Category: Out & About

iFLY

I shared before that I went indoor skydiving in April. Since actually jumping out of a plane is not going to happen anytime soon, I’ll settle for the next best option. When OB and I went in April, I learned about their “All Abilities” program that occurs on one Thursday night every month.  Essentially, the facility is open to anyone with any disability to go fly to their heart’s content.  I tried to go in May but no one could tell me exactly when it was happening. I tried again another month but there were no available slots…sigh. All Abilities night is half the price AND they throw in a video (normally you have to pay extra for that) so I was really trying to take advantage of it. Fast forward to September and the Lumwai clan was in town and we decided to go back. It was my second time and it was just as much fun. By then they had added a virtual reality experience that we tried to add on but alas there was no availability that day. At that visit tho, I learned that October’s All Abilities night was on the 19th. i called early and booked my time slot…I wasn’t missing it that time and I definitely wanted to add the virtual reality experience as well.

I have to give props to the staff at the iFLY facility and the person who came up with the idea. The cost includes all the gear we need, a short training session and two  1-minute flights plus they thrown in the video for us (we’re VIP u know). I went by myself and I needed help putting on the suit and helmet and Austin, my instructor for the night, took care of me (and everyone else who needed help) without issue. Under normal circumstances, flyers would sit behind a tethered off area and when it’s your turn u walk up to the entrance of the wind tunnel and fall into it to start flying. Additionally, your single instructor stays with you to guide you as needed. On your second flight, they increase the wind speed to about 105mph and the instructor flies u in a circle while climbing vertically in the tunnel (intense experience). On All Abilities night, to accommodate us, they do not cordon off the area and anyone in a chair can roll right up to the tunnel entrance and then two instructors help to get the person off the chair, if needed, and into flying position (the 2 also stay in the tunnel with the flyer). Depending on the disability they will tie the person’s legs together so that they are controlled while in the tunnel and on the second flight, one of the instructors takes the flyer vertical but not in a circular motion.

when it was my turn I told my instructors that driving the scooter right up to the door didn’t make sense so I would stop at a point and walk with them the rest of the way. Well don’t you know that one of them asked if I would mind if he picked me up.  (absolutely not!!! and) being one to never say no to a “lifup”, I said “oh. do ur thing”. He picked me up like a little rag doll and in 2 2s, we were at the door. I was able to use the virtual reality helmet during my second flight and that made my night.  Allyuh. I eh go lie…I had fun but I am almost sure that the wind speed was less that night so my first flight was not as intense as before and just “meh” but the virtual experience during the second made up for it and just for those 2 minutes nothing beats the feeling of complete normalcy! I will continue to go on All Abilities night because, well it’s half the price – duh! but mainly because there are 6 different VR views and I want to try all – I also found out that it’s the 3rd Thursday of every month. Additionally, with any luck since I’m a repeat offender, they’ll start teaching me some tricks to do while in the tunnel.

i lost my voucher for my video, so enjoy a lil pic instead…

Pic of some who were there that night

 

A Lil Story

So a couple weekends ago a few of us went to brunch. We started at one restaurant ended up staying quite some time so food and drinks was flowing. As we were leaving, ASal suggested that we should walk the 2/3 blocks to another bar/lounge that had a great vibe (did I mention that this was a Sunday?). Not people to turn down any kinda lime, we all said OK! We got there and were seated but no one came to our table. Finally, after many complaints, a guy walked over apologising profusely and took our order. They were offering some kind of Sunday brunch drink special and so naturally we took advantage of that and got a couple appetizers. Well when the order came, we noticed that there were more drinks on the table than we ordered and found out that the waiter doubled up on everything because we’d been waiting so long. Well looky here, that Sunday just got so much better.

anyway we sat there liming for a couple hours and of course at some point, I had to go use the restroom. I was using Bumblebee and let me just say that he doesn’t have a real tight lock when we are turning corners. On Optimus Pride I can buss down a u turn in the tightest spot, on bumblebee? Not so much…it’ll take at least a 4 point turn. Anyway I left the restroom and my left leg was giving a little trouble to bend and go up on the scooter so I just left it hanging off cuz I didn’t have far to go. I got to a point where I had to bend a corner to get back to our table and as I turned, it was a little wider than it should have been and that left leg that was hanging off the scooter ran right into a life size Jenga game that I guess patrons of the place could play as they wished. Jenga pieces flew everywhere and, oh the crash as they came tumbling down. Allyuh know that I started laughing hilariously and just couldn’t stop even though I was horrified. The only thing that would have made the moment better was if I’d remembered to shout “JENGA!” as the tiles fell to the ground.

Luckily it was late by then and the place had really emptied vs. when we initially got there…smh…dull moments are few and far between.

not the best quality pictures but u get the point… 🙂

 

 

 

Grace

I’ve been missing. Forgive me; I travelled a lot in August then family in town the first weekend in September which included a holiday and a short week. It was a whirlwind and now September may as well be over cuz time goes by so quickly. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programme.

Two things still fascinate me even after 13 years of dealing with this disease….hmmmm, lehme say 8 years cuz I started using my canes in 2010. They are:

* When people accurately guess that I have MS
* Just how helpful people (read strangers) really can be

I remember years ago I was flying somewhere. I’m assuming that it was before I started using my cane and maybe before I started using the wheelchair assistance. Anyhoo, I was putting my shoes and shit back on after having gone thru security and the lady sitting next to me said, “u must have MS”. It floored me because you have to remember, back then it was a disease about which very little was known. It wasn’t like now when I swear I hear of someone being diagnosed every Monday morning – heard of someone just this past Sunday. When I said “yes  how’d u know?”, she told me that her daughter had it and our movements were very similar. A couple weeks ago, the Lyft driver who picked me up was in an SUV. In the past anytime I realised that an SUV was on the way, I’d cancel.  These days I cyah bother so I just figure it out and let the driver help me as needed (except for the time that saddist showed up in a Ford Tundra so I just sent him along his way – there was no way I coulda get into that!). Well after I was finally in and fella jumped in the driver’s seat, he said “MS?”…turns out that in a prior life he was an EMT so once again, he’d seen patients whose movements were similar to mine. It’s interesting for all the unknowns and different ways that it can affect patients, when mobility is the issue, our movements and coordination appear to be similar.

so then there was Ben who said, “oh. My mother has MS too”. He took me completely by surprise because he was the scooter delivery guy (the first time I’d ever used a scooter, it was a rental and that prompted the Soca Scooter purchase) and I was just standing in my garage. Wait…what??? How the hell do u know??? Turns out that he saw my tattoo that I’m “Fighting MS”…I’d gotten it the day before and completely forgot that it was there – DUH!

Dealing with having this disease has pushed me to be somewhat shameless in the sense that if I need help with anything I’m going to ask whomever is around. If you’ve been reading my blog all along u know that I used to be a “hero” or at least try to be (doing things on my own and not asking for any help). Well over time I’ve learned that asking for help is not a bad thing (and lehwe be honest, the help makes things move so much faster) and if someone offers to help, I say sure whether I need it or not. About a month ago I was at a bar and was waiting to use the restroom. It was a fairly large, single, ladies room and as the person walked out I asked her to hold the door for me to roll in – a door that swings out is much more difficult for me to manoeuvre than one that I can just push in – and that one swung out. If I remember correctly, at that point she asked me if I needed any other help because she’d be happy to assist however she could. Of course I said thanks but no thanks cuz I was heading to the restroom afterall.  I don’t need help in there and well, this was an absolute stranger – hello!  But then if I remember correctly, she asked me if I was sure and then said, “I can just come in to lock the door so u don’t have to worry about it”…I eh go lie, sometimes I do wish that I didn’t have to lock the door cuz rolling back and forth to do it can sometimes be a pain in the ass. I said sure. She stayed with me, she locked the door, helped me stand to move from the scooter to the goddess and back, grabbed the paper towels for me to wipe my hands and all the while, I just couldn’t believe what was happening. She told me that her name was Grace and for years she’d been helping her mother who is a paraplegic and so she understood just how a little help could go a really long way. It wasn’t a bar that I frequented and I never saw Grace again but for those 1o minutes we were in that ladies’ restroom, it was like we were best friends.

I struggled with sharing this story because I wondered if it was too much but in the end, I figured that I have nothing to be ashamed of and it’s a “warm and fuzzy” story about how selfless people can actually be sometimes. It’s Wednesday…Spence always used to say, “weekend start Wednesday”…allyuh do enjoy ur weekends!

Ah gone!

Well yes…

SIGH! After I published my last post about Shurlan’s ral (a term coined by some members of my family after my grandmothers funeral – they crazy…go figure 😊) I reread it a couple times, looking for errors etc and an overwhelming sense of sadness came over me. I was:
*sad for Shurlan
*sad for J,DeeJay, Dom, Devon
*sad because dr. G was moving back home in 2 days and I’m going to miss him tremendously
*sad because…life…and I have to deal with my wretched disease ALL THE DAMN TIME

it all came crashing down on me all at once. For the first time in a long time, I felt really alone and didn’t want to go thru it all by myself. I called CYute and we made plans to lime.  I don’t think he will really understand how much I really appreciated and needed that lime that night.

anyway…so I went home on July 3rd for 10 days. Heading to Trinidad from Atlanta is not the easiest thing to do. There are no direct flights so we have to choose if we want to go thru Texas, New Jersey or Florida. I chose Fort Lauderdale because the airport, cost and schedule were ideal. When I’m travelling with my scooter, I’m on my own – I have no assistance from the wheelchair attendants in any airport. Ramp guys bring the scooter for me when we land and I bounce starter and take off to where I need to go. Landing in Fort Lauderdale on my way back was no different; I got on Bumblebee and started making my way to Customs.

I don’t know if u regular folk ever noticed this but elevators are always in a different spot than escalators that u use and that path is always less travelled. So I was heading to the elevator and bumblebee just stopped. Ah sheeeiiit! My knee usually rests near to the power switch so I hoped that maybe it bounced the switch and turned it off by mistake. I flipped the switch and still…nothing! I flipped it about 4 times to make sure I was seeing correctly and yes, the battery gauge was not moving (the indicator that the scooter is on).the battery was fully charged…that wasn’t the problem (this had happened before but both times I got him going again…after a long time. I didn’t have that time right then). i didn’t know what the hell to do (I haven’t mentioned that I was beat because my flight from Trinidad had been delayed 2 hours). I looked toward the elevator and there was 1 wheelchair attendant there pushing a passenger. Now u hadda understand, these attendants are essentially assigned to passengers who need assistance and remember that’s not me. Shit! Luckily for me, the fella was very helpful and the passenger he was pushing didn’t have a connecting flight and wasn’t in a rush. He left and found a supervisor who’d seen me deplane and who, realising my predicament, brought another chair and told the fella to push us both to baggage claim where he would tell the ramp guys to take the ‘bee. I eh go lie, as frustrated as I was about the situation, I was glad that I was in bumblebee cuz the way he folds up, it was much less hassle to move him around. By this time, I’d missed my flight to Atlanta so I had to call GHK who luckily had nothing going on that night so she could pick me up. I really cannot get into the all the details of everything else that happened in the airport when we got to baggage claim but it included my sitting in a chair (that I can’t work) for what seemed like at least an hour and waiting on the wheelchair fella to square away his original passenger and then come back for me. It was torture…I was frustrated, I was tired, I was hungry, I wanted to get the hell to Atlanta and most scarily, I wasn’t mobile.

finally I got by GHK and more drama. Every time I go by her I use a walker cuz of the layout of the apartment complex and the apartment itself. Well this was not a planned visit, so I had to hold on to both she and Dx to get to the apartment and when inside they decided to put me in a folding chair that they dragged to and fro…sigh; it was a rough night to say the least.  My original flight would had had me walking thru my front door about 9 on Saturday night…instead, I walked thru my door at 9:30 Sunday morning. There’s good news…apparently there was a blown fuse in Bumblebee’s guts that has since been replaced so he is as good as new.

All’s well that ends well I suppose.  I’ve had nightmares of not having my scooter and the shit actually came true. I can safely say that I don’t ever want to relive that ever again.

hol’ it dong, Stax

Flying High

This post about my losing the ability to dance is old but still valid. I “dance” like only I can in parties and people dance with me and (in the past) Soca Scooter with no problem but I still yearn for the days when I could move freely without a thought. Additionally, ballroom dancing, Indian dance (a style I’d have loved to learn) and everything else is out. I have seen someone ballroom dance in a wheelchair so that is a possibility but I don’t use a chair (honestly I tried to use one on my own in a store once and absolutely failed) and I’m not convinced that ballroom dancing in a scooter is a possibility. As a result, I have to find things that I can do and hopefully discover that I enjoy.

One of the things that I want to do is skydive. Years ago, I had an opportunity to do it and I absolutely refused to pay $200 and sign my life away to jump out a plane that is howmanythousands of miles up in the sky. Maybe it’s because the MS has stripped away some things I want/like to do or maybe these days, my mindset is “life is too damn short and u only have one to live” but now? I want to go skydiving. The problem is that when it’s time to land, the jumper has to tuck their knees to their chest. Allyuh know that right at that moment, I will not be able to bend those legs and put them anywhere so best I don’t go jump out anybody plane.  Now admittedly, I haven’t completely explored if there are options out there for the disabled – I exchanged a few emails with one facility and those didn’t really get anywhere – so it’s something that I might get into at some point.

remember I shared that OB was here for a short time in April so I decided to take a couple days off and was thinking about what trouble we could get into and I remembered that there is an indoor flying facility in Atlanta. Essentially, you get the skydiving experience/feeling without actually jumping out of a plane. I called the facility to find out what options I had. In fact, my biggest concern was IF I’d be able to do it and then if I couldn’t fly would I be refunded (cuz it was pricier than I’d expected). I explained my issues as best I could and fella on the phone assured me that I’d be able to fly.  Okaaay then, well lehwe go.

the cost includes a crash classroom training session where u watch a short video and learn the different hand signals that may be used by the instructor who stays with u in the wind tunnel and all the gear u need to fly. So you don’t experience the moment that one would actually jump out the plane – the free fall, but you experience the “floating on air” sensation after the parachute is opened.  Everything happens in a vertical cylindrical wind tunnel in which air blows from below at 80 mph and faster. I entered the classroom all the while not worried but eager to explain my issues to whomever. I mean, clearly I’m not normal because I was in my scooter but surely they needed to know exactly what we were dealing with right? well, Ryan (the instructor) said very excitedly when he saw me approaching, “are u flying with me today?” I said yes and he said “great!!” but he made no moves to come talk to me.  Hmmmmm…We watched the video and he told us where to go to get our suits. At that point, I felt like I had to say something cuz getting in the tunnel and being thrown around did not appeal to me. I went over and started my spiel…”my hand curls up…I can’t stretch out this arm…blahblahblah”. As I spoke Ryan was looking at me as if he was just waiting for me to finish, and then he said, “I’m not worried about you in there. Not at all, u’ll see. trust me, u’ll be just fine.” I mentioned how i tend to put my faith in people in these kind of situations in my rock climbing post, so once again, i “gearsed up”. Allyuh guess what? He was right! He helped me walk up to the tunnel opening and I was on my own after that. Now he stayed in the tunnel with everyone to ensure that we were stabilised cuz we were all first timers but if someone had just walked up and seen me in there, they would have never guessed that I had anything going on.  I thought it would be more exhilarating but it was lots of fun nonetheless.

Afterwards I found out that iFLY (the name of the facility) offers an “All Abilities” night monthly. Turns out that one night every month, they offer a half price opportunity for people with all disabilities: “All Abilities Night at iFLY is a unique event that makes the dream of flight a reality for those in the special needs community”. Anyone with any disability who is interested in flying can book time and get to do so without issue. Guess who will be going back to take advantage of that offer? I missed the opportunity in April because I waited too long and the time slots that worked for me were sold out. I’ve been all over the site like white on rice this month so as soon as they announce the date in May, I’ll book my time.

I have a video of my experience but for whatever reason, i can’t get it to play so you just have to use your imagination to see me in that wind tunnel 🙂

Life is too short…live like there’s no tomorrow!

 

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