Three Wheels On My Wagon

Hello, Dear Readers!

Three wheels on my wagon,
And I’m still rolling along
The Cherokees are chasing me
Arrows fly, right on by
But I’m singing a happy song

I’m afraid that you join me at a time of great personal sadness, if not outright mourning. This week has seen a parting of the ways, you see. A loss which has truly knocked me off balance.  A dear friend, a staunch ally, a constant support that has helped carry me through the upheavals of the last year, and has been a welcome note of constancy in the journey along life’s road is, tragically, no longer with us.

I am of course talking about my wobbly wheel.

Yes, after a long period of increasing wonkiness, the front left wheel of my wheelchair unceremoniously decided to, what I can only describe as… fall off. 

There are no other words to describe it really. There I was, popping a small wheelie in order to clear the jamb of our conservatory door when ‘Lefty’ gave up the ghost and decided it was much happier staying on the ground. Of course the audible clunk of its sudden demise gave me a less than subtle hint that all was not well. The sudden lurch to the left upon getting what should have been all four wheels back on the ground only served to confirm these suspicions.

All of this was on Friday evening (just before I absolutely epically failed in the task of picking up my step-daughter from the train station… But that’s another story.)  And since then I have been the proverbial lame duck.  Going from four wheels to three is of course destabilising in the extreme and I’m having to be particularly careful how I shift my weight. Surprisingly, if I can keep my centre of gravity fairly, uh, central, or even push it slightly to the right then my progress is actually pretty smooth. I’d even go so far as to say that the chair is easier to push with three wheels rather than with the addition of the increasingly eccentric fourth.

 

It’s not all plain sailing however. I’ve found (to my cost.) that shifting my weight to the left causes the front of the char to dip wildly in the same direction, pitching me forward as it does. I’ve not actually hit the ground as yet but give it time and I reckon I can manage some pretty spectacular unhorsings  (Does You’ve Been Framed still offer £250 by the way?)

The irony is, that my conversion to Reliant Robin-iness was directly caused by an effort to prevent this very same occurrence. Long term readers will know that Lefty has been a thorn in my side for a while now (see Back And Forth), but, having started my regular shifts at work, I finally managed to schedule in a visit from Wheelchair Services to repair the errant castor. As you can probably work out, this appointment did not go well. Don’t get me wrong, the gentleman turned up on time, two new wheels complete with mountings in his hand, tool belt round his waist, and a cheerful positive ’can do’ attitude emanating from his every pore.

That was until he worked out that the forks each wheel sits in that he’d been supplied with were too narrow for the wheels he had. Undeterred, our intrepid mechanic informed me that he would ‘do a bodge job’ that would last me until they got the right bits from the supplier. This was Thursday morning.

Admittedly, for the 24 or so hours that the wheel remained attached, my mobility was much improved but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking for the temporary repair to be just a tiny little bit less temporary than that. Of course Wheelchair services is a Monday to Friday service because wheelchairs never break at the weekend and even if they did, it’s not like wheelchair users go anywhere or do anything on Saturdays or Sundays.  Oh, and let’s not forget that it’s Bank Holiday on Monday (UK). Yeah that won’t be inconvenient in the slightest.

Sorry did I get a tad ranty then? I do apologise.  The good news, is that I’m managing remarkably well as a tricycle and can hopefully get this sorted before I’m due to  go to Work on Wednesday (Yay! Four day weekend!) If not I may need to look into rental. Wonder if I could get Wheelchair services to foot the bill… Yeah I doubt it too.

Until next time…