Entry 14: Dangerous Doorways

It was a very interesting week with doors. Now, in my little flat I have just about managed to learn to get through the narrower doorways with a twitch of my wrist and closely watching the positioning of my footplate and an armrest. Though I will admit there is no paint left on the woodframe from when I was practising! Women drivers everywhere have got a bad press; there are some fantastic female drivers out there… Not that I was one of them. Now that I'm in a chair though, and I have to drive it constantly, I would say I'm actually pretty good.

Photograph courtesy of Misha!

Given the lack of finger control/movement/sensation, the minute wrist action, the degraded muscles in my forearm and my dodgy tricep (ooo, and let's not leave out the random spasms that takeover completely from time to time) I would say I do a pretty good job. However, doorways are not designed for people in wheelchairs, especially given that nearly all are raised up on a step or even worse, a step and then a PVC frame that has two lips to get over. And unless a doorway was built back in the Tudor era or was built specifically for tiny people it's fairly safe to say that I can get through it, as long as I have no need to turn – bring in the turning circle and all of a sudden we're dealing with a different ballgame. The problems come when trying to get up that step and over the lip.

So, at my widest I am 66 cm. I don't know what the average width of the human being is but I think the widest point is at the shoulders. Having just googled it, I discovered the average width for a male is between 18 to 20 inches or 50 cm across the shoulders. So really I'm not actually that much wider than the average human male. Most people assume that I am incredibly wide, and granted I am wider than the norm. However, I am not a tank. It may appear that I am. But I'm not. I'm only 66 cm wide. That's 26 inches, just on 2 feet, two thirds of a metre, 0.7 yards, or 0.00066 kilometres. Not that wide at all really!

(example of ramp with small turning circle at the top)

Saturday I was showing some family members the sights and sounds of Bognor Regis. All we wanted was a place to get a hot drink and a sandwich. We parked at one end of the promenade and walked all the way up to the pier and back. Either the cafes were closed or there was no way I could get into them because of their HUGE FRONT STEPS. Eventually we found a pub that has a really lovely ramp. Wahey! Problem solved! But then at the door, we realised it was one of those funny ones where you open the first door and then it has a sharp right turn into the building itself. Turning circles need wider space. By this point we were so cold and I was a bit P'd off, that there was absolutely no chance I was not getting through that doorway. So, full speed ahead, I left a nice lovely thick groove in the wooden frame with a great crunching sound that had the barmaid running up to help and all the locals watching in amusement. As soon as we were all in, that's when we discovered they were not serving food…Grrr. We were shown out via a fire exit.

A threshold ramp would have been useful at this point!

Monday my mum and I decided we wanted a fish and chip supper, and as there is a brand-new chippy just around the corner we thought we'd try out. Arriving outside, we notice the doorway is already open, but yes, there is a little step. This time I don't really think anything of it because I have a "curb climber" on my chair which can normally deal with small steps quite easily. Unfortunately, whilst going over this threshold I managed to separate a wooden plinth from the front of the step. (I forgot to mention earlier that my wheelchair weighs over 95 kg, not including me! For you Brits out there that's almost 15 stone) The customers inside are doing a fabulous job of pretending not to stare… But all praise to the staff who immediately came to help and actually found it rather amusing. Apparently the step is being altered anyway, and that wooden plinth now serves as a mini ramp. Awesome! I broke the step and made it better!

Thursday was a shopping trip and visit to friends over in Southampton. By the time I reached my friends house both my PA and I were knackered from the shopping and driving through traffic. On arrival, the first thing my friends say is "have you got a ramp?" Which, bearing in mind I've had a car now for almost a year and been in this chair for over a year, you'd think I'd have actually gotten around to getting. No, I do not have a ramp. My bad.

not actual doorway, but to give an idea of PVC double lip.

I had not visited this friend's house before, and had been reliably informed by other friends that it had flat access. The flat access turned out to be a 10 inch step with an added PVC frame double lip. And it was raining. Why oh why can I not be more organised?! Very fortunately my friends live in an amazing house with grounds and were able to find two planks of wood that I could roll up to get in. Getting out was a bit more interesting as it had continued to rain on the planks of wood and they were now really slippery. Up over the lip and onto the wet wood and my front castors slid straight off. All praise due to my friends and PA who quickly grabbed hold of my chair (probably almost giving themselves a hernia in the process) to stop me completely tipping out and breaking both the chair and myself in the process.

So, the moral of this week's "attempting to share life from a chair" would be:

   
  Buy a portable ramp. If you're in a wheelchair, you're gonna need one.

     

PS it's come to my attention that people want to leave comments, but can't due to not being signed up to Google. If you would like to leave a comment, then please e-mail it to me, stating whether it is anonymous or not, at the the address at the very top of the screen – TingleTetra@Gmail.com, and I will add it. :-)