Dec
19
2008
The fever came back today and overcooked what would have been a great post, leaving me staring at a blank screen with a blank and rather fuzzy brain. In the past 15 years, I’ve traveled to over 40 cities in over 15 countries, and I can’t think of a thing to write about except “I’m still sick” and “I hate how antibiotics make me feel”. Considering that I used to teach writing classes, that’s kind of embarrassing.
However, seeing as yesterday I just got this blog of mine restarted after a rocky month, I’m not going to let that stop me.
It was interesting to see how many friends told me I was probably sick now because I traveled last week. “You probably picked it up on the plane” or “Well, you were away” is what I got. Why is that more likely than my having picked it up from one of my co-workers or students? Or on a commuter train heading for work? Or just from having a weakened immune system due to stress? I find travel can get a little demonized by people when it comes to getting ill. I’m not saying you can’t catch a cold from a fellow passenger, I just don’t think it’s a more likely cause than any other.
I’ve traveled so many times without falling ill that I never think of travel-related matters as the cause. I look more to myself. Have I been taking good enough care of myself? Did I drink enough water, get enough rest, dress for the weather? Was I careful not to touch my tires during dinner? Let’s face it, wheelchair tires can be nasty, so after I wash my hands for dinner, I try not to touch them. Was I under a lot of stress?
That might be the reason other people make the travel and sickness connection - because they find traveling stressful, and stress does weaken the immune system. Stress is a far more likely contender for the cause of your post-holiday cold than the air on the plane or the passenger with the blocked nose sitting two rows back, if you ask me.
Thoughts?
Nov
08
2008
Every year, just before my birthday, my mother’s aunt Jenny, a great woman who was a huge part of my childhood, would ask me if my back hurt, because of an old wives’ tale about the back hurting just before one’s birthday. It became a sort of gentle running joke between us: “How many times has his back hurt him?” instead of “How old is he?”; “My back’s that sore that I better get some presents tomorrow.”; and “You’d swear he had a birthday coming up, the way he’s complaining!” I still think of that every year, just before my birthday, and if I’m honest, I miss hearing it.
I’ve not been thinking of Aunt Jenny today because of any connection of the day to her life, but because today I developed a very uncomfortable back pain, and upon being asked what might have caused it, I thought immediately of my 35th birthday, just over a week passed. I thought of how she would have blamed the birthday, said I was late, or told me that was proof I was born before my time (which is not true: I was a late birth). The thought gave me a little comfort. I’ve always found the wheelchair and the associated pains easier to deal with when I can laugh at them a little.
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Sep
27
2008
In the first few parts of this series (1, 2 and 3), I dealt with the wheel options for a manual wheelchair. Today, I’d like to talk about a minor but nonetheless important part of the chair: the handles. As mentioned, you should always choose wheelchair parts primarily according to your physical and medical situation, and then according to your lifestyle. Provided your body can cope with the choices you make, you are free to mix and match any number of parts to assemble your perfect wheelchair, but there is no part that can be chosen without some thought about your physical requirements: from the wheels all the way to the handles, you need to consider each part carefully.
On my last two wheelchairs, I chose not to have handles. Many of my friends would say this is further evidence of how stubborn I am: I much prefer getting around under my own steam, and you can’t push a wheelchair that has no handles. Well, you can, but it’s more difficult, because there’s nothing to grab onto, especially on a low-back wheelchair of the type I prefer. However, that is not the reason I chose not to have handles.
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Sep
20
2008
Imagine you’re taking a trip from Los Angeles to Cracow, and you’re trying to work out the best price. You have found some good deals for LAX to London Heathrow, but from there to Cracow seems expensive. However, you’ve found a low-cost airline running a flight there from London Stansted that leaves 5 hours after you land, and flying that route would be a significant saving. The two airports are both London airports, but could you make it from one to the other in time? 5 hours seems like a lot of time, and there is a coach that is supposed to get from Heathrow to Stansted in just 90 minutes: surely that would be a feasible option.
Well, much as it sounds like you could make it, you might want to think again, especially if you’re a wheelchair user. Continue Reading »
Sep
19
2008
Before I begin today’s topic, I would like to direct your attention to this post by Mark E. Smith at the Powerchair Diaries. It’s a thought-provoking post about why we should be cautious in recommending our wheelchair to someone else. I would also like to remind you of what I told you in the first of the posts in this series: your precise medical condition is the determining factor in your choice of wheelchair, and you shouldn’t take on a chair that you can’t handle.
So far in this series, I’ve talked about the tires on the main wheels of your chair (air-filled for more comfort, solid for easier maintenance) and the types of casters that are available (small for maneuverability, large for comfort on rough surfaces). Today, I’d like to talk a little about wheel camber. Camber refers to the angle between the plane of the main wheels and the frame of the wheelchair. In a standard wheelchair, the camber is 0°: the wheels are parallel to each other, perpendicular to the ground. In some models, particularly those for sports, there is a positive camber: the tops of the wheels are closer together, the bottoms are farther apart, and the wheels are at an angle to the ground. Continue Reading »
Sep
18
2008
London is certainly a well-connected city, with five large international airports connecting it to destinations worldwide. The two main airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, are well-known destinations for tourists and businesspeople from all over the world. The other three have flights to many European destinations, but few or no intercontinental flights. Stansted and Luton are well outside the Greater London area, and get most of their business from low-cost and charter airlines and cargo traffic, while London City Airport, situated in the Docklands of East London, serves the city’s financial district and seems to get more businesspeople passing through it than tourists.
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Aug
22
2008
This is the second in a series of posts about choosing the right wheelchair for your needs. The first is here, and it is about main wheel tires for manual wheelchairs. This week’s post is also about wheels, but this time the focus is on the front wheels or casters.
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Aug
15
2008
This is the first in a series of posts about choosing the right wheelchair for your needs. In the first few posts, I’ll only be dealing with manual wheelchairs, and this time, I’d like to write a little about the wheels. The first question is whether you want to have pneumatic tires (with air-filled inner tubes) or what is called a solid or air-free tire on your main wheels.
Please note that if your primary physician or physiotherapist strongly advises that you have one or the other type, you should take that advice over any other. Medical professionals will have a better idea of the condition of your spine and arms and whether or not you can take the added weight and vibration effect of airless tires, or deal with the maintenance of pneumatic tires.
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Aug
08
2008
Today, I thought I’d continue with more advice for people who are traveling for the first time with a wheelchair. As I mentioned before, it’s important to let the airline know in advance, and it’s best to do this by phone. The next piece of advice I would like to give you is to get to the airport early, preferably two hours before your departure time, more if you’re traveling inter-continental.
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Aug
07
2008
A wheelchair has to meet the needs of its user. It’s more than just a way of getting around: a wheelchair has to be good enough to let you live the life you want to live. A folding-frame chair with the wheels perpendicular to the frame is not right for playing basketball, and a rigid-frame chair with the wheels at a pronounced angle to the frame will limit your sightseeing options in many countries. As a regular traveler, I have learned a bit about what makes a chair right for traveling in, and I want to use the next few Friday posts to give some advice about what to look for when making a chair purchase.
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