Adjustments

No. 6     Tuesday 21 June 2011

The personal adjustments (which I mentioned in my last blog) are more difficult to assess.  This is partly because some things which make them necessary are probably due more to the ageing process than to my disability.  Those that I can blame on being disabled are, after a bit of thought, fairly obvious - to me at least!!  The one thing, probably more than anything else, that I have had to get used to but which still irritates me at times, is how much longer it takes to do even tasks which I found natural before.  A major one is when I drop something.  When this happened I would just bend over and pick it up but now I have to go to where one of my two "helping hand" gadgets are, return to a position where the item is on my left (due to uselessness if my right hand), pick it up and then return the gadget to its normal resting place (kitchen or bedroom).  There is a complication if I drop something which is too flat on the floor to be picked up.  In such cases I place a self-adhesive label on it, using the gadget, which then makes picking up possible.  The upshot of all this is that I have become extremely careful about dropping things and am probably over cautious.

Another aspect which took some, mostly mental, adaptation was asking for help when things are either out of reach, too heavy or too awkward to lift one handed.  Such help was rarely necessary before, but now is a regular occurrence, particularly when shopping at the supermarket.  At first I would wait until a likely looking "helper" came along and even then I felt slightly embarrassed about asking if they would help, buit now it is almost second nature.  I think this is because I cannot remember ever having been refused help, and quite often it is offered before I ask.  It just goes to show how little I understand my fellow beings!!

General living takes up to four times longer, partly due to the time and space needed to move the wheelchair.  I have also built up a mental list of how many minutes I need to allow to do things, from getting dressed to getting tea ready.  I suppose this harks back to my 33 years in Air Traffic Control where, particularly where radar was not available, exact time was often of major importance.  Fortunately modern technology comes to my aid in that I have three clocks and a wristwatch which are all radio controlled - that is they automatically keep time by radio signals from a station in (I think) Cumbria.  The clocks are in the main living areas - kitchen, sitting room and bedroom - and they have the added advantage that they are automatically adjusted for the start and end of BST by the same radio signals.

I have been a little concerned that my readers might get the impression that these blogs are me moaning or complaining abouit my lot to get some sympathy.  That is definitely not the case.  The intention was, and is, to give people an understanding of what living with a disability is like, and how changes can be made to adjust to it.