“Wheelchair Bound”

When I hear terms like “wheelchair bound” and “confined to a wheelchair” I clench my jaw and try to take a deep breath.  When I hear these sentences I think of being glued to my wheelchair with no possible way to release my butt from it.

When I hear “wheelchair bound” I think of being stuck to my wheelchair and not being able to get out of it.  It makes my wheelchair sound like some kind of torture device and something I am stuck with .

The term “confined to a wheelchair” brings about the same kinds of feelings.  Like I’m a prisoner of my wheelchair and confined to it like I would be in a jail cell.

In reality these terms and feelings couldn’t be further from the truth!  My wheelchair gives me freedom to move around and go places.  It’s really quite liberating.  It allows me to move around my home, go shopping and out to eat, go to a movie, take my dogs for a walk, hold hands with my boyfriend as we stroll through the park.  It gives me so much freedom.

I was really excited about getting my first wheelchair.  I know that may sound odd to you, but I knew it would give me so much more freedom.  Until then I was laying in bed in my hospital room and using a folding wheelchair that was too heavy for me to push.  I was thankful for it because in the beginning I was stuck in bed with no way of leaving the room unless I was pushed out of it for some tests on a stretcher.  To me the hospital bed was “confining”.

I remember the moment I got my first wheelchair.  I barely slept at all that night because I was so excited and was worried about the storm that we were suppose to have.  I convinced my Occupational Therapist and the seating specialist who ordered my wheelchair to try their best to get it to be before the storm started.  I didn’t want to wait any longer.

I had just woken up and way laying in bed listening to the sounds of the nurses in the hallway and in came my OT and Ben with my wheelchair.  I was still half asleep, but it only took seconds for me to wake up once they came into my room!  It was only 6am!  The blood techs (otherwise known as the “vampires”) didn’t even come around that early!

I couldn’t even make the head of the bed rise fast enough.  It seemed like everything was moving in slow motion.  I tried my best to sit up, but all it really accomplished was getting the sheets tangled around me.  I had used two demo chairs that were the same model as the new one that was waiting for me at the side of my bed and I knew how much lighter they were.  When I sat in the first demo for the very first time it moved because the floor wasn’t level.  I was so amazed because the heavy folding one I had been using didn’t do that.  The demos had been taken back long before and I had to go back to the heavy folding Quickie 2.

My new chair was a red Quickie GT.  It had only been on the market since just after I had been in the hospital.  It was very sleek and sporty looking and even had front casters that lit up when they moved!  I was so happy that morning.  I sat in it and got back into bed a few times while adjustments were made, and when the breakfast lady brought my tray into my room she was just as excited as I was.  I was there for about five or six months at that point and she knew how excited I was about getting my independence back.

I swear I put so many miles on that chair the first day it’s a wonder the tires weren’t bare!  I went all over the hospital and showed it off to everyone I had met there.  It meant freedom, independence and mobility to me.  At no point did I ever think of my wheelchair as being “confining” or “binding”.

When I got my second wheelchair, a Top End Crossfire Titanium none of the feelings changed.  I was just as excited when it arrived.  I knew it was much lighter than my old one, and that it fit me properly.  It was titanium and had a lot of carbon fibre and Spinergy wheels.  It’s a chair I’m proud to be seen in because it just looks cool and it shows my personality.

I guess what I’m trying to say is a wheelchair is completely opposite to the terms most people use to describe when someone uses one.  The next time you see a wheelchair user instead of thinking “confined” or “bound” think “liberation”, “freedom”, “independence” and the “power” to do what that person wants to do.