It appears the 1st of March is International Wheelchair Day.
After a post on one of my social media accounts told me it was International Wheelchair Day, I reluctantly looked it up in a search engine.
International Wheelchair Day
Not something I want to celebrate personally.
Despite being told I would never walk again, climb a tree, or ride a pushbike. I have maintained a good attitude towards the fact that sometimes life can be a struggle, frustrating, or even a complete bomb crater that’s just forced all the ‘easy to do’ things in life aside. Then deposited all the challenging, expensive and downright ‘difficult to do’ things in my way.
The Simple Things in Life
A simple task like getting in the car, which I have done many, many times, adds extra time to a journey and strain on my shoulders. For example, suppose I need to go pick up a prescription, visit my mum, get fuel, drop my son off at one of his activities. In that case, I can sometimes end up doing 8 or 10 car transfers a day, lifting my torso into the car, breaking down my wheelchair to store it safely and then repeating at said destination. This extra time for transfers needs to be included in the timescale of the drive.
In addition, I also have to make sure I find a parking space that allows the extra room for me to assemble my wheelchair next to the driver’s open door. I hope no one parks too close to me at some parking spaces, blocking my access to the return to the driver’s seat. And if it’s raining, transferring into a car makes the event even more of a pain!
Not Forgetting
So that’s just one problem, dilemma or inconvenience of using a wheelchair. The condition doesn’t matter. It’s the fact that I am at a person’s butt height when in a queue, I can’t pick up my son when he has fallen, or easily mow the lawn in Springtime, that annoys me. If I am honest, even more so now I am older!
Anyone for Golf?
Catching up with mates can be sadly sparse as well. Now that we are all settled down and have families of our own, it is harder to find time to catch up. It’s good when we do but finding those opportunities is difficult. One chance to meet up is on the Golf Course and in the 19th hole. Most of my friends play to a degree. The thing that stops me is that is I’m not a golfer. I know there are stand up powered wheelchairs people use on some courses, there are various reasons that won’t work for me. Golf is just another activity that is out of bounds.
So Why?
So why would I want to celebrate International Wheelchair Day?
Why would I honour something that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemies?
But in Reality
After reading up on International Wheelchair Day, I read that it’s an annual day of events and activities around the world when wheelchair users celebrate the positive impact a wheelchair has on their lives. This I get. If it weren’t for my wheelchair, I wouldn’t be able to have done the things I have since my spinal cord injury – visit some beautiful places around the world, worked and worked hard to pay my way in life and feel like a full member of society and have the right to vote and complain about the state of things.
I wouldn’t want to think what life would be like if I didn’t have the high tech, Titanium wheelchair at my disposal?