Tuesday 24 April 2012

IT COULD ONLY HAPPEN TO ME

yet again it has been an eventful time for me.  I am beginning to think that "quiet" "normal" or "smoothly" applies to me and mine.

I think the biggest news is that I have finally got my legs back. So have been in touch with physio and have gone down on the waiting list. In the mean time I can put my legs on at home to get used to them as well as practicing standing up from the wheelchair  and putting weight through them when doing my boxing and weights.
Better news then last week when I got 3  streets away and realised that I hadn't picked them up!! Would the ambulance drivers go back for them..would they hell!! They where happier to take me all the way to the Freeman's for me to sit and do nothing.  Well that's not strictly true they weighed me and I had lost 4 and a half pound and found out that my new wheelchair, as well as being a nuisance to the ambulance service who complained constantly about trying to strap it in on the ambulance and refused to lift it over my step and tilted it instead even though i told them about my fall, didn't fit in the Freeman disabled toilets.  You can imagine the mood when I got home.  So I showed them and ate an Easter Egg.

I finally got up the guts to go out socially on a hen night last Friday. This proved to be interesting and quiet fun actually.  The hen of the night who is a long standing suffering friend had planned her route taking into account me and runs to the toilet etc.  All the pubs we went too where friendly, helpful and the toilets clean and accessible ( although if there was an award for the best it would be the Cooper Rose).  Over all I had a very fun night and didn't think about dancing from my wheelchair leaving me feeling like I had done a 48 hour workout at a gym 2 days later !! The one or two spoilers of the night ( and there always has to be one), was the lady who fell on me drunk and the man who thought that "people like that shouldn't be allowed in pubs and clubs".  To the lady who fell on me you could have at least replaced my drink and to the man who complained about me being there , karma is a bitch so watch out !!! You still have time ahead and you never know what is around the corner.

Well the grant form has gone and we have been awarded the grant for the ramp, surveyor been out and now just waiting for the work to start, however that could be months yet.  Have been to the holiday company and have booked the wheelchair on as well as priority booking for me as things are so behind schedule now that it seemed the best thing to do.  Lets face it I don't think I will be fit enough to walk around the theme parks all the time, in fact I will probably be lucky if I manage half the day walking on and off.  Thinking of videoing the holiday from a disabled point of view for my Youtube account but that is still in discussion.

But just to round things up you would never guess what happened to me on Monday?  I swear you could not make this up for a soap. The taxi driver was getting me out of the taxi at work and was in a hurry. Because his doors where not wide enough for my new wheelchair he had to angle the chair.  As he was bringing the chair down the ramps( telescopic) the chair wheel went off the ramp taking the big wheel and chair with it and there was me hanging sideways off the top of this ramp ! The driver couldn't straighten me up but tried to continue to pull me down the ramp which resulted in more of the chair going over the side. At this point I was a wreck.  If it hadn't been for a lovely man at the bus stop who missed his bus to hold me up to stop me from falling I dread to think what would have happened.  He had to tell the taxi driver to lift me at the same time as him to get me off the ramps and on to the ground. When I got on the ground my Tyre had  been pulled off the rim completely, you have the taxi driver trying to ram it back on and pysio from the NHS down stairs in the building where I work down trying to sort me out and get me in the building on the rim.   Anyway they got me into the building on the rim of the wheel made sure i was alright and got me sorted with a repair from wheelchair services and sent me home.  Damage sustained was tyre off, buckled rim, lose break, twisted support bar and a very very shaken jen!! Thats twice now in 3 month but at least this time I didnt hit the ground but still........

Its back to work tomorrow and to say am nervous is an understatement !

2 comments:

  1. sounds like the folks who drive the w/c lorries are not trained well.

    in the states, i saw a lorry driver "fired" on the spot when a supervisor noticed that he had not properly tied down his passenger.

    a new driver was provided for the return trip.
    companies who provide these services can lose their (lucrative) contract for non -compliance.

    perhaps you should complain to management.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I mentioned it to one of the owners and found out that the driver himself had reported it to them. They only thing they offered was to pay for my repair to the wheelchair ( which was done free) and that is when they decided to drop the contract. The UK still has a long way to go regarding disability rights and dealing with complaints like this. The states is much more disabled friendly I think.

    ReplyDelete