Yesterday I faced difficulty after difficulty from 5pmish until I went to bed. Fact is stranger than fiction. But each event is true. OK here goes...... and it's quite a list!
1. On the way to the bus stop the kerb climber fell off wheelchair on the way to bus stop from home - put it in jute bag on side of arm.
2. Got to health clinic, the doctor greeted me and we went to the one consulting room that is big enough for a wheelchair..BUT someone had already got it, in the time it took the doc to get to the waiting room and back!!!!! So waited half an hour and everything was fine
3. Got another bus to Uni and arrived around 7.15pm.
The Music Dept is changing buildings at Christmas but just now it's in a big Victorian house with drive, lots of trees and at night v dark. There was no one around AND cars were parked blocking wheelchair access to the only (reasonably) accessible door I can access the building from!
I couldn't get anyone to hear. After about 10 - 15 mins a man came along and got my tutor's attn, the car was moved but I forgot my kerb climber was in my bag so struggled to get in anyhow!!!!!
As it was reading week there was only one other student there! They were just about to leave but decided to stay, so I got all my work done!
4. Then I went for the bus into town. When we arrived there, the bus driver refused to put the bus on 'kneel'. I told him it was too unsafe for me to go down the ramp as it was far too steep, so angrily he supposedly knelt the bus, but it hardly made any diff, and I beleive he didn't press the button long enough.
So i tried to get off the bus, it was absolutely dangerous but thankfully I was OK at the time, but the footrest is broken as the wheelchair 'fell' off the ramp a bit
the bus driver was pushing the control, without realising it and therefore pushing me back on to half the ramp and half a void.
5. Anyhow I survived, and my next bus went sailing past, I hadn't had tea yet and suddenly realised I was desperate for the loo, so decided to go to nearby Cafe Rouge and use their toilet. I thought Id buy a sandwich, but I was wrong, it wasn't a coffee bar as I thought. It was a sit down restaurant, where everyone seemed dressed up and there I was in my leggings and mac! So I said I was meeting someone there, dashed to the loo and managed to have a wee. Oh the relief - physically and from the potential embarrasement of having an accident!! (NO accessible loos in the old Music Dept)
6.So after saying I'd meet my friend outside to the waitress, I left and wandered back to bus stop and then my hand control fell off the wheelchair! There was this heavy unit trailing on the floor, connected by a wire.
Somehow, no idea how, I managed to hold all my bags, my water bottle and control this heavy dangling unit and got to a marble bench. I tried and tried to sort it
and in addition the whole unit had extended and made the wheelchair 6 inches wider, which made it.......far too wide to get on bus!
7. So... this city security man came over and said he'd been keeping an eye on me and was worried. I explained and God Bless him, he managed to sort it, so apart from carrying the exceptionally heavy kerb climber, and the leg rest, I got home in one piece by around 10;45 and had egg and chips.
All this since 5.00pm and after a busy day filming with already achy and tired bones because of my busy lifestyle.
But when I woke this morning I could hardly move and my pain levels had shot through the roof. So today has been a wash out, all plans postponed or cancelled. I've just slept and slept and tried to move as much as I can - which seems less and less just now. I hate this level of pain and the amount of painkillers I have to take too, because they don't reach the pain, let alone take it away.
But even though this is true, whilst I've been writing this, I've been listening to This Week in Politics and hearing a debate about assisted suicide. Not for me, thank you! Like loads of other disabled people, I'd smoke marijuna rather than that - but obviously not when I'm responsible for my kids, etc!
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2 comments:
What a day, Aliboo! I hope you have simpler, easier and less painful days in the future, with drivers being more thoughtful about where they park and bus drivers behaving like a public service rather than a public nuisance!
yours sympathetically, John
I happened onto your blog. Very well done.
I have extensive experience in treating athletes with a variety of musculo-skeletal problems. Karate,judo, running, and boxing in particular, develop predictable problems with the elbows, wrists, shoulders and knees.
I currently use a non-prescription topical anti-inflammatory cream that I developed, originally for my daughter's horse.(her hobby) I introduced commercially, for human use 6 months ago.
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The product is called “kink-ease.” It is a high concentration MSM lotion, and it is particularly useful for pain problems in the feet, hands, wrists, ankles and shoulders. It is somewhat useful in the hip and lower back, but only in slender people.
It is pharmaceutical grade and is priced very reasonably.
David S. Klein, MD, FACA, FACPM
Pain Center of Orlando, Inc.
www.suffernomore.com
dsklein@earthlink.net
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