Fearless Friday

In the continuing saga of my driving:

Tuesday the occupational therapist driving instructor tried a different knob configuration for my right hand and arm.  It was a disaster.  Much harder than the first one we used. She stopped the driving lesson after five minutes. And told me that she would be writing a report to the DMV. I asked her if she thought they would pull my license after they saw that I was not successful with the training. She said they might. 

She also mentioned that there could be a right installation of the brake and accelerator mechanism instead of the left. Then my left hand, which has become my dominant hand now, will be on the steering wheel. She said that the dominant hand should be on the steering wheel.

I called the company that will be doing installation and the customer service representative told me that there shouldn’t be any additional cost to that. The more I think about it the more I think that’s going to be best for me. Unfortunately, the local occupational therapist does not have a right installed brake and accelerator control. I have emailed the customer service representative at the installation company to see if she might have something that we could use. They do not. 

So the closest certified driving instructor with the kind of controls I need is in Greensboro. That’s about four hours. I hoped to have an appointment with her scheduled by now, but she was out of the office today.

Another option if the right-handed controls don’t work would be a low energy steering wheel. She said that would cost about $6000. So unless I can use the right-handed controls, I probably will not be driving, which will really put us at a disadvantage with no driver in the house. 

On another note, we decided to drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway today. And I drove for five hours using my foot and I did just fine. If you know anything about the Blue Ridge Parkway it’s very curvy with lots of hills.  We climbed about 3000 feet in altitude. Unfortunately, now the assessment is at the DMV. I may have rushed the assessment, but I knew it was coming. 

I could really use your prayers! I definitely want to continue to drive. Plus I refuse to let MS take one more thing from me! No, no, no!

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