"I'd propose," said Doc David, "A very different course." Six words. Life-changing words, words that open up a whole new dialogue with Elmo, the knee replacement I'd planned to divorce on July 28. Six words that could cost me my house, a bunch of pain, a chunk of retirement money, oodles of work... but give back the ability to walk. [...]
The pic is a storyboard from an upcoming Will Vinton claymation movie, and it seemed particularly apropos considering what I'm doing this week: I'm on the road for the first time since I started riding the range in a wheelchair. I wouldn't recommend it to the faint-hearted, but (so far) I'm having fun. It's part of the last-ditch effort to find [...]
"Excuse me," I said quietly to the cashier, handing her my receipt, "Would you mind giving this to the next person who needs a meal?" She took it, gazed at me in bewilderment, "But you paid for lunch! Don't you like it?" "It looks great, but I have no way to carry it back to the table," I replied, pointing [...]
Remember that ginormous glass counter I was planning to cast last August? I spent a bit of time figuring out how to achieve a piece of 1.5 to 2 inch-thick glass about 36 inches wide and 9 feet long to top the family room/dining room cabinet: Temporary plywood top, intended as a stopgap until I got the REAL glass [...]
As far as saving Elmo (my knee replacement) is concerned: We didn't. Barring miracles, he becomes a biohazard on July 28. "This should have worked; I'm out of options," sighs The Doc, looking sad, "I'm so sorry, but I want you to see Dr. Jack, our traumatology expert. Maybe he'll have some ideas." I head to the other side of [...]
Nikki welcomed me home with wild abandon and never settled down for a good photo...but wouldn't get more than a few steps away from the entry hall closet. More on that later.I moved back home last Monday, an event wonderful and bittersweet at the same time. I was sad to be leaving Mom and her wide, spacious house with everything on one [...]
Eric the Wheelchair Guy wears a permanent grin and stands tall. The standing tall part is important, because his clients mostly don't stand at all. On Friday night, Sept. 16, 2016, I fractured my left femur just above Elmo, my replacement knee. I lived in a wheelchair, facing hip-high amputation of my left leg, for about two years while I [...]
Driving is easy. Driving with wheelchair is not. Wheelchairs are wonderful beasts, enabling you to get from Point A to Point B without asking to be carried. "Whoever said 'confined to a wheelchair' was an idiot," says a paraplegic friend scornfully, "My wheelchair is my legs, only round. It doesn't confine me; it frees me." Of course, he has the OTHER [...]
I'm going home. Until a couple of weeks ago, I hadn't so much as driven onto my street for more than eight months. Since I couldn't go inside the house--it's not exactly compatible with a woman who balances the world on one leg and lives in a wheelchair--there wasn't much point. The Elmo stories (of Elmo, my replacement knee and then [...]
Found large, rodent-shaped toothmarks on apples in the fruit bowl on Mom's kitchen counter, with a trail of knocked-over orchids, the paper towel holder, a few glasses... I'd seen a squirrel at the kitchen windows the day before, leaping at the screens in a desperate bid to get in, and occasionally some odd scuffling noises on the roof. Absent any evidence of [...]
