There are things that everyone does everyday such as getting up, having breakfast, going to school and/or work, and enjoying social activities. Usually, these things are done without conscious thought to the physical effort required to do them. This is not the case for me. I do participate in the activities mentioned above, but I live with a lifelong disability called Cerebral Palsy and use a wheelchair full time. This means that something as seemingly simple as getting out of bed takes concentration and getting anywhere, for any reason, takes planning. To give you a better idea of these concepts, I’m going to take you through some of the key parts of a typical day for me: getting up, meal prep, and getting out and about.
My day starts around 6:30a.m. In order to get out of bed, I have to grab the wheel of my wheelchair in order to turn over on my side so that I can set my feet on the floor. Then, I set one hand on my wheelchair seat and slowly pivot my body until I am backed up against my wheelchair seat and can lift my feet onto the foot rest and move my body backwards into a comfortable position on the wheelchair seat. Keep in mind that during this entire process I have to maintain my hold on my wheelchair. My CP affects me in such a way that if I don’t hold onto something when standing up, I will immediately fall.
Once I am in my wheelchair, my thoughts turn to breakfast. For safety reasons I cannot use a stove. This means that anything that has to be cooked using anything other than a microwave has to be prepared for me, and I lack the coordination to pour a bowl of cereal unless the ingredients are put into special containers first. So, except for those occasions when I decide to have something for breakfast that I can put in the microwave, my mom makes breakfast after taking care of our dogs. The process takes about 30 minutes to an hour, during which time I stay in my room so as not to get in her way. I am well aware that my mom won’t be able to do what she does forever, but that is a topic for another blog.
After breakfast, it’s time to really start the day. When it comes to days where I need to go out for a meeting or social purposes, I have to plan well in advance. This is due to the fact that I don’t drive because of the affects of my disability. Therefore, in order for me to go out, my mom and I have to coordinate our schedules in advance to be sure that she can take me. There have been times when I have used public transportation, but those situations rarely worked out well. Transportation is also an issue that will be discussed further in a future blog.
Getting out of bed, getting breakfast, and getting out and about are all part of everyday life. That said, I and others with disabilities have to plan very carefully in order to do these things. Future blogs will look into the challenges of living with a disability and how those challenges can be improved in further detail.