or those of you who regularly follow this blog, this story may not surprise you. I’ve been in some scrapes in my time, some of which I have recorded here.  A good friend encouraged me to write about the latest one in the middle of this week. All of us have done silly things at one time or another, and this is mine…

Wednesday evening just gone, I was zipping round my living room in my wheelchair collecting things I needed overnight or first thing in the morning, including my mobile phone, kindle, and medicine box affectionately known as ‘the UFO’ as it does rather look like one! This being done, the last thing I had to do was to put my dressing-gown on. Simple enough, you might think. I stood in front of my wheelchair for when I was likely to get sick of standing and got the first arm into my gown. Next thing I knew, my dressing gown was being sucked under my wheelchair wheels, and my wheelchair was bashing my good leg. I didn’t realise then but my dressing gown cord had wrapped itself around the wheelchair control. I began praying feverishly for a way to get the chair away. I reached back, hoping to find the ‘off’ switch on the wheelchair, but instead I grabbed the golf ball toggle on my chair and forced it away from me.  At some point about then, I realised with horror that the tie on my dressing gown was wrapped around the golf ball on my wheelchair. The wheelchair careered into the shoe-rack; the wheels continuing to spin at a ferocious rate. I didn’t realise at this point that I was hurt. I somehow made it over to my wheelchair. I made the mistake of trying to move the chair backwards by moving the toggle. All I did was make the carpet burn, and the hole in the linoleum worse, though I didn’t realise this at the time. Smelling burning, I dived for the off-switch on my chair and started trying to move the chair out of the doorway. How I thought I would manage that…! I collapsed back on my bed, defeated. As I begun frantically texting the friend who was staying on the sofa bed that night, she pressed the buzzer to be let into the flat.

I told the story breathlessly and almost shaking with shock. I watched my friend thinking about what to do next, and then all of a sudden she had clambered over the wheelchair so she was with me on my side of the room. Moving an ankle boot from under the chair wheel, she managed to wrench the chair free with help from the strong bar on the back of the chair. Mission accomplished.

My friend began to survey the scene, jabbing her foot at something on the floor. It was then that we relialised I had torn the linoleum. Fortunately, that was easily sorted with duct tape. Next we did the only thing to do in those situations – put the kettle on!! While Emma made the tea, I began to take stock of what had happened, deciding not to clean the carpet where the night bag had split. I started at it, unable to contemplate doing anything about it and knowing I was in too much pain to be able to kneel down and clean the carpet. The tea helped soothe me a little. I went off to my room fairly quickly after that, still not really able to believe what happened, and eventually slept.

The rest helped my leg, but the last couple of days have been tough, trying to get my right leg to take my weight instead of my left. My emergency-only zimmerframe has been indispensable. I’ve been both napping and full-on sleeping much more than usual. Lazily sliding my feet across the floor, or performing inelegant pirouettes to transfer from, say, bed, to chair is much easier than the usual semi-walking thing as my leg just can’t cope. Here’s hoping it improves in time or I will have to be off to my nearest accident and emergency department.

 

As if the above were not enough excitement, this afternoon between me and my carer we decided we would attempt to make it through the remains of the snow to the local supermarket. However, neither of us realised how thick the snow still is up here. I got so far before I got stuck, sideways, almost totally tipping the chair. Off went the carer to get my zimmerframe while she reversed my wheelchair backwards out of the worst of it. However, once she began trying to get my chair to trace its steps, it became hopeless again. Off went the carer for the snow shovel, returning triumphantly, and merrily hacking away at the compacted ice. Again and again, we tried to move my chair but to no avail. A teenage boy stared at us for a while and then walked on by, just as an older gentleman drove past us. Eventually, a neighbour stopped to offer help, pushing my chair from the metal bar on the back. Success! I am now sat here writing while the carer goes off to the local supermarket. I hope both stories made you laugh at least in part! We all have freak accidents, whatever we drive. And, we all do daft things!

Carer is back now so I’m off to have a mug of tea and work on my post for Bigbible. Here’s hoping for a quiet incident free evening!