Part 1: Post-Surgery In a Wheelchair.
This blog will be one of a two part piece that explores my experience using a wheelchair. Part One: explains what it felt like having to use a wheelchair for the first time and how vulnerable I felt whilst in it.
An Explanation
There’s something I want to establish first before getting into this. And that my experience with a wheelchair was in no way comparable to someone who has to use one on a daily basis. All I will be discussing is how my experience has helped me to be able to relate to the people who need them and what it felt like for me.
Leaving Hospital
As I mentioned in my last post, I was released from hospital 5 days after the operation. Dad had found a way of parking in a location that meant it was that we wouldn't get a parking ticket which was a massive bonus as we were in London after all. However, this meant that we had to walk for 15 minutes to get back to the car. Which would have been fine before the operation but due to the very little strength I had in my body this meant it was completely impossible for me to do (even on crutches!)
The Rose Gardens
On the day of my release my parents took me to the London Rose Gardens located very close to where we had parked. They thought it was important for me to get out and see something instead of going straight to the car for a 90 minute journey home just after i'd left hospital. The journey there in the wheelchair was definitely interesting to say the least. My dad was completely incontrol of where I went and how quickly I got there. I felt as if I was 2 again being pushed in my pushchair however this time I knew exactly what was going on.
The hospital was located in a very busy part of London. We had to cross two incredibly busy roads that many commuters coming from the south side use to travel to the centre. You feel very vulnerable in that situation, you can't do anything and the smallest bumps in the road can frighten you because you may not see them and therefore not expect them. There was one point where we were crossing a road and the pavement didn't slope. All of a sudden dad was turning me around and pulling me down backwards. As I had no idea what was going on I lost my breath for a few moments. For my parents it was a fun experience but you have to remember I'd been in hospital undergoing major surgery and the thought of falling out of the wheelchair and onto my newly operate hip was terrifying.
We reached the gardens and they were truly beautiful. Roses everywhere, so many different colours and varieties which blossomed so neatly in each patch. It was just the kind of thing I needed to cheer me up, especially after the wheelchair incident. We walked (wheeled) for a while and reached the centre where I decided to get up and do some walking using my crutches. It felt kind of strange feeling the soft ground beneath me as I was used to a hard plastic flooring in the hospital.
Mixed emotions
I have to admit I did feel very self conscious. I was so used to having non-judgemental staff around me that I had forgotten what it was like to be stared at. I had experienced incredibly bad bloating from all the medication I was on, so I felt like I looked 4 months pregnant. And then there was the incredibly attractive compression socks that I had to wear which looked so good with what I was wearing (NOT!). I'd only packed comfy clothes for the hospital and I couldn't put my jeans on that I'd worn the day before I was submitted so I was left looking like an absolute mess! However something that put a big smile on my face was bumping into a group of women who had come together to remember someone they had lost someone from Dementia. They were so happy and thankful for the smallest things and it made me forget about all of the people staring at me for those few minutes when talking to them.
