Becky get an electric wheelchair

Stepping out of my comfort zone and making a vulnerable post.

As most of you know, I have multiple sclerosis. After talking with a friend, she brought it to my attention that I say no to a lot of things. Not because I don’t want participate, but because I don’t know if I can. By that, I mean if friends or family are going to spend the day at the zoo, go sightseeing, go for a walk, and honestly sometimes lately even just go to the mall. I will stay at home, because I don’t know how long my energy will last. Could be minutes, could be hours, but it’s all a guessing game. The last thing I want to do is hold anyone back, or cut the outing short for everyone since I can’t drive myself home. So I usually opt to stay home. For example when we go to the mall, we park at the closest entrance to our destination. If we need to go to the other end of the mall, it’s usually back to the car and re-park to get near the next store, etc. She explained how getting an electric wheelchair was a game changer for her. She’s able to say yes more, she’s able to do more, because she doesn’t use all her energy on one activity and end up being down for the next few days.

She also pointed out that my two favorite vacations in the last 10 years were because I had mobility aids on those trips without me even realizing it. The first one, we had golf carts to get around on and the second one we used our electric bikes. I had never even put that together.

I’ve thought a lot about it. I’ve prayed a lot about this. I discussed with my doctor and they agreed it would absolutely be beneficial in multiple ways. So I swallowed my pride and started looking into it. First hurdle…insurance won’t cover it. Their reasoning is that if I can bathe myself, I don’t need it. Bathing has zero to do with how long/far I can walk…but the reality is, I got denied ‍♀️

I need an electric wheelchair that folds (because I need it to be able to easily go in others vehicles since I don’t drive) and one that has a decent battery life for these outings. The ones that will work are between 3-4k. Which is not doable for us right now, since we’ve been hit with a lot of unexpected medical expenses lately for one of our kiddos.

So I’m here to ask a few things:

Do you know of an organization/charity that helps people with these kinds of needs (already checked with the ms society) and would you please pray for some doors to open to make this happen. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.