Bradford Lad: Come On Muscles - It's Too Early To Retire
Open Writing columnist Mike Coatesworth, who has been confined to a wheelchair for 21 years following a road accident, is making a determined - and often painful - effort to walk again.
We wish super Mike all possible success.
My exercises are coming on great, and I’ve invested in a small exercise with which to exercise my hip muscles. Getting them working again after 21 years in a wheelchair is hard work. My wife Lesley is helping me all she can.
I watched a TV programme the other night called “Can’t walk, won’t walk.” It portrayed a man who had been using a wheelchair for 25 years. After a recent car accident he needed an operation on his back. This unexpectedly released trapped nerves in his spine. Feeling returned to his legs. He could move them a little.
A surgeon offered him an operation that could get the disabled man walking again. However, there was a chance that the operation mightterminate his life. After some deliberation, the man decided that he was happy and proud to be a cripple (his words). He refused the operation. I am not going to say the man was wrong in reaching the decision. Only someone who is also dependent on a wheelchair could understand his thoughts.
I feel that it is God's wish that I should walk again. And if the Almighty wants me to walk then I must do my best to ensure that I can walk. I am daily making progress, using a Zimmer frame. I can now stay on my feet for quite a while before my hips tell me to sit down again. I can walk around my home. I still have to use that Zimmer frame, nut I am getting there, slowly but surely.
I was in my garden the other day. It was calm and mild when I went outside, but suddenly a wind came out of nowhere, taking me by surprise. It's the same when I am doing my excercises and trying to walk. I am quite calm and positive, then suddenly, out of nowhere, a pain creeps up on me and fairly near knocks me for six.
Some of my muscles had virtually seized up, and were evidently looking forwards to a long retirement in warm surroundings. When I tell them that they have not yet reached retirement age and try to put my legs to work, those muscles scream out in protest. I then have to heed the pain and exercise at a slower pace.
I am going to carry on though. I am determined to walk again.
