One of the biggest
challenges I have to deal with as a partial quad or tetraplegic I
guess as I am now known is my inability to make a real grasp on to
grasp something that I might particularly want. I have to acknowledge
that I am extremely fortunate because 80% of the time (I think that's
a fairly accurate statistic) I can usually get what I want if it is
in reachable distance. Again, I'm so fortunate and thankful I have
disability for as so many of the folks I know are in am aware of with
high cortical insults cannot grasp or hold.
Luckily my “monkey paw”
is not as severe as most. I have pretty good thumb resistance which
allows me a partial grasp and hooking capability. This was
particularly helpful when I was still in the push chair or manual
chair. But I still use this capability more than I am aware I'm sure
on a daily basis, everything from getting up in the morning to going
to bed at night and everything in between. Something I've really
noticed lately is that I do not know if it's worse but I'm noticing
that the deficiency more and that is I'm dropping stuff all the time
and it seems everywhere. I noticed that mostly here at the apartment
and dropping items like spoon sports and hooks. Hooks more than
anything but I did notice I broke the bowl I have been using the past
year. The chip ceramic piece that I have been particularly fond and
it slipped out of my hands I was watching and hit the sink just the
right way and broke the piece in half. I did not mourn too awfully
much the piece was old by my standards and quite frankly I'm
surprised the piece of ceramic lasted as long as it did. Now, I'm
excited about heading to the DI or someplace similar to find another
piece of art to eat with which to eat my breakfast .
Today I noticed my
particular bout of dropsy which manafested itself when I was trying
to get cans and plastic bags of Chinese noodles from their stacked
position on the grocery aisle. The Chinese noodles usually a pretty
easy because they are like filled with air if there packaged
correctly. The air in the bag is resisting to my hand and usually
allows me the catch the bag between my thumb and forefinger allowing
me enough grip to transfer the bag from shelf level to the basket
sitting on my lap. Usually, the items I'm trying to get hold of our
stacked all the way back to the wall on the back of the shelf so when
I press the item it's easier to get hold of. But today it seems that
the cans of peppers as well as the noodles were just one row deep on
the shelf so each time my hands touched the bag they seem to fall
onto the floor. I eventually got what I wanted without having to
bother anyone but getting these items was a mighty strugg.
Last night as I did some
fast shopping for salad materials I was trying to pick up a carton of
those little tomatoes in the produce department. Usually they are
packed in a pretty sturdy little container but I ended up dropping at
least two containers that seemed to explode all over the floor. After
the first container dropped I should start looking for a manager but
I was focused at that point to do it, to get the box of tomatoes at
all cost into my lap. Eventually I did but look like a tomato
massacre and produce. I slapped my chair into fourth gear and
booked ass out of Produce.
Life goes on and so do I,
I got everything home and only dropped one breakable item and thank
goodness the bottle to not break. I am now considering getting the
bottle off the floor are waiting until my home health person, Honey
comes tonight for my shower. I think I'll wait.
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