When technology fails

I guess everyone with a neurological condition such as MND is familiar with the frustration when one of the technology aids we depend on gives up on us. It happened for me on Good Friday, when I couldn’t get into my lift to take me upstairs as the door wouldn’t open. In fact that evening, for no obvious reason, it relented and so I got to bed. Just one of those glitches, we thought. But no, on Easter Day, when I’d parked my wheelchair in it after church, it wouldn’t open, and we were going out for what would be a special lunch. There I was trapped in it… In desperation I pushed it with my foot and escaped.

 

That evening, the lift would do nothing. Perhaps I’d kicked it to death. So began a series of visits from engineers and three nights in my riser-recliner, two in a hospital bed and three away for my son’s wedding. I have to say the week was redeemed by our local social services who grasped my predicament and, of course, the wedding. My son married a senior hospital doctor in Bristol. It was a fabulous couple of days. At the end of the reception I had completely lost what voice I have, but I could still smile.

On returning home our joy was completed by finding a message from the maintenance contractors saying their senior engineer had a slot that afternoon: would we like him? We did like him, and even more so when he had tracked down the fault to an erratic loose wire. That night I was able to sleep in our own bed. Bliss! How much trouble a small faulty connection can cause – like faulty neurones, I suppose!