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Falling In Love With A Wheelchair
Written by Peter on Thursday, June 18, 2009
This time I know I’ve gone clean round the bend. How could I have become so unhinged in such a short space of time? Why the sudden urge to be on wheels? I’m trying hard to understand what is going on.
It could be my new found anonymity in my newly adopted homeland that has made pretending very easy, maybe too easy. Maybe I have been pretending too much. Or was it the two-hour interview for the BIID study in Paris? In any case BIID has become wall-to-wall almost overnight. It’s always been present in the past but now it’s taking over big time.
I don’t like wheelchairs any more than I like my leg braces. I don’t like those much because they’re a thundering nuisance to put on, especially when I’m struggling in the back of my car. But I guess it comes down to the fact they are symbols of my required disability. That’s all I can think it can be. Maybe someone here has thoughts on this.
However, this Barracuda chair is becoming as treasured as my first sports car was. I never want to get out of it. When I do, I want to leave it on display for all to see. Am I crazy?
Peter
Tags: Disability, Leg Braces, Wheelchair
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3 Comments
Peter, you’re a perfectly normal BIID-er. I, too, have put my braces on in the car, quite the struggle. The need to be polio-impaired has been with me all my life, and I had many little ventures on crutches in the first fifty years, but the urge really whipped up when I found out about Bob the brace-maker and had my braces made. Unfortunately I was never in a place while relatively young to go full-time, as I’ve said many times if I knew in my twenties what I came to realize, thanks to the internet and folks like Susan and Sean, I would have got into my braces and on my crutches every day, and eventually to the wheelchair when the shoulders gave out (as they now have) and never looked back. Bonne chance to you, friend.
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1 On 18 June, 2009, Chloe said:
I can usually relate to something in most posts. Once in a while somebody writes such that I think “Oh, that’s me!” This is one such.
I have been thinking about leg braces for my entire life, but never had much interest in wheelchairs until last year. Things started to change early last year when a physician told me I should try a week in a wheelchair to see how I liked it (assuming I wouldn’t like it). Then I had my interview with Michael First and started reading about Claire’s wheeling adventures. The balance was tipped. I figured I should give it a try just to see.
Well, I think I experienced something extremely close to what you are experiencing. Yes, the wall-to-wall BIID; sudden urge to wheel; falling in love; thinking I must be crazy.
It all took some processing. My eventual interpretation was that it showed that the issue wasn’t about leg braces at all, and it wasn’t about wheelchairs either. The issue is simply that I need that impairment, and it would be there regardless of the existence of leg braces or wheelchairs. Anything that aids in conforming my presentation to my self image is good. It took me a fair bit of psychotherapy last summer to sort through all my feelings on becoming a wheelchair user. Good luck Peter!
I never tried putting on leg braces in a car. It sounds horrendous! Now that the left leg brace is part of my usual morning routine, it all goes very smoothly and I don’t give it much thought.