No. 3 Sunday 29 May 2011
How do I cook my food? That is quite an easy question to deal with - I do very little actual cooking, again modern technology comes to the rescue. It is a combination of pre-prepared food and modern equipment. The main meal of the day is lunch which consists of a chilled or frozen "ready meal" heated in a microwave oven (which also doubles as a conventional oven) followed, always, by a banana. These ready meals come in such a wide variety that, with even just the chilled ones, I could go for a whole month without repeating a meal - if I so wanted. The other meals - breakfast consists of a bowl of cereal and tea is either a sandwich (bought ready prepared from the supermarket) or a pasty, quiche or burger heated in the microwave followed, always, by a pot of probiotic yogurt. Finally supper is, again always, a beaker of cranberry juice and a banana. As you can see my meals are a combination of variety and routine which is how I prefer it as the routine part saves me having to decide minor matters.
Another problem which might arise, especially to keen gardeners, is what do I do about gardening as I didn't mention a gardener in my first blog. Well, again a simple answer, my garden (or the space usually described as such) has nothing growing on it - front or back. The front is a good quality gravel, the pieces of which tend to interlock under pressure, spread over a membrane to prevent weeds, surrounded by low concrete edging. In the centre is a large simple square pattern of slate. The back is much larger and is on two levels, the part away from the house being much lower and terminating in a brook running in a deepish gully. The upper part is paved with slate in various dark colours and the lower part is covered with decking which looks like grey driftwood but is actually plastic. Separating the two parts, and the lower from the brook, are waist high white post and rail fences - again made of plastic. Rounding off the absence of maintenance rule is the fencing to the boundaries which (with the agreement of the neighbours) is of brown plastic patterned like boards. I am just waiting for the contractors to come and install the same fencing on the far side of the brook. The two levels of the garden are connected by ramps so that they are fully accessible to me. From the back door (out of bedroom 2) is a short slate ramp to the upper level and from this level to the lower one is a longer ramp made of decking. To finish off the general appearance I have added an ornament at the front and three more at the back.
How do I ......? (part 1)
No. 2 Sunday 22 May 2011
How do I cope with everyday tasks while in a wheelchair (and with hand use about 60% left and 5% right) ? Well, it is all thanks to modern technology. I don't have to manually pull curtains or use a cord, instead they are powered and I use a remote - one for each of the three windows which are so fitted (although any one remote will operate each of the three in turn). What about opening the front door? That is again taken care of by power operation using either of two wireless remotes, one just opens the door, which closes by itself, the other lets me talk to callers on the intercom before I let anyone in, using the same remote (as it is rechargeable I have two so that one is in use while the other is charging). TV and hi-fi are as in any other house, but the air conditioners, which are almost silent and very much quieter than those I experienced in the Middle East, have their own remotes. One specially clever control is a wireless one which controls the central heating. This sits on the table alongside my armchair but the boiler is in the kitchen. The controller has its own thermostat and can be set for any temperature in 2, 4 or 6 periods during the day - and the thermostat is much more accurate than the usual wall type. That, without listing every remote control, is some idea of how much easier life is made by their use.
I expect some readers are wondering how I came to be wheelchair bound. Briefly, I fell off my 500cc Yamaha T-max scooter and ended up with my head against an earth bank. The ambulance people (correctly) put a support collar on and took me to hospital. At the hospital they mis-read the x-ray, didn't give me an MRI scan (which they should have done), and took the collar off. When, later, they tried moving me and found that my movements had deteriorated they put the collar back on and sent me to another, more distant, hospital to be sorted out. This hospital did what they could (and made a good job of it) and then sent me to a specialist spinal unit where I remained for nine months. When I arrived there I couldn't move anything except my left arm yet when I left the unit I could get into, and drive, an electric wheelchair - and even walk a bit using a walking frame. That shows how good the spinal unit is. The upshot is that, for the technically minded, I have a spinal injury C 6/7 (incomplete) - and I have been compensated by the first hospital.
How do I deal with everyday matters like cooking etc.? That will be covered in my next blog.
Mike
How do I cope with everyday tasks while in a wheelchair (and with hand use about 60% left and 5% right) ? Well, it is all thanks to modern technology. I don't have to manually pull curtains or use a cord, instead they are powered and I use a remote - one for each of the three windows which are so fitted (although any one remote will operate each of the three in turn). What about opening the front door? That is again taken care of by power operation using either of two wireless remotes, one just opens the door, which closes by itself, the other lets me talk to callers on the intercom before I let anyone in, using the same remote (as it is rechargeable I have two so that one is in use while the other is charging). TV and hi-fi are as in any other house, but the air conditioners, which are almost silent and very much quieter than those I experienced in the Middle East, have their own remotes. One specially clever control is a wireless one which controls the central heating. This sits on the table alongside my armchair but the boiler is in the kitchen. The controller has its own thermostat and can be set for any temperature in 2, 4 or 6 periods during the day - and the thermostat is much more accurate than the usual wall type. That, without listing every remote control, is some idea of how much easier life is made by their use.
I expect some readers are wondering how I came to be wheelchair bound. Briefly, I fell off my 500cc Yamaha T-max scooter and ended up with my head against an earth bank. The ambulance people (correctly) put a support collar on and took me to hospital. At the hospital they mis-read the x-ray, didn't give me an MRI scan (which they should have done), and took the collar off. When, later, they tried moving me and found that my movements had deteriorated they put the collar back on and sent me to another, more distant, hospital to be sorted out. This hospital did what they could (and made a good job of it) and then sent me to a specialist spinal unit where I remained for nine months. When I arrived there I couldn't move anything except my left arm yet when I left the unit I could get into, and drive, an electric wheelchair - and even walk a bit using a walking frame. That shows how good the spinal unit is. The upshot is that, for the technically minded, I have a spinal injury C 6/7 (incomplete) - and I have been compensated by the first hospital.
How do I deal with everyday matters like cooking etc.? That will be covered in my next blog.
Mike
Introduction
No. 1 Sunday 15 May 2011
This is my first blog which will, I hope, be the start of a regular series. It is to make a place for my friends to find out how things are going without having to wait for e-mails from me - something about which I am notoriously bad.
My food needs are met by going shopping to a nearby Morrison's supermarket twice one week and once the next. This is a fairly regular routine, dictated by the time bananas stay fresh (I eat two daily). Tuesday is a busy day - a lady comes to massage my hands, followed by another who does the major housework (changing bed linen, vacuuming etc.), followed by yet another who files my fingernails (something my disability renders extremely difficult) and gives me a haircut when needed. During these calls the local Lloyds Pharmacy delivers my weeks supply of medication (pills) and once every four weeks the outside of the windows is cleaned. Once a week, in the evening, I generally go to a social club (close to the supermarket) for retired people. Recently, on a daily basis, I started having a carer come to put on my socks and shoes and to pull up the duvet - both tasks which were coming close to impossible.
My only other routine happenings are that I go (by taxi) to a Quaker Meeting once a week - most of the time to Gloucester but roughly once a month to Painswick because I live almost exactly half-way between the two. The other things are that the chiropodist comes approximately every eight weeks and a District Nurse comes every six weeks to change my catheter.
If I want anything not available locally, and which is too "local" to get on the Internet there are three ways by which I can get into the city. These are the local bus, about every 15 minutes by day, most of which are accessible by wheelchair, a local community transport system (weekdays only), or a taxi - the firm I use has a number of taxis which take wheelchairs. All this means that, although I'm not safe to drive any more, there is no feeling of isolation or of being imprisioned at home.
A final thought for this edition to leave you puzzling, is that I have 22 remote controls of various sorts of which I generally have 11 available (not counting the two on charge).
Mike
This is my first blog which will, I hope, be the start of a regular series. It is to make a place for my friends to find out how things are going without having to wait for e-mails from me - something about which I am notoriously bad.
My food needs are met by going shopping to a nearby Morrison's supermarket twice one week and once the next. This is a fairly regular routine, dictated by the time bananas stay fresh (I eat two daily). Tuesday is a busy day - a lady comes to massage my hands, followed by another who does the major housework (changing bed linen, vacuuming etc.), followed by yet another who files my fingernails (something my disability renders extremely difficult) and gives me a haircut when needed. During these calls the local Lloyds Pharmacy delivers my weeks supply of medication (pills) and once every four weeks the outside of the windows is cleaned. Once a week, in the evening, I generally go to a social club (close to the supermarket) for retired people. Recently, on a daily basis, I started having a carer come to put on my socks and shoes and to pull up the duvet - both tasks which were coming close to impossible.
My only other routine happenings are that I go (by taxi) to a Quaker Meeting once a week - most of the time to Gloucester but roughly once a month to Painswick because I live almost exactly half-way between the two. The other things are that the chiropodist comes approximately every eight weeks and a District Nurse comes every six weeks to change my catheter.
If I want anything not available locally, and which is too "local" to get on the Internet there are three ways by which I can get into the city. These are the local bus, about every 15 minutes by day, most of which are accessible by wheelchair, a local community transport system (weekdays only), or a taxi - the firm I use has a number of taxis which take wheelchairs. All this means that, although I'm not safe to drive any more, there is no feeling of isolation or of being imprisioned at home.
A final thought for this edition to leave you puzzling, is that I have 22 remote controls of various sorts of which I generally have 11 available (not counting the two on charge).
Mike
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