Life in the Wheelchair Issue 2

Well, it is Easter is here and lent is over. As we celebrate the life of Christ and the tragic tribulation and final ascension into heaven, I wanted to share a thought and feelings that I had earlier this week watching something on a TV that really got to me.

I was watching the show “House” from this Monday night. For those who don't know what it is, it's a TV show about a Doctor and his team who have to cure some of the weirdest things. Any ways, one of the team members who was on House's team shot himself. This hit me hard, mainly because I, over the past two years, have known what it is to feel like that. I have gotten that low due to the fact I feel like I have lost everything in life. I can't move my legs. It was this major event that dragged me down to that level. There where many days where I had wished that I had not have made it threw surgery because of what the alternative of parallelization posed to me.

Eventually, I got over that feeling for the most part. I do think about how things are now and how hard it is to do things when it was really simple before. It is hard to find the strength everyday to keep going. And that taking the easy way out would be the way to go. But I keep going. I know that there are some people have never walked and have had to deal with this all their lives. My argument to them is that they never know what they are missing out on if they never walked before.

Trying to get past that feeling was a hard and tenuous struggle at first, they tried anti-depressants. I gave up on those because of deep and abiding personal belief in facing and trying to deal with your problem rather that mask it, hide it, and pretend it's not there by medicating yourself. To try to hide the pain and sadness by using a crutch. If you don't face your problems, your problem is still going to be there and your are going to have to deal with it eventually.

Well guys, here was a little look into what it was like those first few week, and really the first months to year after surgery. Issue 3 will hopefully be in a week.

I Wake Up In the Morning

Mornings suck. I hate the morning. What it means is a lot of rolling around. I have to roll from side to side to pull my shorts up and get them right. Then slide my catheter through the leg on one side. Then I have to put the bed up to swing my legs over by hand over the side of the bed. Then I have to slide into the chair with the slide board. This usually messes up my shorts and a little pee comes out. That is why I have to wear a diaper. They call them "wings" here, but a spade is a spade. It is a diaper. Sometimes it doesn't get it all either and it gets on my shorts. Then I have to readjust but it doesn't always look right. Next we have to put my legs together. This means putting the protective boots on and then the leg rest and then towels for my knees so I do not cut into them again and cause more wounds. Then it's put the catheter in the bag and grab my stuff and I am on the go. On the go....

On the go to therapy during the week. Nowhere on the weekends. Most of the time it feels like I am going nowhere and in a hurry. Just once I would like to stand up and put my pants on, wear a pair of shoes. Not have to roll around all day with twisted piss ridden clothes. Most people here say, “Oh, it's nothing. It happens other people all the time.” Well it has never happened to me before and it hurts – a lot. Sometime when I really wet my self I fell like breaking down and just...... I don't know. Let us just say it isn't pretty nor appropriate to put on here.

Some mornings it takes an hour to get ready, sometimes longer. It all depends on pain and mood. Sometimes I just want to lay there and just cry. To think, that this is going to be the way I am going to have to go through life for the rest of my life. It is really hard to handle that. But I hold back the tears. I dry my eyes and blow my nose and I go on. For no other reason than I have nothing else better to do right now than to jump through hoops and go to therapy that just somedays I feel isn't going anywhere.