Today my new modern manual wheelchair arrived and I spent most of the day learning to drive it. Honestly, it’s tough. I’ve already noticed four big challenges.
The first is the weight. The chair is genuinely lightweight at just 12kg, which is great for lifting into the car. But I forgot that I’m 6ft 5 and weigh over 110kg. Add that to the chair and you can imagine the effort. My arms got the shock of their life when I started self-propelling, and so did my friend, my wife and my mum when they took turns pushing me around the block. By the chock, it’s a workout! And remember, I already do yoga every day, some weights and pilates, so I’m not exactly a stranger to exercise. This is a whole new level. For indoors, I’ll stick to the walker whenever I feel stable enough, but will try not to when on my own or later in the day as I have had falls with the walker too many times.
The second challenge is what I call the Red Knuckle Ride. Every driving mistake leaves your knuckles exposed and I made plenty. It hurts.
The third is the speed. This chair is slow. Painfully slow. You have to plan every move because you can’t carry much and there’s no more free-flowing around the house. For someone like me, who loves to move fast, this is a nightmare.
The fourth is the size. We opted for a slightly wider chair, 51cm instead of the usual 45cm, for comfort. But your hands count extra when you’re propelling and that changes everything. Plus, it doesn’t fit into our reinforced safe room, so that’s another challenge to solve.
On the positive side, it’s sturdy and comfortable, and the arm workout is real. This transition is one of the hardest yet, physically and emotionally. It also marks a big step: moving to full-time care as we accelerate the process for finding a carer quickly. That’s something we’ll need to embrace as we keep moving from stage to stage.
For now, I’ll rely on the walker indoors as long as I feel stable. We’re also arranging a control pad for the back of our travel electric wheelchair, which should make outdoor trips easier.
As for losing weight, I’d love to drop 20kg, but my diet is already strict to avoid choking risks, so that’s another balancing act.
This German-made chair might not feel as exciting as previous arrivals, and I apologise in advance to anyone who’ll curse me when pushing. Thankfully, the streets here are mostly flat, though even the slightest incline feels like Everest.
Every stage brings new challenges, but we’ll get through this one too. Slow and steady, literally.
