"30 Days in a Wheelchair" TV Show

The series is meant to provide us with an inside look and I personally have found some challenges very hard. One challenge was him and his wife earning minimum wage for 30 days and having to live off that, and that included rent and food. Another show to come is working in a coal mine. They are very eye opening shows. The show on the being confined to a wheelchair should be very good.

Thanks for the heads up!

So I'm very interested to see how the former NFL player does confined to a wheelchair for 30 days. Many people see someone in a wheelchair and think "oh, they get around just fine"--now lets see how a regular person does when suddenly they are put in a wheelchair and have to get though doors wide enough for wheelchairs (not all bathrooms are wide enough) and can't go up steps and instead must locate ramps everywhere when out and some ramps are too steep.

Thanks, it's good to be heard! LOL. I need to get online and get more involved in the forums and posting. I'm having some rough symptoms right now and am fighting the 'why me's'. And I know enough to know to surround myself with people that understand~which is usually people online as I know no one in 'real life' that has these diseases. OKaayyy, that was a ramble.

There was a period of time last year when my joints were really bad and I had a rental wheelchair that I would use when I was going to be out and about for long periods of time. I noticed a HUGE difference in the way strangers treated me. One Sunday I was stiff as a board so hubby said just take the wheelchair to church. Well, I gotta tell ya, people who never spoke to me before at church were going out of their way for me. It was kind of weird, and felt really false. Like opposite discrimination, over compensation or something. Hard to explain, but it was uncomfortable. I'm the same person in or out of the wheelchair.

Yep, I'm definitely gonna watch that one to see his take on it.

OK, you have a great day!

Shelley

I go to a local disabled group and many there were not doing well this time. I'm still fatigued since they found the B-12 deficiency due to pernicious anemia but it took 6 months for them to test for it. The doctor said I have to wait for a long term build up from the monthly B-12 injections. I told him in the meantime all my energy is completely gone and he suggested going to the community pool and swimming laps--I asked him if he was crazy and I think he was just joking.

I looked at the cats and asked if they would run the vacuum around and they sternly pointed to the many notebooks listing what the cats don't do--just a few notations are floors, vacuuming, windows, balance checkbooks, clean the pig styes (which is their lingo for litter boxes), build rockets, deal with salesmen at the door, or get my prescriptions filled.

The things that doctors say...like going and swimming laps is even remotely possible when you feel like you have no energy or strength. sigh. I actually had my doc tell me I needed to go to a tanning booth. Yes, a tanning booth. He prescribed heavy duty doses of vitamin D but when I went back in to see him he told me I was so pale that I should invest some money into going to the tanning salon. For the Vitamin D of course... I told him I looked like sh@# because I've been sick for 2 years and flaring for most of it. And what kind of doc tells a patient to go to a tanning booth? This was my Primary Care guy,not my rheumy. I have the greatest rheumy

I missed the program! Ah well. My teen daughter and I watched 2 hours of So You Think You Can Dance...lol. I totally forgot about it.

I haven't been on here in a while. How are you doing? I hope well. I'm sending you positive vibes your way!! I'm going to try and add a pic for you. Never did that before here so we'll see if it works.

Take care and be well,

Shelley

I could see me swimming laps. Getting that overwhelming fatigue and ending up at the bottom of the pool and wondering how many times I can end up at the bottom before they kick me out. The doctor said it is too soon to do blood work to check the B-12 level so he doesn't even know if my B-12 level is replenishing after 6 months of being depleted. Considering I have lupus too and see a neurologist for the severe migraines, I wish he would send me to a rheumy to see if the B-12 and the lupus are somehow involved.

You're not under the care of a rheumatologist for your lupus? I hope you don't mind me asking, but why?

My primary care told me the first time he drew labs and my ANA came back +, c-reactive protein and sed sky high, "Autoimmunity is not my specialty, you are way over my head." And he was right because he called me into his office, told me to sit down and said, I'm sorry to tell you this, but you have Lupus. I was devastated. I found my own rheumy by eenie meenie miney mo in the phone book because we just moved to a new city and I got lucky. He has a great reputation in the community I found out a +ANA does not lupus make.. We thought I had Lupus for a while, he finally not too long ago said he did not think it was. It's all so confusing. A couple of lab works ago I tested positive for RA for the first time. That surprised everyone. I started methotrexate injections. Do you take that? Oh lordy, it makes you so sick. I don't even want to get started on that topic. Our meds are so toxic, which is worse~the meds or the diseases?

OK, I'm rambling again...I tried to send you a picture last time and it didn't work. One more time!

Post edited by: shelleyg, at: 06/13/2008 15:06

I get the lupus face rash (which was noted by his partner who was my previous doctor and said I had lupus), I have many other signs of lupus, all my lab tests are positive for lupus the doctor said except the one for inflammation. I told him I get lupus flares and I have learned how to handle them. But I don't get flares that put me down for 20 days and I'll go down for a shorter time, but the pain and exhaustion is very real. Except now I'm so exhausted all the time. I've had three doctors before this one say I have lupus, but this doctor wasn't sure at first then "waffled" and then decided I had lupus. So this HMO won't send me to a rheumy until I develop serious internal organ problems from the lupus, then I am referred out.