Never a Dull Moment
Author: Sheri Denkensohn-Trott
If there is one thing that you become accustomed to when you have a disability is that you never know what a day will bring. Within minutes, plans get derailed and you must think outside of the box. One could argue that this is a good thing; you develop a sense of resilience and realize that not everything works out as planned. The flipside is that sometimes you just want to throw up your hands and wish that everything would just occur without any curveballs.
Today was such a day. We were on our way to the wheelchair vendor so Tony could start the process for getting a new wheelchair. As I went up the ramp into the van, my chair went sideways and the batteries on the back came off. They weigh over 300 pounds. My attendant took my chair out of gear and was able to get me down the ramp. However, the batteries are too heavy to put on without assistance. So off she went to find help.
Meanwhile, Tony and I waited in the garage hoping that she would come back in time with someone to lift the batteries back onto my chair so we could quickly get to the appointment.
The gentleman that takes care of maintenance in the building and is our “go to” in emergency situations was out of the building on an emergency, so we had to think of another plan. I wasn’t sure if I would get service on my phone in the garage, but I was able to text my friend across the street and asked if her husband was available. He happened to be home, quickly came over to our building and down to the garage. He was able to lift the batteries onto the back of my chair.
In the meantime, we had already missed the time of the 11 AM appointment so we just decided we would have to reschedule (the wheelchair place was, thankfully, accommodating and we got a new appointment). We rearranged the day and made the best of it. At some point you realize that getting all bent out of shape about a schedule change isn’t worth the effort. Plus, we had other things to do.
Yes, a different day than we had planned. But that’s the nature of our lives.
