connection to someone else who may encounter similar obstacles and come up with creative solutions. That way, no one is having to reinvent the wheel!