Talking about my disability

As a disabled person it is not my want to talk about my disability, not many disabled people do. If any disabled people are reading this blog, i would value their views on this point.

So what is my disability?
In medical terms, i have Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) (hope that is spelt right!). I have had RA since the age of 26 and newly married. Diet has kept the RA, especially the pain, under control

In my 40 year my much loved farther died. The shock, it is felt, went to my weakest point, my RA. I soon discovered I had difficulty in staying as physically fit as i was. My pain was not then and still now not a problem as i have managed to stay pain free 99% of time. This has ment I take no pain killers, except the very odd brufen if i cheat on my diet. Though my pain was still under controll I could not prevent my joints slowly ging arthritic with the effect it was to be left within 2 years, Wheelchair depenednt and needing two new knees, quickly followed by two new elbow joint replacements. My hands just went stiff with the joint linings breaking down.

Let me now skip the in between bits, a bit messy, marriage, divorce that sort of thing, and come up to date.

My RA has left me totally wheelchair dependent, notice I said dependent not bound, i am not tied to my wheelchair! I am also human dependent, in so much as i cannot do every day things like use my hands to feed, wash and write, stand up on my two feet; I have not stood on my own two feet for approx 18 years now and i am 60, just.

Due to the extent of my disability i am been looked after by a wonderful caring team made up of 6 paid carers and my friends also play an important part in my life. For those of you who are interested, I am on Direct Payments (DP) and thought DP pay my own staff. O nearly for got, Joan, my close friend, invented me a stick with a woad of cotton wool on the end, covered with a handkerchief. i use this to scratch my noise, push my glasses up and fall asleep during sermons and boring lectures.

As you will now gather, i cannot self propel myself and have used a power wheelchair for about 16 years. A powered wheelchair is the only way i can get around, that is why i have chosen the Power Wheelchair for this challenge. This will make it an extreme challenge to me. One I hope to relish.

So there you have it in a nutshell..My disability

In closing i would like to add that I am not brave, I am not wonderful or any of those other words abled bodied people like to say about disabled people, i am just me, getting on with life, with the cards life has dealt me..

To you all. Thanks for reading this blog and taking an interest in my E2E attempt.

Mary