BEYOND THE PAVEMENT

JANUARY 3, 2024

Nerissa is among the unique GRIT Freedom Chair Trailblazers. Her journey with continual sickness has made her very keen about serving to different folks get probably the most out of life regardless of a disabling situation.

What’s that previous saying? “You may’t select what occurs to you, however you may select the way you react to it.” I didn’t select to get sick. I didn’t select to expertise continual ache, widespread irritation, motor management difficulties, and extra. I didn’t select any of that, however I select to make use of a wheelchair.

Sure, you learn that appropriately. Technically, most everybody you see in a wheelchair has chosen to make use of it. Phrases like “wheelchair sure” have given folks the impression that these in wheelchairs are caught in them with no selection. Nonetheless, all of us have a selection whether or not or to not make the most of one to mitigate our incapacity. Not selecting to make use of a wheelchair, although, would go away us with little to no high quality of life. It’s unlucky that the wheelchair has turn out to be a global image of incapacity, when the truth is it’s the wheelchair itself that ENABLES a person to keep up a satisfying life regardless of sickness or damage. 

There’s a grey space during which a big inhabitants of wheelchair customers reside. It’s an space that most individuals don’t perceive as a result of it’s seldom brazenly mentioned for concern of judgment. On this grey space resides the Half-Time Wheelchair Customers. I technically fall into this class, though, I do use my wheelchair in about 75% of my life actions. Half-Timers are wheelchair customers who can stroll. At first this looks like a paradoxical assertion. Why would you employ a wheelchair in case you can stroll?

As a result of forms of sickness and incapacity differ tremendously, the particular reply to that query varies from individual to individual. Nonetheless, a big portion of society instantly jumps to the unfavourable, notably if the Half-Time Wheelchair Person is somebody who in any other case seems younger and wholesome. They may assume we Half-Timers are faking or exaggerating our medical situation as a way to get consideration or another perceived profit reserved for these with a visual incapacity. You would possibly assume somebody standing up out of their wheelchair after which getting on a experience at an amusement park is faking simply to skip a line. Maybe, although, you would possibly think about that many continual diseases trigger temperature sensitivity and that may result in medical disaster if not managed. Using their wheelchair and with the ability to skip the road permits them to benefit from the experience, return to a protected place to relaxation a bit, then journey out for extra enjoyable. This offers them an pleasurable day with family and friends as an alternative of a day at residence or one which ends within the E.R.

One other group of individuals (usually you’ll even discover medical doctors on this class) appear to take the stance (no pun supposed) that utilizing a wheelchair means you might be lazy, or that it’s you “giving up” and permitting your sickness to win. Personally, I take the stance that utilizing a wheelchair is a type of FIGHTING my sickness. My sickness is what causes me ache, makes me fatigued, and makes my gait unpredictable. My sickness is what causes me to make excuses to keep away from social conditions or cancel plans final minute due to a flare up. My sickness is what initially took away mountaineering and dancing. Utilizing my wheelchair, although, I can say, “Sickness, do your worst! You aren’t stopping me from dwelling life!” I do issues with my wheelchair I couldn’t have completed in any other case. I’ve danced once more in my wheelchair, and I can hike with my GRIT Freedom Chair. To me, that’s the exact opposite of giving up.

Once I first began utilizing a wheelchair often, I used to be always listening to the phrase “Use it, or lose it!” If you happen to can nonetheless stroll and stand brief distances and are contemplating utilizing a wheelchair, you’ve seemingly heard the identical factor. To start with, starting to make use of a wheelchair for longer outings doesn’t imply you may’t nonetheless stroll the brief distances when you’re ready. It’s not an all-or-nothing factor! “Use it or lose it!” What if the factor you have been about to lose was your marriage? My buddy, Renee R., instructed me about what led to her finally deciding to start out utilizing a wheelchair:

“I selected to start out utilizing one to avoid wasting my marriage, actually. I’d gotten to the purpose the place I used to be principally homebound as a result of I’d flare a lot from standing and strolling from even fundamental errands. So I ended doing stuff and it almost destroyed my marriage . . .  even fundamental errands may cause me to be debilitated for hours and even days afterward. . . Utilizing a wheelchair I can go to museums and even Disneyland . . . utilizing the chair permits me to even ponder going the place earlier than I couldn’t even consider.”

That’s to not say that utilizing a wheelchair is simple. This world nonetheless has a protracted technique to go relating to accessibility. For instance, I reserved an ADA normal resort room and booked the free resort shuttle from the airport, solely to search out out once they got here to choose me up that NONE of their shuttle buses are outfitted with a wheelchair elevate. For me, although, utilizing a wheelchair is far simpler than the choice. It provides me a degree of independence and exercise I couldn’t fathom with out it given my present well being. Using my wheelchair, I can take my canine out to RUN and I can sustain with him (principally, LOL)! When a wheelchair lets you get pleasure from extra of life than you can with out it, when what it provides to your life exceeds any accessibility obstacles you come throughout, then you definitely want it. It truly is that easy.

The advantages I’ve acquired from utilizing my wheelchair far outweigh the judgment and the negativity from others. Finally, the selection to make use of a wheelchair is as much as the person. Everybody has a special life,  completely different priorities, and completely different desires. It’s vital to make your resolution primarily based on what is going to permit YOU to get probably the most out of YOUR life, versus making a call primarily based on different folks’s perceptions. On this world, you’ll by no means be capable of please everybody, so your first precedence must be your individual well-being. I don’t reside a full life IN SPITE of my wheelchair; I’m able to reside a full and energetic life BECAUSE I select to make use of a wheelchair.