MGA News Summer 2003

Summer, or what passes for an English summer is here and gardening is in full swing. At least it would be if all my get up and go hadn’t got up and went. When Mrs Gravis and I moved here, more years ago than either of us will admit to, we bought the bungalow because of the large garden. After all we were fit, active and had two large German Shepherd Dogs which we trained and entered in obedience competitions. Then MG began its insidious course, and I began to get tired and unable to do all the things I had been doing. I loved my garden and my dogs, “there must be a way round it,” I thought.

There was, I would use my ‘flair’ for gadgets and bargains. Mrs. Gravis will tell you that our loft is stuffed with them, most of them were ‘mail order’, and “none of them worked”, she would say. I will admit that there are some dodos, but not all were failures. The first useful thing that I found was a gardener’s working seat. This takes the form of a toolbox on wheels with a seat on top. Best of all it was half price in our local DIY store’s sale. Using it I can move along beside a bed without having to get up and down each time that I need to move. Special long handle trowels and forks etc mean that I can reach into the middle of the beds. The one down side is that our garden is on the side of a valley. There is nowhere dead level and if I don’t put a chock under the wheels, I can find myself taking off down the garden towards the very prickly Holly hedge at the bottom of the slope.

Like a lot of Myasthenics, I find that repetitive actions range from tiring to impossible. This makes trimming the hedges difficult. Thankfully, a good friend does the main hedges for me, but I have found that I can manage lightweight, rechargeable, battery driven garden clippers. I sit on my gardener’s working seat and quietly trim the box hedges round the herb garden. It is also good for trimming the lavender and Mrs. Gravis is all in favour of this, lavender being a calming herb. She says I am much more manageable after doing the lavender.

I was amazed at the range of lightweight, modified or battery driven tools which enable the less able gardener to cope. I have spent many happy hours cruising garden centres and DIY stores in my faithful wheel chair looking for these items, closely followed by Mrs Gravis intent on curbing my urge to buy the less practical gadgets.

I find that small maintenance jobs can be carried out comfortably using a Workmate type bench, a stool and a Mrs Gravis to fetch and carry the essentials. That, of course, includes tea and Coffee. I suppose that the prime tool for this area of endeavour is my rechargeable electric screwdriver, which will also take small box spanner heads. Admittedly the battery makes it heavier than I would like, but I can still get more screws in or out before getting too tired than I could with a manual one. I don’t attempt these types of jobs on myasthenic days when inanimate objects such as nuts and bolts take on a life of their own and fly out of my hands without warning.

It’s not just in the garden where gadgets help. I find that at times, bending or crouching down to pick things up from the floor is impossible. If I can get down without falling over, I then have to shout for Mrs Gravis to help hoist me up. Getting me up again is no mean feat let me tell you. To cope with picking things up off the floor I have a ‘helping hand’, a disabled version of the tool you see park keepers using to pick up litter. No not the spike, the other one. With a bit of practice It really is amazing what you can get hold of with it. I can even get books down from our higher bookshelves with it.

My latest handy gadgets have solved a long-standing problem. I am always dropping things and this includes my walking stick. This usually happens in a shop, or when it will cause Mrs Gravis most annoyance and embarrassment. The answer has been a ‘Walking Stick Wrist Strap’ and a ‘Walking Stick Holder’. The strap anchors the stick to my wrist, so that if I let go it doesn’t fall. The holder is a cunningly designed clip-on device, which allows me to hang the stick on a tabletop or counter. Its especially handy in places like the Post Office when you need both hands and can lean on the counter.

Of course all of this activity is only possible on a good day, on bad days I use that other handy gadget, my reclining chair. Here, before nodding off, I dream of the next essential gadget I need. Well, a new catalogue has just plopped through the front door and that next wonder may just be in it. So before Mrs Gravis can intercept and destroy it, I am off with my ‘Helping Hand’ to retrieve it.

The ‘Walking Stick Wrist Strap’ and ‘Walking Stick Holder’ are available, mail order from GPSP, telephone 01275 842322.

All other items are in most big garden centres, DIY stores or Disabled living shops.

MGA NEWS Summer 2003

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