Wheelchair life

Imagine if so many things that used to come naturally and happened without much thought, suddenly required a lot of thought and steps just to do half as well?
Imagine having to remember a bunch of things just to get across a room. Not being able to just walk onto a sidewalk, having to look for a ramp. When you don’t need them, it seems like they’re everywhere but when you do need them, they aren’t so easy to find. Having to ask people if their house has stairs or worry about if the doorways are big enough. Worrying if your chair will fit in someone’s car. Avoiding twigs and pebbles because any little thing can cause big problems.
A friend of mine calls me rag lady because I always have a bunch of paper towels.
Once it’s used, I’m throwing it out so if you ever see me drop one, it’s not dirty. I take them clean off the roll and keep them crumpled in my chair. I always need them for several reasons: I’m constantly wiping my mouth when I eat, times when I’m doing dishes and need to dry my hands so they don’t slip off the armrests when I’m trying to sit, when I’m making food and I have butter or something all over my hands and especially for when something spills. People in wheelchairs know that everything mixed with your dirty wheels creates lines of mud everywhere you go. You have to wipe your feet on mats everywhere but I can’t wipe my wheels like that. Whatever it is, it’s getting everywhere if I don’t have those paper towels. I don’t have a little leprechaun following me around to hand them to me when I need them 😂😂
It’s convenient for me to hold clothes and stuff over the back of my chair and carry bags on the back handles but I try to make sure things are centered and when I hear something scraping on a wheel, people assume I’m annoyed by the sound but that’s not it. I can’t tell you how many times things were covered in mud or a bag or clothes were ripped to shreds making everything fall out of bags and sometimes break.
Even in winter and snow, you’ll see me with sleeves rolled up because although there are handrails, your sleeves rub against the wheels. So many coats or shirts get ruined from that anyway. Especially the salt in winter. That destroys everything. My handrails are metal so they are freezing.
The anti tippers in back- things always get stuck on them and I can’t just stand up to get it off.
One day I was getting ready for an appointment and I was carrying my sneakers but I stopped by the fridge to get a drink. I put my shoes down but when I turned around, they were gone. I looked everywhere and finally looked under my chair because I figured that they got caught on my anti tippers but they weren’t there either. I was panicking because I had to leave soon. It was one of those moments when you start thinking of possibilities of some Harry Potter stuff 😂😂
I finally found them wedged between my wheels and hand rails.
Like I have mentioned. I don’t have an aide. I was vacuuming earlier and not only does the wire get caught on everything on your chair but you try to hold the wire up because you keep running over it. All while trying to push my chair. I use my chin to hold the vacuum up sometimes.
I took a video of my trip to do laundry and I was going to put music but I wanted you to hear how loud I put my headphones. Oh my goodness!

One of the worst things is causing people to have to change things or miss out on a lot of things. I don’t mind for me because I’m a realist but being an empath, you always worry about everyone else.

Once again, I’m definitely not complaining. Just explaining little details that people might wonder about.
If you have any questions you don’t want to ask someone, I’d be happy to answer them. Trust me, I wholeheartedly welcome it!
😘🤗