I have been given the opportunity to regain my freedom and independence. Caroline an occupational therapist was sent round to see about how she could help me in overcoming obstacles in my way. Miriam, my physiotherapist, got in on the act and had her say. The long and the short of it was, I had a visitor last week and he, Jean-Francois, came to show me an electric wheelchair. We connected straight away as we both love motorbikes and speed.
So, Jean-Francois set up the chair for my use and before he could say “Do you want to know about…..?” I was off like a bullet. Forget about the slow setting for speed, I pushed it to max and went through the car park dodging parked cars.
We sat afterwards discussing changes that needed to be made and the question of colour came up. Straight away I said that it had to be red, I didn’t want a boring black. Jean-Francois agreed but added that it had to be a special red and so I get genuine Ferrari red with carbon black trim. Now I’m styling.
Now I’ve had a taste of freedom and going back to my manual chair is so not cool and it’s an effort to get up the driveway.
Two days later Jean-Francois arrives with a demo model chair and said that it was mine to use until my new chair was ready unless he needed it.
I’ve played with it for 2 days around the home, in and out of the lifts, up and down the passageways and chasing the odd nurse. Today I felt like going for coffee somewhere and Miriam agreed and said that I needed to get out and learn the different routes and get used to the bicycle lanes and the fact that everyone drives on the wrong side of the road.
Within a short while I found myself outside. I hit the road Jack and didn’t want to come back no more, no more. I pushed the speed setting to max and took off like a bullet. Hey, when you do something, do it properly or not at all. A certain physiotherapist doesn’t like me and speed together especially round the home but outside, the game is on. I really don’t think that everyone around here knows what a hooligan ex speed cop is like and they’re about to learn.
Freedom is a serious pleasure that I’ve forgotten about and now it’s right up there in my face and I’m enjoying every moment of it. I’ll swear my grin was frozen to my face and it wasn’t the cold wind blowing.
A kilometre down the road and I took a wrong turn and wound up going down a one way the wrong way and I drove on the left. I received some strange looks but a coffee cup was calling and right then, that was more important.
Today, I’ll go in the opposite direction, I know there’s a lake round here somewhere and where there’s a lake there’s a pavement café. Say no more.
