21 replies to this topic

[Susi]

I've wanted to start this topic for sometime now and just had to wade through the forums, to get a feel for the 'family' first here at Apparelyzed.

So here goes:

1st Incident

In rehab we were told that "we do not have a licence to drive a wheelchair until we actually have fallen out of them"! Well I made damn sure I never fell out of mine, as i was horrified at the thought. So seeing my fellow paras and quads fall out of wheelchairs I played it safe and survived my non-licence. In hindsight I wish I wasn't so careful as one was taught how to get back in without too much loss of dignity.

In my second month of rehab I had not ventured outside the hospital as i couldn't really push wheelchair due to limited strength in hands. My sister came down to visit me, and decided that on the second day of her being there, i needed to get out of the hospital and get some fresh air. With permission attained we set off at +-10h00. I asked her where she intends pushing me, and she said we are going to movies and the shopping mall. Please bear in mind we are in Africa, Cape Town, at the time, and there is NO public transport for wheelchair owners. Unless you 'hijack' a lift from the ambulance medics. Now not knowing cape Town at all, my sister did, I had no idea of the distance involved, neither did she! Did she ask the nursing staff? No. So we set off down very potholed pavements and up and down curbs, jeesh I felt sorry for her. The first lot of people we come across are ambulance medics, and after greeting them, they asked where we were off to. My sister said to Cavendish Square. With raised eyebrows and incredulous looks, they asked her if she was going to push me all the way. She said, "Yes, Susi needs the fresh air"! They said to me they are going in that direction, so they can give us a lift, whereupon my sister replied a terse "No thank you". So we set off, up and down curbs and bumpy lanes. Passing prostitutes who said "God Bless, madam", to which my sister (being a bit of a prude) was mortified, that they even dared speak to me, and detouring into a beautiful park, where there were mass Moslem wedding parties going on (they wear the most colourful attire and the page boys and flower girls all dressed identicla to bride and groom), but the hours were passing and we had not yet reached our destination. Now with every jolt and shudder I had quite bad spasms then and would slowly slide off the seat until she stopped, put legs back on wheelchair and hoist me back up before falling off. This stop and start procedure carried on in the park as well, by now 12h00. I now quite fed-up asked her when will she bloody well get to the mall instead of traipsing around the park after some wedding parties. As we left the park, I once again slid off the seat, and a kind policeman helped my sister by literally lifting me out of the wheelchair and plonking me down again. He should have worked for the hospital. What strength! Off we go, and for another 3/4 of an hour met no-one on the way and when we stopped to buy water, i piped up and asked shopkeeper how far the mall was. He said another 3km's from shop. I nearly fainted. Anyway my sister picked up pace then, and bumping, sliding, stopping, perspiringly we eventually got there at 14h00!! Immediately, we headed for the cinema and bough tickets for the afternoon show (2 Weeks w. Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant) and then to lunch at an Italian restaurant. I had stuffed Auberginnes with tomato and cheese, garlic etc. Yummy. Now just to diverse here, up until then I had controlled hospital diets and toiletting procedures. After lunch and still too early for movies we start wandering around the mall. As Murphy would have it, the 'world' just erupted out of my bottom! Uncontrolled and by now panicked i told my sister to get me to a toilet as quickly as possible. We found a disabled toilet and rushed in. She proceeded to try and clean me up as best she could, which was useless as I could not push myself up for her to clean and she just reached in and wiped from an endless running toilet roll of paper that never stiopped. She threw wads of paper down the loo andd flushed. Murphy wasn't finished yet, the toilet was blocked and threw everything back out again, flooding the toilet completely. By this time I was totally catatonic with shock, my sister red faced and swearing tried to push me out before water reached my feet, and once outside, she immediately punced on security and gave him 'what for' re state of disabled toilet. She then took out a CLEAN pair of sneakers from her bag, and whilst i was telling her we must return to the hospital to get me cleaned up, she pushed me into the 'Body Shop'. They sell all sorts of body cremes, perfumes, essences, and bathroom toiletries. She pushed me around stopping at the shelves which had tester bottles and proceeded to spray me full of 'bergamom' perfume, vanilla, lavender, floral scents, etc. Finishing the bottles. The shopkeeper not knowing what she was dealing with, innocently asked my sister, whether there wasn't a scent that suited her, whereupon she said No, there wasn't. Totally satisfied that I smelt decent enough to venture out into the public, we, yes you guessed it, went to the movies. Despite my loud protestations, she said she was not going to waste $9.00, or British Pound 6.00 and not watch the movie, I smelt ok. I have never felt so uncomfortable watching a 2 hour movie with pants full and wandering whether I smelt. I wasn't and perfume lasted exactly the length of the movie. Whereupon we proceeded to get out of there as fast as possible. I asked her to take a taxi home.

[Allow me to digress again, for explanation purposes] We live in Africa and the 'taxi's' are in fact 16-seater mini-buses, mostly un-roadworthy, and a screwdriver is used instead of a steering wheel etc, etc. My sister declined, saying she would rather push me than risk our lives in one of those taxi's. One accident was bad enough. So she pushed and pushed up and down, up and down, until i exploded and demanded to take a taxi, no matter what state it was in. Now when I throw a tantrum, I REALLY throw one. To avoid embarassment she reluctantly flagged down a taxi. We caught the eye of one, with a beautiful eagle painted alongside the taxi and desert scenery. Not bad and thanks be to God it was empty. We asked the taxi driver if we could pay the fare for 16 pax as we wanted to be alone in the taxi. He said, no prob and proceeded to help me out of wheelchair. Imagine the shock and smell that was released then! this driver to his credit never mentioned a word. Once seated we drove off, direction hospital. Now imagine our surprise when he started stopping and loading passengers. I will not go into detail here, about my sisters indignation and embarrassment, when they started complaining about the smell! He just pumped up the music to drown out their complaints. We just prayed we were going to be the last to get off. As it happened we were the first to be unceremoniously dumped off. The swearing and curses that went on, whilst I was being lifted out of the taxi follow me to this day. Guys it is at times like these that you cannot explain and appreciate the flavour of the africans who do go out of their way to make you really feel like shit in these situations. They demanded all sorts of monies back in compensation, including the prostitute he also picked up! And all the time that ever increasing sound of his music!!! His only comment was to my sister, saying "Madam, I am sorry, but next time its better you walk, I won't pick up anymore paraplegics, sorry!"

Well we made it back, much to the shock and horror and afterwards the laughter of the nursing staff and doctor, when I told them of my first disastrous outing in my wheelchair.

To this day, this story is a pick-me-up for me and my friends when I have to relate this story.

2nd Incident

I was a month back at home after 3 months rehab, and we had employed a caregiver for me and Lionel had taught her the ins and outs of wheelchair usage, pushing etc. We decided to give town a bash one day. Lionel dropped us off, and off we went. At the time did not have the strength yet to push myself in the wheelchair so Moreen (my caregiver) pushed. We had fun going in and out of shops, etc. We then came to a traffic light crossing, and needed to cross the street. We have curbed sidewalks so she needed to tilt wheelchair back and then slowly on back wheels lower me off the pavement to cross the street. She was battling to tilt the wheelchair so a very kind gentleman offered to help. He was a GAP (volunteer worker from overseas) student and was not familiar with wheelchairs. I said no, but caregiver said yes, and before we could explain to him how to do it, he grabbed the wheelchair unceremoniously dropped wheelchair off pavement (hard landing) and proceeded to race across the street whilst traffic light was green, and slammed me into the curbside on the other side of the street, thereby sending me flying out of the wheelchair and connecting with the traffic light head on. As i lay there totally stunned and wrapped around the traffic light, the lights changed for the motorists to proceed. This was a 4-way crossing, and not ONE car moved, they were all watching this GAP student being chased around the traffic light by an elderly african woman wielding an umbrella and thrashing him anywhere she could. All the time I am shouting for someone to get me back in the wheelchair, my caregiver virtually catatonic with fear, and onlookers gawping and shouting encouragement to our elderly woman with the umbrella. This poor student was saying, "OH my God, I've only been here two weeks and don't know the traffic light system, and I'm so sorry"

I yelled back various expletives and told him to get me back in my chair. With an open gashed wound on my forehead and a few scratches on arm and face, we evwentually got back into the wheelchair. Thus ending my first ever outing in town for a long time. Having this scene described to me afterward by Lionel (as he happened to be walking towards us as we were crossing) had me in stitches for a long time. Lionel often turns my more disastrous moments into humour as he himself is so scared that if I am not immediately reassured positively , I might just be even more depressed over my situation than the latest incident. My poor caregiver was petrified she might lose her job over this and took many more assurances than me, and all the while I had just bought my licence to drive a wheelchair. I felt inaugurated into my fellow wheelchair owners brotherhood.



Since then i have bought many more 'crime scene patches' around the flat we live in. Falling asleep in the wheelchair late at night and falling off the wheelchair. Falling asleep on the loo late at ngith and falling off, and falling with crutches!

These are my moments of "What the....."

The point is, it is these type of moments we have had in the beginning that i often reflect upon when in one of my depressed moods, which in turn cheers me up immensely and then i get going again.



Now tell us yours.

So sorry Simon for the length of this and i hope you guys read and enjoy.

Go well, 'til next time.

[itsjustme]

I didn't think that I was ever going to fall out of my chair. Why would I? Because I didn't fasten my seat belt-THAT'S WHY!!!

Last Saturday morning we loaded up in the van to head out on an adventure day, yard sales, eating out, shopping, whatever the day brought. I like to ride kind of up in between my girls seats when we are in town and I usually have one hand on each seat however I was messing with putting a few dollars in a little bag that I carry on my wheelchair arm when my daughter stopped unexpectedly half way down the drive to run into their house for something and I just slid forward right out of my chair and then sideways landing on my butt to the right of my chair.

Now as my feet are always strapped to my foot plates because of spasms when I looked down, my ankles were completely at 45% angles. At first my daughters just looked at me like, "What in the world are you doing?" Then they realized that I was falling. It was like all in slow motion for some reason.

Now I've lost some weight but not enough! One daughter crawled into the back with me and picked me up propping me with her knee while the other one got behind me and got hold of the back of my pants and the two of them got me back up in my chair.

Three broken bones in the top of my foot and a broken ankle later..................

It sure looks like it would hurt if I could feel it!

[edlee]

Who, but other wheelchair users, would find any of this funny? Isn't it strange, how our sensibilities change?

My wife hates it when I relate my mishaps and actually cringes when I describe them. I, on the other hand find them hilarious.

My latest was while leaving a local fast food place. Apparantly they had just finished extending rheir chair ramps at the curbs with a tar and stone chip mixture. I found this out while trying to use one of them on the way in. Two long ruts and tar on my wheels!!!!

I decided, when leaving, to just hop off the 3 inch curb as I have done many times elsewhere. The next thing I know, I'm on my back, still in my chair , and unable to move. My legs somehow got crossed and the toe of my shoe was caught in the spokes of the opposite wheel.

I knew immediately what had happened and was in the process of laughing my butt off, while my wife was frantic.

Fortunately, two gentlemen were coming out and lifted the back of the chair setting me upright, ( I had already dislodged my shoe), before Judi ( my wife) got back from her search for help. When she arrived, with the manager in tow, I was just sitting there as tho nothing had happened, and asked her where she had run off to.

Strange ,,,,she didn't find any of this funny.


I have many more, but will save them for another time.
ed

[wheeliebear75]

Three broken bones in the top of my foot and a broken ankle later..................
it sure looks like it would hurt if I could feel it!

That may be one of the very FEW instances where NOT feeling would be a good thing. ;)


I have the majority of my feeling but not so well in my left foot.....on a trolley I had another passenger park his scooter on my foot. We just sat there talking......finally another passenger came up and said, "Uh.....I don't know if you guys are aware or not.......but.......sir you've parked your chair on her foot." Sure enough (broke the smaller bones in the top of my foot). (It gets better) While checking out of the hospital (foot swelled up like a balloon had to go) the nurse tells me to "try not to bear too much weight on your foot", and the Dr. was going to give me some Tylenol with codeine........I've got way stronger stuff in my medicine cabinet.

Ok for the falling/being dumped out of your chair:
1st off I have to explain a couple of things. #1 both my mother and I are Legally Blind (we can see just real blurred, use large print,white cane,etc.) #2 my mother was an OT #3 between my Dad being in wheelchair after his stroke in 84 till he died in 86, then me since 90; one would think this is some pushing experience.

We were walking around Downtown San Diego. There are curb cuts everywhere and aside from it being dirty and lots of homeless people around not bad for access. We had been out at Qualccom Stadium (Jack Murphey to any who were here in the 80's)watching the Chargers play. Well I started hurting REAL bad so I had to take my pills. This of course made it harder for me to push myself. My Mom (who's vision is worse than mine) decided to push me to help (I was fine with this scary as it may sound). Well we had to cross the tracks to go find me a restroom. On our way back (1st time over the tracks just fine), my front wheel hit the track before my Mom had realized what was happening she pushed the chair forward and I went splat on the tracks and my cushion was now laying on top of my butt and my Mom is white as a ghost and holding the chair tilted forward ( I looked like a bushel of potatoes being dumped out of a wheelbarrow ). All I could think about at the time though was "Oh My God I'm going to get run over by a trolley". No trolley in sight (even for the sighted ;) ). I did however do one of the fastest "army crawls" of my life! Anyway as soon as I had gotten myself up the curb I was lifted by 2 sailors back in my chair. We laugh about it now but were pretty shaken up at the time.

That wasn't my only splat I doubt it will be the last.

[nomis]

The first time I feel out was on one of my first ventures outside. I'd heard it was best to go backwards up curbs. There was an edge from the path to the lawn which then gently sloped DOWN. So I gave the chair a good hiff backwards!

Years later when I was a working, annoyingly know-it-all para-about-town, I was crossing the busiest intersection of our capital city, Wellington. Confidently I threw the chair up the curb, got all the way except that last bit, totted a moment, then feel back sprawling in front of the traffic as the lights changed.

That was when I learnt in such situations I had to take control. Someone rushed up to help me and pulled at anything on the w/chair that would come off. I had to block my mind from holding up the traffic to organising the retrieval and correct placement of the w/chair so I could get back in.

Last time I tipped over backwards was a few weeks ago when trying out a new w/chair at home. I was heading for the shower when there was a knock at the front door. I was fetching clothes out of a draw so gave a typical push-off and flip. Upside down in the nude.

Whenever I tip over backwards (about once every two years) I'm always surprised that it registers with me that I'm tipped out, there's a moment then wap, I get thumped by my legs tumbling on top.

Edited by nomis, 25 July 2007 - 01:12 AM.

[gazrobsuk]

Very funny story Susi in retrospect (I know we shouldn't laugh) but I can relate to the helplessness of it from your perspective but also the well meaning of your sister who sounds a laugh.

Myself I've never fallen out of a chair though when my mate takes me to the pub occasinally we always have too many & he pushes me back like a madman & I fear if we hit the slightest lump but so far so good but one day I have this feeling despite my protestations.

I have however fallen when on my feet & in fact I did last Sunday whilst having a shower to go out which was untimely as I was grovelling around on a wet floor so couldn't get up without assistance so luckily my wife was within screaming distance. It's the first time I've fallen in 5 years or more so a bit of a shock to say the least. I think I fell coz I had gout in my left ankle (too much booze & not enough water:-) so that gave way under pain as my right foot slipped doh so I then knackered my knee & we had to fly home next day. As I'd gone out there without my chair that was a problem getting into the airport as I could only shuffle a few yards plus all the hassle of getting carried on the plane (Spain doesn't have an ambilift)

Of course we've come back to the UK & floods with cold temperatures (14 when we landed) whereas when we left it was 38 so that doesn't help my pain/stiffness...

Anyhow, work beckons:-))

L8er

Nice story

Edited by gazrobsuk, 25 July 2007 - 01:46 PM.

[Nichole]

I love these stories lol. I think it's great when you can laugh at yourself ;)
The first time I fell out of my chair was hilarious. I had just got home from the hospital, and I decided I wanted to go outside and look at my flowers in the back yard. Well my younger brother (he was 15 at the time; i was 17) decided that he was going to help me. Well he was pushing me kind of fast, and all of a sudden the front tire on my wheelchair feel into a hole in the yard! I flew through the air about 3 foot and landed on my knees in the grass! The funniest part was I wasn't even hurt lol. I hit the ground and started laughing so hard that my brother thought I was crying!!!! He got so scared he RAN back into the house and 30 seconds later my dad and him came running around the side of the house. I was still laughing my a** off and I finally got the words out to tell them I was ok, I was just laughing
Needless to say, my brother was terrified and never pushed me agian.....hahaha!!!!!

[Susi]

Thanks to all of you who have contributed to date. Whilst some stories may not be funny due to injuries sustained, I still find it cool that we laugh about it. And although our partners or caregivers might cringe when relating our stories, it helps others around us to see how 'normal' we actually are, and gives them confidence to treat us the same as when they knew us pre-injury. I certainly have found it to be so. All my friends sort of fell by the wayside after coming home, and only since we made a concerted effort to socialise with them and relate our experiences with them do they begin to see that really nothing has changed bar injury of course. Look forward to some more stories, and hopefully correlate them one day for a Wheelchair Wobble book.

Til later

[ParaforGod]

The first time I fell out of my chair I was still in rehab. the last three wks I was there I had to stay in a apartment that the hospital owned so that I could get use to being out of the hospital. My daughter was with me. The hospital bed in the apartment had these old springs that the mattress lay on. I was going to transfer from the bed to the chair and the bed was quite a bit higher that my chair. I was trying to slide but each time I tried I bounced because of the springs. I went head first into the floor. I laughed and my daughter was in a panic.
Then I went with a friend to hear her husbands band play. When we returned home I was letting my lift down on my van and I heard a clang. I thought the lift had hit the ground so I rolled head first into the mud. I was laughing and my friend was in a panic.
My daughter, her friend and myself was going to the next county to shop. My van at that time had not been fixed for me to drive so my daughter was driving. There is a little store about half a mile from my house. We were going to stop at the store and get gas and the store sold TCBY ice cream so each of us was going to get one and eat on the way. Right as we got to the store a car in front of us suddenly stopped without warning. My daughter had to slam on the brakes. I was in my manual chair so the chair was strapped down. My seatbelt on the chair was velcro and when my daughter hit the brakes my seatbelt came undone and I went flying out of my chair. My head went under the drivers seat and I was laughing. My daughters friend was in a panic. When my daughter pulled in at the store and got stopped she looked to see if I was alright then she saw my head under the seat and my body was all twisted up. She thought my leg was broken. She was already mad at the other driver and she is in a panic and asking what are we going to do? I tell her to look around and see if she sees any men who might can get me up. She tells me she doesn't want to ask strange men to get me up. I then tell her we are only two blocks away from the Fire Department drive down there and they will get me up and after telling her this I say but will you go into the store and get my ice cream first. She tells me I am not going to pull in at the fire department with your head up under the seat and you eating a ice cream Mother. I never did get that ice cream. Shephard Center told me if Im not hurt to always call the fire department because they don't charge to get you up where the EMT's do.
Then as I told on the forum not long ago I went to the cemetery to visit my husbands grave and I fell out of my chair there. It was almost dark and when the EMT's got there I said I am so sorry you had to come out here and get me up. One of them said Oh don't worry we do this all the time. I looked at him and said I bet you haven't ever picked a body up out of the graveyard before and he said no this is a first. We laughed.

[Susi]

Hi Paraforgod

Loved your stories, although not funny for our caregivers, families, etc. I am glad there are people in our situation that can laugh at our situations. I mean, what more can happen to us?

[mrsE]

I have fallen out of my chair a few times - sometimes it happens so quickly that I suddenly realise I am on the deck and other times it is in slow motion.

In front of my consultant at hospital I was playing tug with my dog- who went behind me and instead of letting go I held on to the toy and he pulled me over backwards.

Coming out of a stadium where I had just watched a basketball tournament. I was just following everyone else and didn't see the kerb. Next thing I knew there were hands grabbing me from all directions and I ended up back in the chair quick as a flash.

In a pet shop I saw the ramp to get to the floor below was very steep but it had a hand rail so I thought I could go down backwards holding on to the rail. It worked well but I let go the rail too soon and went over backwards.

Coming out of a saloon taxi going up the kerb - I thought the taxi driver was behind me tipping me up to go up the kerb but it was the weight of my rucksack full of books - tipped backwards yet again.

there are more but none quite as funny as some of your stories

[Nichole]

Hi ParaforGod. Your stories are really funny. You sound a lot like me, I mean what can you do except laugh at yourself ;) I wanted to let you know though, if you're a para, they can most likely teach you in physical therapy how to get back in your chair from the floor/ground....whatever it may be. It takes a lot of strength in your arms, but once you can do it, you'll save yourself! It's nice to be able to get down on the floor just when you want to as well. I get down on the floor about every day to play with my dogs, and it's a great place to stretch since you have a lot of room.

ParaforGod, on Jul 26 2007, 08:17 PM, said:

The first time I fell out of my chair I was still in rehab. the last three wks I was there I had to stay in a apartment that the hospital owned so that I could get use to being out of the hospital. My daughter was with me. The hospital bed in the apartment had these old springs that the mattress lay on. I was going to transfer from the bed to the chair and the bed was quite a bit higher that my chair. I was trying to slide but each time I tried I bounced because of the springs. I went head first into the floor. I laughed and my daughter was in a panic.
Then I went with a friend to hear her husbands band play. When we returned home I was letting my lift down on my van and I heard a clang. I thought the lift had hit the ground so I rolled head first into the mud. I was laughing and my friend was in a panic.
My daughter, her friend and myself was going to the next county to shop. My van at that time had not been fixed for me to drive so my daughter was driving. There is a little store about half a mile from my house. We were going to stop at the store and get gas and the store sold TCBY ice cream so each of us was going to get one and eat on the way. Right as we got to the store a car in front of us suddenly stopped without warning. My daughter had to slam on the brakes. I was in my manual chair so the chair was strapped down. My seatbelt on the chair was velcro and when my daughter hit the brakes my seatbelt came undone and I went flying out of my chair. My head went under the drivers seat and I was laughing. My daughters friend was in a panic. When my daughter pulled in at the store and got stopped she looked to see if I was alright then she saw my head under the seat and my body was all twisted up. She thought my leg was broken. She was already mad at the other driver and she is in a panic and asking what are we going to do? I tell her to look around and see if she sees any men who might can get me up. She tells me she doesn't want to ask strange men to get me up. I then tell her we are only two blocks away from the Fire Department drive down there and they will get me up and after telling her this I say but will you go into the store and get my ice cream first. She tells me I am not going to pull in at the fire department with your head up under the seat and you eating a ice cream Mother. I never did get that ice cream. Shephard Center told me if Im not hurt to always call the fire department because they don't charge to get you up where the EMT's do.
Then as I told on the forum not long ago I went to the cemetery to visit my husbands grave and I fell out of my chair there. It was almost dark and when the EMT's got there I said I am so sorry you had to come out here and get me up. One of them said Oh don't worry we do this all the time. I looked at him and said I bet you haven't ever picked a body up out of the graveyard before and he said no this is a first. We laughed.

[ParaforGod]

Hi Nichole and thanks. They tried to teach me how to get from the floor into my chair at rehab but I didn't have the upper strength and I still don't although I am doing more weights now so maybe someday. I love all the stories. Its great to laugh.

Hi Susi and thanks. Its either laugh or cry and thank the Lord I somehow seem to find the sense of humor in the situations when I fall.

[Nichole]

ParaforGod, on Jul 27 2007, 11:37 PM, said:

Hi Nichole and thanks. They tried to teach me how to get from the floor into my chair at rehab but I didn't have the upper strength and I still don't although I am doing more weights now so maybe someday. I love all the stories. Its great to laugh.

Hi Susi and thanks. Its either laugh or cry and thank the Lord I somehow seem to find the sense of humor in the situations when I fall.

Well, just keep trying, I'm sure you'll get it It took me a long time to get my arms strong too.

[Godsgirl151999]

ok so i like to go down ramps realy fast (who doesnt?) and we were in sanfransisco and there was a long one. no one was around so mom and dad said i could go down it (of course mom closed her eyes things like that scare her (its so fun to scare her...... )) but what none of us noticed was a BIG bump at the end!! so here i am flying down this ramp and all of the suddent SPLAT!!! i am on the floor!! i was laughing but poor mom was so scared!!!

ok so i have a realy heavey school bag and my bus was there (this is in the morning going to school) so my dad bienig silly dicides to kick my (kind of) chair out the door and instead of sending me out the door and down the stairs, he has sent me backwards and we are both just laughing

i dont know how you people get away with falling once or twice a year i usualy am lucky if i can get away with once or twic a mounth let alone a year!!!!!!! needles to say i have officialy joined the frequent flyer program!!! (my poor mom is soooooo paranoid of me and ramps now .......)

[essexscipilot]

For some strange reason whenever i fall out my chair (and ive had my share) I always end up Peeing myself laughing.

Am I the only weird one out there?

[russ1]

Have posted this before but......

Was out watching my son play football, well the car park was across from the pitch separated by a small stream - well to get there I went the long way round along the road over a proper bridge and than a long push along the grass. After the match decided I could do the steep 4 ft drop into the gully and the little wooden footbridge like everyone else. Got to the top of the slope and then bottled descending the slope on my own on my backwheels (way too steep to roll down) and my wife said she'd steady me but I didn't have the push handles on so she just grabbed the back of the chair. As soon as we hit the steep bit gravity took over and she couldn't hold on, I didn't have my own balance so ended up back on all four wheels heading very quickly towards the 4 ft wide timber bridge with no sides over the stream, got onto the bridge and then somehow managed to fall out forwards right in the middle of the bridge, all the odds would have had me ending up in the stream, still don't know how I didn't. And in front of all the other parents too. Plenty of people to help me back in though.

[Godsgirl151999]

thats funny russ!! i remember once when my band class was going out to the football feild i had a hard time going through the grass so a friend decided to help me....... well i am sure we all know what happens when you have a hundred pound bag on your chair and someone tries to make your chair do a wheelie to get through the grass......... needles to say i went backwards onto my back!!! it was funny to see the kid who was helping go crazy.... they always think i am so fragil... to bad they dont see me and how my dad flips me over for fun!!!

[curlygirl]

Here's one of my favorite funny stories: I had just recently gotten out of the hospital and was still on a catheter at the time. We used to hang the bag from the bottom of the manual chair and it was fine. Well, my husband and I decided to go out shopping and went to a kind of nice electronics store ... it was all carpeted and everything.

Well we look around for quite a while and then when we leave, I'm getting back in the car and he goes down to unhook the bag from the bottom of the chair. Then he notices that it's nearly empty and it was more than half full when we started! So we realize that it has sprung a leak after it started dragging on the ground. We started laughing so hard, because we knew that we had just left a trail of pee throughout the store!

It went out of business a while later and we always joked that it was all my fault!

[Cheshire]

Last week I went to the camera shop in a strip (kinda) mall. The handicap spots were next to the end of the sidewalk, while the ramp was 3 shops down. I forgot this when I came out of the store, and was in a hurry so I tried to hop the small curb. I was in a rental WC with solid-state tires, and instead of wheelie-ing, the tires just slid and I drifted forward...right off the curb, to get stuck. Lost all my shopping off my lap, and the look on my face must have been priceless...almost kissed dirt. One guy watched it happen and was watching me with this odd look on his face...never seen someone in a chair fend for themself, apparently. (hehe.) I just grinned, pointed to the curb and said, "No ramp. Go figure." He then got to look at me oddly again when I managed to free myself from the curb and NOT faceplant. I shrugged it off with, "You learn a few tricks or else." He got a kick outta that.

[Godsgirl151999]

i have had my share of falling down curbs........

ok so we all know that if a curb is at least an inch high we have to do wheellie or something........ not just go down like there is nothing there right? well to bad my depth perseption makes everything look like it is level and curbs dont exist............. until............ SPLAT........... you are flat on your face or somthing to that effect thank goodness my mom/dad are always nearbye to stop me................. .....

[jules]

I had quite an amusing incident a few years ago. My husband and I are big F1 fans, we went to Silverstone for the British GP, my brother and my dad also came. At Silverstone the cost of beer is unreal so we usually take our own supplies into the circuit. So we had the idea of putting all of the beer in a ruck sack, which my husband put on the back of my chair. The problem was I only weigh 40 kilos. I didn't really have a problem until it came to pushing myself up a ramp to the toilets, as you can probably guess gravity decided to take over and I started to tip up, luckily my husband had also put my Damon Hill flag (on a 2 metre pole)on my chair. So I ended up wedged in the doorway of the toilet with the flag stuck in the doorway with my front wheels off the ground much to everyone's amusement!