New kitchen and downstairs loo but what about my briefcase?

I want one I tell Mr H

Want what?

a loo downstairs..and a new kitchen...

It has taken a long time to save enough shekels to pay for them, but now in the planning stage every morning is like Christmas when I imagine stepping into my loo downstairs instead of delaying the moment till I have to haul myself up my two railed, thirteen stairs...again! Sometimes my delay is too long, too tired to climb the mountain... then...oops!  Mr H has even found me in the utility having a virtual wee I am that excited!

The kitchen has become my excuse, apart from fatigue, not to cook. Well I do prepare meals but I regularly play the Ping tune. Too many red patches on my hands when I try to bend to pull food out of the low hot oven; too many pools of milk on the floor by the low fridge. I have so much blueberry rolling practice up my sleeve I think I will start an Olympic sport.

I will have to do the kitchen and utility sort out in dribs and drabs so it will be a longish term project. I even conned Mr H into clearing out the garage by telling him the kitchen fitter said we couldn't have one if it wasn't empty. Ha! One skip later and the job is done!

I found a plastic carrier bag with over three hundred cards and letters I received when I was first poorly. I re read the cards and letters with a chimney of tears running down my cheeks then decided they had to go, time to move on.






But when I pulled my briefcase out of the back of a cupboard it started a tug of war.  Keep it? Give it away? It was a treasured gift from work colleagues. I think I was given this prize possession when I moved to my job in Wales, but I am not totally, no doubt kinda sure.  My brain does that nowadays; creates black holes in my memory. The briefcase has worked hard. It held onto my university student card and carried my papers when I studied for my MSc, cared for work papers as I travelled to and from meetings and offices...it still wears it's leather shiny coat.

Trouble is I don't think I could carry it any longer. When I walk I need my stick and a free hand because my left foot smugly decides at a moments notice to glue himself to the floor (notice it's an awkward male!). Last week I launched forward and grabbed the arm of a lady in front who turned with a scathing stare to see me gathering my balance. I thanked her for unknowingly stopping my fall and she went on her way.

So the briefcase. You've got to let me know, should it stay or should it go (The Clash!)

Keeping my foot on the pedal

Yesterday I used a toilet for the disabled and as I washed then dried my hands using the hand dryer I remembered the distress involved in doing the same in hospital....

...I balance the weight of my body on the sink edge while I stretch across to grab paper towels. With dry hands I look around me and spy the bin. It has a pedal. To lift the lid I need to raise my foot off the ground. 

1. I can't lift either foot high enough to squash a fly as I walk.
2. Neither of my feet have the power to squash the fly let alone press a foot pedal.
3. I consider lifting the lid with my hands but years of working in infection control set my hand contamination alarm bells ringing.
4. The lids here are hands free so lifting the lid is impossible.

I look around while still hanging on to the sink edge like an abseiler about to launch off the edge of a cliff. Horror claws as I realise I will have to leave the paper towels on the side of the sink. 

I would like to say I scurry off; but crutch, foot, crutch, foot, crutch, foot is all I can manage.

Back by the side of my bed it dawns on me that the policy to implement foot operated bins is all encompassing. The possibility that people cannot press the pedal is not in the plans on the assumption that the bins will only be used by mobile staff. 

Nowadays when I visit the hospital I know why the disabled toilet with a foot operated bin has paper towels all over the floor. I chat about this with a friend who uses a wheelchair full time. He too has encountered the same problem in hospitals and resorts to trying to press the pedal with his grabber, often to no avail...

Patient involvement in healthcare services development is vital but I now know that involvement of wheelchair/mobility aid users needs to reach the core of every decision.