Thrills and Spills.
Jun 2, 2007
“Look at me!” Gary cried. I looked up from where I was lying on my bed using my laptop to see Gary wheeling up to my bedroom door naked. No, he didn’t want me to admire his guns (biceps), but I knew immediately what he was crowing about. He had been in the shower, and the fact that he was now out meant he had done the shower transfer not only without me sitting close by watching but without even telling me. Actually, I had thought him capable of doing so quite some time ago (the only “mistake” he makes on that transfer lately is that he occasionally hits his head on the shower wall because it is so close), but evidently this was the first time he was willing to do it on his own.
So now he can do on his own all the transfers that he normally has to do in the course of a week!
This is not to say that there won’t be the occasional mishap. For instance, what happened this evening, June 5th. We finished our recreation time, during which we watched some of the movie “Murderball” while Gary did his stretching and I did my knee therapy, and then I went to take a bath. While I was running the water, I heard Gary yell out my name. I went running into the living room and found him on the floor instead of in his wheelchair. Well, I guess they warned us this would happen sooner or later. He said that while he was doing his transfer from the futon to his wheelchair something about it felt off, but he thought it would be okay. Obviously it wasn’t. Fortunately he fell slowly, so he says, and he doesn’t think he hurt anything. I was worried at first, thinking how was I ever going to help him get back in the chair, because a) we haven’t practiced a floor-to-wheelchair transfer since Day Program, and worse, b) my knee is most likely too screwed up to be able to help him like I did then. Fortunately both he and I quickly realized that the way to go would be to get him back onto the futon. This actually went fairly easily, similar to the floor-to-platform transfers we practiced at Day Program. Due to my nervousness about the situation, I probably gave him more help than he needed. In fact, he probably could’ve done it entirely on his own. He says he is going to practice it some more this summer. He says that for him to be comfortable traveling alone, he would need to be able to make a floor-to-bed transfer on his own. I told him I wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t want to be able to do a floor to wheelchair transfer on his own since there won’t always be a bed convenient.
Anyway, as he said when he was back on the futon, “Well, that was exciting.” He said he was glad it had happened, actually, because it gave him the confidence that he can handle a situation like that.
Speaking of “Murderball,” it is a very good documentary about quad rugby, which originally really was called “Murderball,” and when you see these guys racing around on the court in their Mad Max wheelchairs, you know why – one of the strategies is to knock your opponent’s chair over (I told Gary not to get any ideas about competing in a sport similar to it! I am absolutely sure they didn’t play anywhere near that rough at the recent quad rugby sessions at the Adventure Skills Workshop; next year we’ll have to stay in the evening to watch a little bit of it). The documentary mainly focuses on Team USA and the few seasons up to and including the Athens 2004 ParaOlympics. It wasn’t purely about the sport action (fortunately); in fact it was more about the people – it interwove the lives of the players and one of the coaches (formerly a Team USA player who became embittered after being cut for the team and went on to become the Team Canada coach, handing the USA its first ever losses) – it goes into a little bit about what their lives were like before the accident, how they learned to cope and excel. Gary’s one disappointment about the documentary was they show a quad getting his trousers on while sitting in the chair, but they stop showing it at the point where he gets them up to his butt – Gary wanted to see him get them all the way on to see if he could pick up any pointers! (This is another thing he hasn’t practiced since Day Program; so little time, so much to do). We also thought it strange that they seemed to indicate that quads have no problems with their sex lives, that at most only an adjustment in position is all that’s needed. True, these guys were all “incompletes,” but the feeling both Gary and I got from Shepherd was that even in that case sexual functioning was not a given (seeing that these were all fairly young guys – and I think it’s safe to say “macho” guys – on the rugby team, it was a major concern for them).
On a completely different topic, our next adventure will be our trip to Nebraska in a few weeks to Gary’s mom’s. The entire clan is going to be there – all the brothers and sister and nieces and nephews. I am hoping my knee isn’t going to be a problem. I confess to being worried about getting our luggage there and about transportation. Gary found out we could rent a wheelchair-accessible van that I would have to drive (the longest distance being the two hour drive between the airport and his mom’s home), or a car that has been modified so he could drive it, but then I would have to put his wheelchair in it (and put it back together again). Unfortunately, dammit, I just can’t bend my knee without significant pain, and I don’t know how I could lift his chair in and out of a car.
Jun 2, 2007
“Look at me!” Gary cried. I looked up from where I was lying on my bed using my laptop to see Gary wheeling up to my bedroom door naked. No, he didn’t want me to admire his guns (biceps), but I knew immediately what he was crowing about. He had been in the shower, and the fact that he was now out meant he had done the shower transfer not only without me sitting close by watching but without even telling me. Actually, I had thought him capable of doing so quite some time ago (the only “mistake” he makes on that transfer lately is that he occasionally hits his head on the shower wall because it is so close), but evidently this was the first time he was willing to do it on his own.
So now he can do on his own all the transfers that he normally has to do in the course of a week!
This is not to say that there won’t be the occasional mishap. For instance, what happened this evening, June 5th. We finished our recreation time, during which we watched some of the movie “Murderball” while Gary did his stretching and I did my knee therapy, and then I went to take a bath. While I was running the water, I heard Gary yell out my name. I went running into the living room and found him on the floor instead of in his wheelchair. Well, I guess they warned us this would happen sooner or later. He said that while he was doing his transfer from the futon to his wheelchair something about it felt off, but he thought it would be okay. Obviously it wasn’t. Fortunately he fell slowly, so he says, and he doesn’t think he hurt anything. I was worried at first, thinking how was I ever going to help him get back in the chair, because a) we haven’t practiced a floor-to-wheelchair transfer since Day Program, and worse, b) my knee is most likely too screwed up to be able to help him like I did then. Fortunately both he and I quickly realized that the way to go would be to get him back onto the futon. This actually went fairly easily, similar to the floor-to-platform transfers we practiced at Day Program. Due to my nervousness about the situation, I probably gave him more help than he needed. In fact, he probably could’ve done it entirely on his own. He says he is going to practice it some more this summer. He says that for him to be comfortable traveling alone, he would need to be able to make a floor-to-bed transfer on his own. I told him I wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t want to be able to do a floor to wheelchair transfer on his own since there won’t always be a bed convenient.
Anyway, as he said when he was back on the futon, “Well, that was exciting.” He said he was glad it had happened, actually, because it gave him the confidence that he can handle a situation like that.
Speaking of “Murderball,” it is a very good documentary about quad rugby, which originally really was called “Murderball,” and when you see these guys racing around on the court in their Mad Max wheelchairs, you know why – one of the strategies is to knock your opponent’s chair over (I told Gary not to get any ideas about competing in a sport similar to it! I am absolutely sure they didn’t play anywhere near that rough at the recent quad rugby sessions at the Adventure Skills Workshop; next year we’ll have to stay in the evening to watch a little bit of it). The documentary mainly focuses on Team USA and the few seasons up to and including the Athens 2004 ParaOlympics. It wasn’t purely about the sport action (fortunately); in fact it was more about the people – it interwove the lives of the players and one of the coaches (formerly a Team USA player who became embittered after being cut for the team and went on to become the Team Canada coach, handing the USA its first ever losses) – it goes into a little bit about what their lives were like before the accident, how they learned to cope and excel. Gary’s one disappointment about the documentary was they show a quad getting his trousers on while sitting in the chair, but they stop showing it at the point where he gets them up to his butt – Gary wanted to see him get them all the way on to see if he could pick up any pointers! (This is another thing he hasn’t practiced since Day Program; so little time, so much to do). We also thought it strange that they seemed to indicate that quads have no problems with their sex lives, that at most only an adjustment in position is all that’s needed. True, these guys were all “incompletes,” but the feeling both Gary and I got from Shepherd was that even in that case sexual functioning was not a given (seeing that these were all fairly young guys – and I think it’s safe to say “macho” guys – on the rugby team, it was a major concern for them).
On a completely different topic, our next adventure will be our trip to Nebraska in a few weeks to Gary’s mom’s. The entire clan is going to be there – all the brothers and sister and nieces and nephews. I am hoping my knee isn’t going to be a problem. I confess to being worried about getting our luggage there and about transportation. Gary found out we could rent a wheelchair-accessible van that I would have to drive (the longest distance being the two hour drive between the airport and his mom’s home), or a car that has been modified so he could drive it, but then I would have to put his wheelchair in it (and put it back together again). Unfortunately, dammit, I just can’t bend my knee without significant pain, and I don’t know how I could lift his chair in and out of a car.
posted by Peg Daniels at 9:03 PM
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