It wasn’t long after arriving at neuro ICU when hospital staff began preparing me for life on a wheelchair. Sitting on a wheelchair seemed easy enough but as I soon learned, after a few weeks lying down and after having been intubated with an endotracheal tube implanted in my windpipe, it was quite an ordeal.

To prepare for the wheelchair I needed to be centered on a sling harness which involved being rolled to my left and right as the sling was moved under me. Once centered, straps on the lower and upper sides of the sling were attached to a ceiling lift to transfer me to the chair. The rolling was enough to trigger coughing fits and dizziness but the additional movement from being slowly lifted and swung made it much worse. The process seemed excruciatingly slow and drawn-out because the tubes attached to me and accompanying hardware had to be moved as well without getting tangled or damaged.

On two occasions within two weeks my coughing fits were so violent the trach tube decannulated (partially ejected out of my throat), requiring a stat surgical team to reinstall it and stitch up the wound. Being elevated on the lift the first few times seemed to have a negative effect on my blood pressure. On a few early occasions I became dizzy to the point of seeing stars and nearly passing out.

Initially, sitting on the wheelchair was so painful I would need a dose of oxycodone to be able to stay on it for up to an hour. As days progressed I was gradually able to stay on the chair longer which was especially challenging because for some reason nurses advised I not sleep while on the chair. At first I would listen to music to stay focused, but on the second or third day of wheelchair training Danielle suggested that I try listening to “binaural beats”.

Although I had no memory of it, binaural beats were previously recommended by my brother at the trauma ICU. It’s basically a soundscape using two overlapping tones of slightly different frequencies which are perceived by the brain as a third tone which proponents believe can enhance various beneficial brain waves. The examples I listened to were found on YouTube and most sounded like very slow ascending and descending chord progressions that evoked calmness and peace, which is what I needed during the painful early phase of adjusting to the wheelchair.

I also began listening to binaural beats rather than music at night because I found some helpful for inducing sleep starting from the third or fourth night at neuro ICU.