Changes ahead

The new year has officially begun; this month's column deals with the old and the new. We at PVA Publications have turned a new page in our operations. We have been located at the same address, in the same building, in the same city, for almost 20 years. In that time, we outgrew our old space. The old office had files, pictures, and stories from when PVA began back in 1947. We are sort of the repository of the organization's history. As a result, archived material was stacked from floor to ceiling, and our computer servers were stashed on a shelf in the storage closet. There was no conference room, and we were lucky to accommodate two wheelchairs at once.

RICHARD HOOVER, EDITORWith that, I will stop with the old and new and invite any of you who happen to be in the Phoenix area to stop in and visit us in our new office. We have plenty of room and will be delighted to see you. Happy New Year!--T. Boone PickensHowever, we will retain some of the old with the new: the same address, suite number, and city. We will also put out the same publications with the addition of redesigning the PN website as we did SPORTS 'N SPOKES last year. All will be the same high quality.I do not propose to be an expert on physical rehabilitation or on everyone's physical limitations. However, I spent some time thinking about the matter and realized the development of my upper-body strength, which I had spent a lot of time on when I first got injured, had stopped many years ago. I just assumed it would always be there.However, you will begin to notice some changes in PN. Beginning with this issue, we will start retitling and improving some of the traditional sections you like to read. For example, The PVA President's Message will be called "From the Top," and Readers Respond will be "You Said It. ..." The changes will be gradual; you will still find all the information, just with a new "face." We have put a lot of work into updating the look and feel of the magazine and hope you like it.I urge those of you who may be having upper-limb problems, whether you are a quad or para, to consider starting again what you began when you were first injured. It just makes sense to try to keep as much as you can rather than lose it due to inattention. This would be a good new year's resolution to make and keep as much as possible.In December, we moved into a new office that almost doubles our old space, and we are now truly state of the art, technologically speaking. This new space gives the staff more privacy to practice the art of journalism without the distractions of co-workers' conversations. We will be able to discuss our websites--from a conference room with all appropriate staff around a large table hooked into a data console--displayed on a large video screen without everyone hovering over the web manager's shoulder and trying to see a 19-inch computer display. And finally, I will be able to have not only my wheelchair but several others in the office at the same time.Well, folks, big news! Muscles begin to decline due to age, and we lose a lot of what we used to have. I visited several doctors, had steroid shots, and had months of physical therapy before I found a good sports/rehab physician who explained the whole aging process. He also recommended a simple but effective solution: Start strengthening what you have left and make it work better. He recommended a good physical therapist who created a workout program for me with range-of-motion exercises and weightlifting. I am talking about stuff getting muscle tone and strength back. I have been doing it now for about two months with therapy visits three times a week and workouts on my own twice a day. My right shoulder has improved significantly, and most of the pain is now gone. I intend to continue this as long as I can.For another take on the old and the new, I want to speak my piece on a matter near and dear to me that I hope will make many of you stop and think. When I first became involved with PVA, I would go to our conventions and meetings and get behind the old WWII and Korean War vets and chafe at their slow, inconsistent speeds of their wheelchairs. I recently realized I had turned into one of them and was beginning to have a real problem with my right shoulder. Many of my Vietnam era compatriots exhibit the same malady. VA's standard fix is to put us in power wheelchairs or have us use power-assist wheels on our manual chairs.

RICHARD HOOVER, EDITOR