I know you guys don't mean any harm but you don't understand how those joke hurt me for him. This man is in a power wheelchair, we aren't talking about a young kid with the deep neg camber Quickie chair doing stunts here like the guys who have no leg use but their upper body is fine. We are talking about a man with CP
(click here) it's degenerative and at 57 years old he is getting very bad. He can't hardly grab a glass of water 12" in front of him on the table. His feet are twisted towards one an other viciously almost twisted backwards with the right foots toes over the left ones toes. His ankles are about 6 inches in diameter. About a year ago he went up to Seattle to visit his mom (she passed away a few months later expectantly) while there he got an infection in his leg because of the poor blood circulation he has that put him into the ICU for three weeks! He is plagued with infections like this, a tiny cut which he often gets because he has to drag his body into and out of his wheel chair. His family came home and had to leave him there. He came home after about a month, only to go into a Convalescent hospital for about three months. He was in this hospital getting therapy to get him to be able to "transfer" from his bed to his chair and back again. It took THREE MONTHS for him to be able to do this again! He has what he jokingly calls his "Stripper pole" that goes from the floor to the ceiling next to his bed, that and a cable with a handle on it that is attached to the other side of the bed that he uses to get into and out of bed from his chair. He has a shower with a seat in it. This seat was only 6" from the wall I couldn't believe he could even fit in there! I shortened the tubing on the seat back and modified the legs so it could be moved back about three inches, you can't believe how grateful he was for this. This was about a month after he had gotten out of the hospital and he said he hadn't taken a shower because he couldn't get in there!
He had been a full time greeter at Walmart for about 15 years and was proud of it, he was a productive member of society, he had to quit after his hospitalization, his working days were over at 56. He would work a late shift getting home at midnight. One day he told me about how he was going out to his van at Walmart to come home (we are talking midnight here folks) and the battery went dead. He sat there in the parking lot for fifteen minutes and then gave it another try and it moved 20 feet or so, he let is set, tried again, another 20 feet or so. He finally got into his van and left. When he got home to his apartment the chair got out of the back of the van and that was it, done, wouldn't move. He climbed out and put it in neutral and laying on the ground pulling himself with his hands dragging his 230 lb 6 foot body and the chair! He had to do this about 100 feet to his door. He unlocked the door and didn't know how he was going to get the chair in, so he climbed back up on it and it had enough battery to get it in the door!
He told me this story the next day, not complaining that he is handicapped, but beaching just like you or I may because we had to change at flat tire on the way home.
Honestly guys, this man has it VERY bad, he won't see old age I am sure, if he does he will be confined to a bed, he is a great man who has done everything right, he has taken everything given to him and made it work. Sorry to be so long winded but like I said, seeing jokes hurts me. I know you don't mean to do that nor if you fully understood my friends life you wouldn't joke about it. Now the funny part is WITH him as a friend you can joke about stuff like that. I could do it, though I NEVER do, you know what I mean?
Sorry to be such a party pooper.
Brian