When Mobility Aids go Bad

For me it was actually a good morning, I had a great nights sleep not too much pain and only woke up once took my med’s and fell back to sleep again bliss. You are not blessed with many nights like that with MS.

I nearly always wake up between 4am and 5am every morning. I like to wind down and have my coffee which I make without getting out of bed as I have my flask ready by the side of my bed. Ah bliss, the aroma of strong Nescafe wafting towards me, is like to me a whiff of fresh air.  That first gulp of hot coffee sliding down the throat is just the best feeling ever.  Who needs fags. Whilst I was waking up I would peruse the Internet, answers any messages, and check on my group which I ran for support with chickens, listen to music and just well chill out.

So well I get up at 7am, its always a struggle for me to get up as my legs have ceased up like some old engine which needs more than a tin or two of WD40 to get it cranked up and moving.   Ah well my hubby would help me when it was particularly bad, but now he had gone, I had to just well get on with it.   Bit by bit, legs out, body out, rest pause until I finally could stand up.   Some mornings, I could swing my legs out and hold onto my commode chair and almost stand up straight with little effort but those days were fast receding.   However, this particular morning it was good, I could get up yayyyyyy.

Routine is manage to get downstairs carefully with dog in tow I would hold onto the double banisters either side of the stairs, and 2 cats following.  My walker was ready by the bottom of the stairs and my electric wheelchair parked by the wall it was going to be a tri-fold walker morning, I could use my legs to get about not hard wheels of my chair bliss and I was moving well enough to walk and hold onto my grab rails. I hated using the electric wheelchair and tried my best not too I have always been determined to keep on my feet.

I let the dog out for her morning constitutional then it was feeding time for the animals. The cats well they always seemed to have food, but hey you have to pretend to put more or their dishes otherwise they think they are starving.

Whilst they were eating, i would perch my bottom of my perching chair and get washed and dressed.  I always keep my morning clothes ready to change downstairs its easier. If I am having a really bad day, sadly I would just slip a jumper over my PJ tops, and add some new underwear and trousers sorry but needs must and let’s face it who would know or care. Trying to take off a PJ top when you have little energy or arm and shoulder is in agony is simply not an option.

Wash quickly and it would be about 7.30am by then. I have some chickens little bantams which my husband and I kept. They are the reason I am still on my legs.   Sadly when I lost my husband half had to go, and 3 more are leaving me next week so I will only have a few little ones left  

The picture is of Ginger my frazzled frizzle. I had her as a chick, the breeder made a fundamental mistake by breeding two frizzle chickens together which causes twisting feathers and brittle feathers. She would wear her coat to keep warm in the winter.

The “GIRLS” always rush out when I let them out, they squabble, and squawk and moan at me for being late, then devour everything in sight, poop, preen, drink their water then they are off out of the pop hole into their garden if the morning is good. It was good this morning so they scrambled over each other to get out.   The coop is easily cleaned and later my care worker or my grandson would give them a tidy.

Then it was my turn. I was feeling so good that morning, my legs were surprisingly loose not with the usual spasms and cramp just twinges, my music was on, a sixties tape which I loved.  I really felt well GOOD.

It was such a rare feeling it made it all the more special for me.  There I was getting my fruit and toast ready, chatting and singing to the dog who looked at me as though I had gone mad, perhaps I had.  I don’t know about you but I am always talking to my animals.

It was such a lovely day the sun was out I found myself saying to Lucy my JR “I think I will take you for a longer walk today maybe we might even go into town what do you think girl?”  She would look at me with a twist to her face as though she was listening boy one day I will get a real shock if she ever answers me. It was a Wednesday 21st March 2018 and I had no visitors or care worker on a Wednesday so I had to fill my day some how as it had become hard for me to be one my own, so a walk out would do us both good.

So we got ready, it was nearly 9am by then, I was watered, fed, tablets taken, all was good in the world.

I grabbed my coat and Lucy’s harness and we were off to the out shed which was located and attached to the house by the back kitchen door and side alley way which made the house known as an end of terrace property as we could get to the back through a side door.

It was a big shed which my hubby used to use to dump all his engine bits in. It had double patio doors. When I lost him I had it cleared out, and made into my scooter garage, with a ramp leading from the patio doors, it was easier for me as all I had to do was just open the double doors and put the scooter on walk and move it slowly up the ramp and out.

This morning was no different. I grabbed my walking stick, slipped my slip on canvas shoes on  my feet, secured the house, put the scooter key in the ignition and turned the dial to low and started to move it slowly up the ramp after having opened the doors.

Suddenly with no warning whatsoever it came alive I swear it did. “Fanciful” no truth. It turned into a MONSTER.  Not an MS one but a MonSter.

Without warning suddenly the tiller where the steering is wrenched itself round towards the left lifting the front up off the ramp and I lost my grasp on it, and how I have no idea I ended up the other side of the ramp with this thing kind of turning its steering to the left,

Lucy had gotten out of the way thank god, and I managed to grab hold of it again, and then without warning, it twisted itself towards the right and proceeded to come down the small area of ramp with me trying to hold onto a machine that had suddenly turned into a bucking bronco. I swear it did, like an idiot I was trying to hold on to it as it was trying to shake me off. I was just been shook about and before I knew it my whole left foot had been run over as the under carriage of the scooter dropped back down on my foot.

My scooter had become a mad bucking bronco I swear.  

I was sent backwards and finally it hit the shed door to my house really hard and stopped.

Adrenalin kicks in I was just so shocked and frightened, Lucy was cowering in the corner away from the mayhem thank god.   I dont know where I got the energy from but crying I just got back through to the kitchen I had my careline round my neck but my mobile phone was handy too, so I rang my daughter who lived a few minutes from her, and must have sounded pretty panicked as I found out later she RAN to my house omg if you knew her, you would realise how daft that sounded.

My first aid training kicking in, I some how grabbed a bag of rice from the freezer with some veg in it and got to the sitting room, and elevated my leg and foot and on the way I had some how grabbed my bottle of ginger beer and drank for the sugar. I was in so much pain my foot was starting to swell, Lucy was crying and whimpering as she knew I was hurt.  I was just in shock by then and really don’t remember much, just vague.

My daughter came, got hold of my other daughter, and my son in law came, and he took me to the hospital.  I was just so lucky as nothing was broken.

My very good morning, had turned into a total nightmare. The mobility aid that was supposed to support me had turned on me in a viscous attack, that is all I can say, it felt like it was out to get me.  When my daughter tried to move it backwards away from the door, it did similar and she struggled to hold it steady.

When life had calmed down again, and I was recovering my grandson showed me the big shed door the scooter had actually bent the hinges this door had been there about sixty years and it would not close now so shows how hard that scooter hit it.

It would appear that the steering had broken or something I have no idea the technicalities of it. All I know is for weeks maybe even months I had been saying that my machine was steering towards the right, I had ended up in next doors hedge a few times.

The moral of this story is twofold. 

If you rely on one of these machines, make sure you have it serviced regularly.  Dont leave it to chance. It might just be a mobility scooter but it CARRIES YOU…..and it should be pavement or roadworthy as they are heavy and dangerous. They can turn on us and cause us injury.

Two make sure you have liability insurance and insurance on your machine, as if mine had gone nuts when I was out in town where pedestrians were I could have hurt someone.

Yes I was hurt but I also was given a serious lesson, if you rely on it make sure you care for it, just like you would a car.

Sadly the end to the story is Chucky is going to be turned into a go kart and I have a new scooter and believe me, it will be checked regularly, and I have an insurance for it now. It will start new but be well cared for.  Chucky was second hand when I got him, and that was six years ago and he was never really cared for.  I relied on him to keep me safe, and get me out, but I let him down by neglecting him.

NEVER NEGLECT YOUR MOBILITY AIDS.   You need them to stay safe.

A reliable friend for six years who kept me sane, took me out so I could enjoy some life, always started first time even in the freezing cold, sadly now gone.  I shall miss him as he has been a big part of my life. Always there when I needed him.

BYE BYE CHUCKY. 

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