Free Your Shoulders

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Heroes will continue – I like talking about men too much. But for now, just a comment. The migraine was mostly gone yesterday, but not entirely, and it tried to return today. Combined with a return of a threat of darkness — in that I couldn’t seem to control my determination to stay focused and non-teary-eyed — I had a hard time just getting through Monday.

Today was a forced focus. Wheelchair appointment at the Assistive Technology Clinic, which remains one of the most fascinating hubs of creativity I’ve ever known. Their staff of therapists and technicians spend hours pouring over the twisted vagaries of bodies riddled with disabilities, never once losing site of the person inside, yet filled with ideas and “what-ifs” about making lives better by the equipment they provide.

Molded wheelchairs, carved from board and an astonishing variety of foams. Sidelying contraptions with individually modified attachments. A-frames for positioning. It’s a Geppetto’s workshop of therapeutic devices.

Rachel, for instance, has a one-of-a-kind headpiece on her chair, molded for her specific needs. Today, they were fine-tuning the sides of her chair (also molded just for her particular shape) because her scoliosis has progressed in the last four years, pushing her into more of a “windswept” shape and allowing for different movement in her shoulders.

And through their own research and investigations, the folks at the AT clinic have found that at a certain point, a child such as Rachel needs MORE freedom in her chair, not less, because confining her shoulders in an attempt to lock her into place only gives her more leverage to move OUT of place. Squirmy Houdini that she is. By removing the pressure under her shoulder blades, she struggles less to get out of her confinement and relaxes more during the ride.

So it is that Rachel’s body curve has been helped tremendously by their learning curve.

A life lesson in microcosm. As so many things are.

Sticking to the way you’ve always done something isn’t necessarily the way to go.

And this isn’t about “thinking outside the box,” a phrase I’ve grown to detest. It’s about turning the box into a Rubik’s cube and clicking out a new, beautiful color combination that works just for you.

Either that…or just give your shoulders more freedom to move.

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