My Crippled Life-My Broken Wheelchair

So here it goes for my first blog post. First off i’d like to start with a big THANK YOU to all the supporters who have visited the site and started following @crippledisbeautiful on instagram! If you would like to be featured on this website and on insta feel free to go to contact and shoot a submission to the email that is located there.

Ok, so let’s get this started! Basically the last couple days have been a rough cripple life! For those of you who can relate, our wheelchairs are our freedom, they get us from point A to point B. Well my wheelchair broke down yesterday so i had to take it to the wheelchair shop and once i got there my ramp to my van broke too! I guess i should be thankful it happened while i was at the place it can be fixed but then i had to stress about how i was getting home and how i was going to get around and don’t get me started on the costs of all of this. Ya’ll know how expensive it can be to be disabled!

Thankfully i am blessed to have great people in my life such as my boyfriend. He came and got me and brought me home and now i’m in my “backup” wheelchair. And this backup wheelchair is not the most comfortable. But i’m lucky that i have options.

It’s funny how instantly my independence can be taken away from me. At one end of the spectrum i’m out doing my grocery shopping and driving myself around and then all of a sudden i’m depending on my bf to do most things for me. Like helping me get in and out of the car, or bending over to pick up something i dropped, or even getting in our bed. (my regular chair lifts up and down but the back up one does not) Even little things like transferring are harder on me when i’m not in my typical wheelchair.

For those of you who may be able bodied and reading this let me explain. Wheelchairs are typically designed for the designated user. My wheelchair is fit to my body specifically. It is measured to fit my weight and height. It also (as said before) raises up and down so i am able to reach high things, or wash my hands in the sink or even get on my tall as heck bed. So it’s very difficult to do my normal day to day things without it. I also have to deal with the emotions i feel through a time like this. It’s definitely not the end of the world but i feel guilty i need so much help, i feel hopeless and helpless. I have to remember that i am not a burden and that some things are out of my control.

Life as a person who depends on a powered wheelchair and a car with a ramp is hard, but i also know how blessed and lucky i am to have those things in my life. Have any of you out there had to deal wit these same struggles? Let me know. And thanks for reading!

-MARNA MICHELE