FROM A WHEECHAIR EYE VIEW

I am still in the early stages of recovering from my foot operation. Yes, I was aware of many of the difficulties that disabilities present in daily living, also, I am aware of what measures  can ease the path for many.  Being aware is not quite the same as first hand experience.  Imagine then, my dismay when I was confronted with little or nothing where I would have expected a minimal something.

Sitting in a wheelchair - it needs pushing by an able-bodied person - I am about the height of an average 10 year old. It provides an interesting viewpoint. Now, I cannot see over some sales counters. If an assistant is standing,  I can see the upper torso and head, a speaking head, not always a pleasant one.  It's a similar experience at the store checkout.

I cannot browse in a store from a wheelchair unless whoever is pushing the chair does not mind doing it as well. I am dependent on my driver to place me so I can either reach for something, or, check it, if whatever it is, is within my grasp. Anything else is reliant on being in a position to see what there is and asking for it/them to be selected for me.  Patience is in high demand by all parties.

In one store, which mostly sells household goods and bedding - not too big a store - I attempted to use my alternative crutches with my new foot dressing, (a story for another time).  To save energy and time I asked  directions to my department of interest from an assistant who accidentally came in view. When I specified what I wanted, she left me standing to ask advice from someone shelf-filling and hidden from view.  It was the girl's first day....anyone who knew the stock was elsewhere. The store did not have a chair available for me to sit on while we waited for another member of staff....'sorry', she said.   A sour assistant who eventually turned up directed me to the opposite of what I asked for.  She didn't know much, if anything.  I was fed up and gave voice, very politely, to my thoughts. 

There were plenty of these chairs for sale and plastic ones too.

A fellow patient, who, like me had been fitted with new footwear and crutches that day, told me she had the same experience a bit earlier in the same store.  The store sold chairs, albeit,  picnic seats of all types.  Surely one could have been dedicated for customer use.

This would have been nice to sit on .

HUMANITY TURNING A BLIND EYE

I am think I am devoid of emotion, yet I feel  a weird sort of black hole in the pit of my stomach when I hear that people who are so desperate for a life, who will risk their lives by going through hell and high water to try and get a chance of a better life, will  be allowed to seal their fates at the hands of the unscrupulous and unchecked traffickers who put their human cargo out at sea in dubious overcrowded boats.  It is reported that the same traffickers are not averse to ramming and sinking the boats.  They don't care what happens to the refugees so long as they get their money from them. Are the traffickers untouchable?

Funding to rescue services at their current levels is being stopped. Britain is in the forefront of it. The replacement will be a very limited coastguard service. 

Since when did humanitarianism stop beyond a three miles coastal limit, or less?  What perverse rationalisation is being played out;  politicians argue, the more likely people think they are to be rescued out at sea, the more they will attempt the journey with all its attendant risks. What methodology is proposed to support this theory?  Who is going to watch the drownings and count the bodies to try and prove it? 

Perfidious Albion.

COULD YOU LOOK DOWN AT YOUR FEET?

I visited the GP with an eye problem under the upper lid. A locum was in situ, a nice person though not entirely confidence boosting. "I am not an expert on eyes", the doctor says.

Lying down on a couch to have my eye looked at was novel. And "could you look down at your feet?" I promise you, I tried.  On my back flat out, trying to find my feet was a bit too acrobatic for my eyes.  "It might help if I sat or stood up", I suggested......."No I want you lying down" said the doctor.

"Hm. Would you hold the torch and shine it in your eyes while I try something else, " requested the GP.  I dutifully did as asked.  I felt the lid being lifted; I screeched with pain and strained away, doctor jumped back, ...."that hurt did it, so sorry." 

No surprise I yelled, I saw that the doctor had been trying to poke around in my eye with a wooden throat spatula!!  

Should I make a quick exit...."I'm just going to put some drops in your eye....oops, sorry" as the orange fluid covered the whole socket and cavity.   The locum GP made a call to the hospital, for an eye specialist to see me as soon as possible. 

An hour and a half later, I am still in surgery reception - staff awfully sympathetic - waiting for feedback from the doctor, hospital, and a possible prescription, I decided to leave and wait in the comfort of my own home. 

Today, the eye specialist says I have an abrasion on my cornea.  No damn wonder.