Category: disability

It can happen to anyone at any time.

It can happen as a result of an accident. It doesn’t have to be catastrophic either. Something as simple as a fall can do it. But being extremely cautious won’t help because it can even happen during surgery . The truly scary thing is that your own body might just be a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. What am I talking about? Paralysis!

There are many ways of being paralyzed , paraplegic, quadriplegic or hemiplegic . It could have happened due to a spinal chord injury. It could have been caused by a brain injury or even a massive stroke.

If you’re thinking that there is no way that it could happen to you because you’re super successful, healthy, and active, and YOUNG! It can and has happened to people just like you.

So the next time you see someone using a wheelchair I want you to think about all of the things that would change in your world if it were you. And treat them with all of the respect they’ve earned.

Because it’s not easy.

Watch “Wheelchair Accessible House Ideas” on YouTube

The video below gives some great ideas for renovating your home for easier use as a wheelchair user. I really enjoy watching how other wheelchair users make their space work for them. For me, it’s been a long process, and I’m still trying to figure out some things.

And can I just say it’s bloody expensive? Because it is! Between spending a couple grand on a manual wheelchair and then having to also shell out several thousand more for a power wheelchair, if your disability requires one, you’ll spend nearly 10 grand before even addressing your home. For me, getting a bath lift was a necessity, and it cost me 1800 bucks . Then there are several grab bars that run just under $200 each with installation, and because we have 2 bathrooms ,I needed 3 in each room. And then I needed something to use that would make getting into bed easier, so another $180 for a saskapole, which is a floor to ceiling metal pole with handles that I can pull myself up with and then lean onto the bed. It’s also necessary for me to get out of bed so at least it has 2 things it helps me do.

And then there is the lift chair, which ran us $3500 for the living room, because I can’t stand from a regular recliner ,I require one that will lift me into a position that I can more easily stand to transfer into my wheelchair ♿️

And I’m lucky to have an able bodied husband to help me . However, because I receive no financial help from my government ,it was all out of pocket for us. At the time, it wasn’t easy to fork out the cash. Thankfully, that situation has changed for the better, and I have everything I need,and even a couple of things I didn’t need, but wanted.

It’s mostly gone…

But not quite. My temperature is still spiking from time to time ,causing sweating that menopausal women would recognize as night sweats. It’s the kind of sweating that ,in the morning, you look at the bed and see you’ve sweated your silhouette onto the sheets, or if it’s daytime, you’re clothes are stuck to you. That’s bad enough, but then throw in half an hour of frozen to the core . But those are my only symptoms left, and they finally feel like they’re waning.

So today, I had a bath followed by a walk, with the leg brace around the hallway outside the condo using the handrails hubby put up. I just went once around, but…

Confession time. It was my first walk in about a year. I’ve been lazy and mildly depressed so I’ve neglected my exercise. Until I discovered and purchased my Zeen, I thought that if I could transfer, that’s all I needed . Then I saw the videos for the Zeen and thought it looked like something I could do.

I still think that I can use the Zeen. I just have to strengthen my left leg somewhat and my core a little. So it’s once around the railing every day until I’m able to Zeen.

My favorite YouTube couple is working through ability differences and having fun. Happy Valentine’s Day 💗

I follow Cole and Charisma on YouTube, and I love how they interact . They have fun, no matter what the task, and it’s always a good time.

So, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share the following video, one of my favorites from their channel, because of the way they actually try to understand life in the others shoes, or wheels 😀 Not everything always works out, but they care enough to try.

Are you recently disabled? Habitat for Humanity gives you some ideas about how to modify your home .

The very good folks at Habitat for Humanity prove that they mean ALL of Humanity by building homes for us disabled people, too. I decided to share this video because there are things in this house that, if you’ve been recently disabled, you may not have thought about. After all disability isn’t just a grab bar. It’s everything from the heights of light switches and plug ins, to ramping the entrance and exits and having counters that the wheelchair can fit underneath . Not to mention, the bathroom mirrors must be lower so that we can see our actual face and not just the 6 inches above our head .

Check out the video below. Even if you’ve been disabled for years, you might find something here.

“Demand for accessible homes in British Columbia

I’ve been thinking about buying some first-floor condos and renovating them to be wheelchair accessible rentals in my city for a while now. Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of money yet, but I will eventually, and I’ve been wanting to give something to the disabled community here on Vancouver Island. The problem of not enough accessible housing is real and ripe for the plucking for the right developer. Every month, people are released from the stroke recovery floor of the hospital, and many of them have no accessible place to go,which they will need for at least a shorter stay. It’s just good sense to make sure that they have an accessible apartment they can use as a stop gap until they are able to renovate their own homes or until they have been able to fully recover from their stroke. It would be easy to build a relationship with the hospitals stroke recovery unit and benefits both the patients and the rentals and the city.