midtoad's messages

Up until now, I have been pushing my manual chair indoors: that is, on a nice hard laminated floor with no bumps or irregularities. Well, I notice every tiny incline or slight bump, but most people would be impervious to them. I have been curious as to whether I could push a manual chair outdoors, that is, in the real world. Out there , services are not flat, nor smooth. So today, I ventured outside for the first time.

The original plan was to find a nice smooth section of river Pathway, but most of the pathways are closed due to flooding, and in addition my vehicle’s battery had died. So I settled for trying to make a lap around my residence.

With a great deal of effort, I was able to push my way all around the building and back to my starting point, a total of 140 meters according to my GPS. However I needed quite a few course corrections as the paving stones had a slight sideways lean to them. And one 5 meters stretch was too steep for me to push my way up. Next time, I’ll try going around the house in a counterclockwise direction, as that will take advantage of my stronger right arm.

I don’t think I’ll be jumping curbs and rolling onto a city bus with my manual chair anytime soon, but it’s nice to know that eventually I might have an alternative to just rolling up and down inside the house.

Last night I got some more practice with my manual wheelchair. In an hour and a quarter, I completed 13 laps from my bedroom to the dining room and back, making all the turns at each end by myself. In this video with two segments, I am turning around at my bedroom door and then pushing down the hallway. This may give you a sense of how difficult it is to move a manual chair when you are a high-level quadriplegic instead of a paraplegic. But hey, it’s all good: I don’t think any of the stuff at the hospital would ever expect me to push a manual chair at all.

Here I am turning around in the dining room without any assistance from pushing on a wall or piece of furniture. It’s not easy! However, developing this ability means I can go anywhere in the house and return .

Thursday evening, I didn’t have much to do, so I asked for assistance to get into my manual chair and started doing laps. Short story, I did 7! By the time I got to the last few, I figured out a way to turn around by myself, so now I can be independent when I am rolling around the house. Next goal: double digits!