That'll teach me!!

After a really tough week, just when things were getting better and I thought they couldn't get any worse...

This morning, since I was almost out of milk, I decided to pop around the local store and buy a pint. It's only around 100 yards away and it is usually a toss up whether I decide to take my phone with me or not. This morning was a 'not' morning. Unusually I also decided (despite the fact that it is freezing cold out there right now) not to stick a warmer pair of trousers on over my leggings, after all I was only going to be a couple of minutes wasn't I? So it didn't seem worth the bother.

I had got around halfway there when one one of the front wheels of my wheelchair caught in a bump in the path and the next thing I knew I was sitting on the ground! That was the moment when I began to realise that setting out without taking 2 seconds to grab my phone and 2 minutes to put on a warm pair of trousers probably wasn't such a great plan after all. I sat there for a couple of seconds while I took in my changed circumstances and then (not knowing how long it might be until someone came down what is a very quiet road late on a Sunday morning and not fancying the idea of getting hypothermia) began to look around me for something I could use to help haul myself back into my chair. Sadly, learning how to get myself back in without using any other furniture etc, was something I had somehow never got around to doing (must have missed that class at school 😉 ). It had also been around 5 years since I had last fallen indoors where there is plenty of furniture I can use to assist me, and over 25 years since I had last fallen outside.

First thing that I tried (having dragged myself and my chair over there) was the wheel of a parked car. Who would ever have thought that car wheels were that high? 😮 It was way too high for the task at hand...

The next closest - and slightly lower - item was a low fence. I should mention at this point that T (my cat) had - unusually - followed me out of the house and was by now alternating between coming over to me and going to the doors of the nearest houses and crying (very smart cat I have 😄 ). Sadly the fence was also just too high for me to lever myself up by. Back around 30 yards closer to my front door was a flight of steps. I knew that if I could drag myself and my chair over there I would be able to use the steps to get myself high enough up to be able to get myself back in. By this stage I was beginning to feel glad of the fact that although I had omitted to put on a warm pair of trousers, I was at least wearing a diaper (a nice thick Abena Abriform M4), which had not only cushioned my fall, but was now also providing some insulation from the cold ground on which I was sitting.

Some 10 minutes or so later, and about halfway to said steps, I was mightily relieved when not one, but two knights in shining armour in the form of a man driving down the road and another walking back home from the same shop I had been intent on visiting came to my rescue. (Isn't that always the way though? You wait ages for a knight in shining armour to appear and then 2 arrive at once). Together they easily lifted me back into my chair, and the one on foot even offered to push me to the shop. I don't know who they were, but I will be eternally grateful that they came along when they did.

I swear that is the last time I go out without my phone... until the next time that is - but hopefully next time I forget it I won't be falling out of my chair too!