So You Woke Up Disabled: Get Yourself A Dolly
I’ve joked for the last few years that a handbook called So You Woke Up Disabled would be really handy to help one learn to navigate their new, shitty normal and offer some workarounds.. Haven’t found one, so I guess I should do it.
Today, let’s talk about the game-changing dolly I got from Amazon.
TL;WR= A $50 dolly from Amazon restored my independence to be able to do errands solo and go back to work despite my MS disability. Link to see it: https://a.co/d/4F4KqKV
I have a less than cooperative brain stem and spinal cord thanks to the BS that is MS. I have a wonky and stiff left leg, poor balance, a weak left hand, and an absent frustration threshold. I also need a cane, which I hold in my right hand.
Pro tip: Canes are held in the hand opposite the leg that needs help. (Dr. House lied)
So, I need a cane in my right hand and depending on the day, my left hand is weak. That makes carrying things difficult: I can carry one thing at a time on my left side which makes errands exhausting because I have to take multiple trips in and out of a store, to and from my car, etc. which is very difficult for me because I’m limited in how many steps I can take in a day before my brain throttles the connection and every movement and process gets brutally slow or even impossible.
The last few years, I haven’t been able to do errands by myself.
A little while ago, I went back to work but only with a partner. Paramedic equipment is heeeeeavy and requires a degree of strength and physical aptitude. I’ll never work on an ambulance again but my company provides onsite standby services and emergency management. There’s no stretchers to lift, load, or unload. We rarely have to lift or carry patients, and on the very rare occasion we do, we usually have security who’s happy to do that for us.
When I was well enough to try going back to work once a month, I made sure that I only ever worked with at least one other person. That way, I had someone to carry the equipment where it needed to go because our basic complement is a wee 30 lb trauma bag, a 15 lb oxygen/airway bag, and a heart monitor/defibrillator that also weighs in at a trifling 30 lbs. I used to be able to carry all of it in one trip: oxygen bag over shoulder, heart monitor in left hand, trauma bag in the right.
Now I can’t carry anything heavy in my left hand, at least not for any real length of time and anything big enough or heavy enough that I’d need both arms to carry is a no go.
But my regular partner went back to school last fall, and I’m now like a ton of other businesses: painfully short staffed. A downside of running a company that staffs licensed paramedics and medical responders is that I can’t just hire random folks who want a job and train them up to do it. It takes a lot of time, effort, schooling, and training to obtain a paramedic license, especially an Advanced Care Paramedic and there isn’t a lot of them. I think, statistically, there’s less paramedics here than even five years ago, and finding staff was a challenge even then.
We got a contract early this year for just one paramedic for several overnight shifts at a wellness centre, but it had to be an Advanced Care Paramedic who could perform cardiac monitoring. That’s me, but working alone? Yikes.
It was the equipment that was the problem, and it was ridiculous.
I tried using my right hand to carry the equipment and left hand for my cane. Fail. I tried carrying the bags in each hand and focusing really hard on walking. Totally effective, if looking like a stumbling drunk and falling while carrying very expensive equipment is your thing.
I got it done but there was no way I could keep working as a paramedic. My brain still knows all the paramedic things but there are major communication issues between my brain and my body. They’ve been fighting about it for a few years now.
It’s not reassuring when your paramedic can’t even walk properly or carry their own equipment.
There was a few weeks before the next night shift and we took four oxygen cylinders in to be filled. Once again, I couldn’t do it myself unless I felt like exhausting myself by carrying one oxygen tank at a time under my left arm into the building.
On the way home, I was thinking how I could move multiple cylinders at once so I could handle filling oxygen by myself. I adore how my husband devotes his every waking moment to doing everything I want and need, but I miss being a fully independent adult.
I remembered the times I used to work on ambulance, every now and then I’d be there for the oxygen delivery. The oxygen guy always brought the cylinders into the hall in batches, stacked horizontally and strapped to a dolly.
What if I got a dolly…maybe one that folded up so it would fit in my car? Then I could at least deal with my own oxygen cylinders. and if I was pushing a dolly I would have enough balance to not need the cane.
Then I realized, if I can strap cylinders to a dolly, why couldn’t I strap the trauma bag and everything else to a dolly when I’m going on shift?
So I went on Amazon to find a foldable dolly but not one for moving fridges because that’s too much. The one I found comes in a few colours, including purple, so that was probably going to be a sale. It’s less than three pounds, and it folds up about the same size as a textbook so it fits in my backpack next to my collapsible cane. It seemed to check all the boxes for what I needed and I hit the buy now button.
When it came, I was nervous because the box seemed very small and light. I unpacked it, full of skepticism. I unfolded it and extended the handle, then strapped four oxygen cylinders to it to test it out. It rolls easily but because I’m freakishly tall with strangely long appendages, it doesn’t extend quite as high as I would like to push in front of me but it rolls so easily I can pull it along behind me with my left hand and use my cane with my right.
Then I swapped the oxygen for med kits.
And just like that, I can once again do my own errands, move things in one trip, and I can get my paramedic equipment where I need it to go for work. It took me three years to work the problem but I found a fix and I’m thrilled.
Have dolly, will travel. (And work.)
