Sorry to hear about the chemo and knowing some of what goes with it. Here is a shot of my blackslide converted to Handcrank, just in case you don't have the electrical controls under that plate. Repro handcranks aren't quite as good das original, but good enough for my purposes. We took it and a 99HC to a demo. Silly us we took one bobbin for the 99 and broke it. Finished the day on the VS machine.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/members...653-568425.jpg