It is very important to change my wheelchair. It’s been almost seven years since this wheelchair. My physiotherapist Mark MacDonald said, ‘This is a wheelchair but you can’t use it for long. Because, it’s not usable for long. ’I asked Mark curiously,‘ Why, what’s wrong with this chair? ’He then said,‘ The quality of these chairs is not very good. You have to buy a better chair in a year. ‘I said without realizing it. But I was really upset because I never thought that the price of a wheelchair could be so high. Later, however, I realized that if the quality is good, the price will be higher. However, the price of anything in Australia is higher than anywhere else and even more so in Melbourne.
Around 1855, a German watchmaker made a wheelchair for his own use. But many believe that the wheelchair was probably invented in the 1500’s. How strange it is that millions of people around the world benefit from something man-made or invented! Then the man because of whom the world is benefiting innumerable and innumerable human beings, that man will surely get special benefits from the Creator in the Hereafter.
The wheelchair carries my body weighing about eighty kilograms very well. It is not possible to say that these four wheelers are important to me. People like me, those of us who live through a complex subject like paralysis and want to move around to enjoy life, we can’t imagine our life without a wheelchair. What a surprise; Have I ever thought that a wheelchair would be my main means of communication? Because, no matter where I go, in the car, on the train, on the plane, on the ship or wherever I go, I have to get up in this chair and go to other places.
I was told I would never be able to walk again. I can’t even stand another day. When I first got out of bed in a wheelchair, I felt like I was in a strange daze. I just stared at what was going on around me! Because, everything was utterly unexpected and unexpected for me.
The sooner the truth is accepted, the better for everyone, I realized. I began to think of my wheelchair as my own, and I had to spend the rest of my life leaning or sitting on it. Gradually wheelchair users became my friends and I began to think of myself as one of their teammates.
Any obstacle, pain, frustration, uncertainty or change in our life happens suddenly. The changes that occur in life due to physical illness or accident can be devastating to us emotionally. Depending on the severity of the illness or the accident, each person’s life becomes random. Physical problems then become intertwined with our family, social and economic problems. In the midst of so many problems, people become emotionally depressed, just as I became depressed in my life.
Suddenly a road accident made my life extremely chaotic. Everything stops, stops and ends. The level of my physical complexity was or is so high that it made me think then, and it seems impossible, I can’t do it any more. Several issues of physical complexity were pushing me into the depths of extreme despair. I did not know how to manage these special needs of the body.
A huge wall stood in the way of all my dreams and desires and all my thoughts disappeared completely. All around is just dark and gloomy. Somehow I could not find any solution for the rest of my life. All my life I could not understand how to walk in this wheelchair, what to do, how to do.
This is how my treatment and rehabilitation continues. My psychiatrists were always trying to convince me that I had to accept this new wheelchair life and that I could do much better. Several people in wheelchairs worked at our rehabilitation center. But I found their conversation and company very annoying.
In the meantime, a word from my chief physiotherapist, Mark, came to my mind. Mark very firmly said to me one day, ‘Asif, you accept this situation from your heart. You can go to a much higher altitude in this wheelchair life than you would have ever been able to, if you wanted to. By changing your thinking and actions, you will be in a much better position and you will become a role model for many. But you have to suffer a lot. ‘
Our own willpower is the key. The stronger the willpower, the better it will be to achieve the desired goal. My willpower and all my dreams came together with this wheelchair of mine. I understood very clearly and simply that in order to move forward in life, I had to push the wheels. Without a wheelchair I would never be able to reach my destination. As I move forward I am slowly getting into my wheelchair and trying to work with millions more people who are in wheelchairs and want to move forward like me, to improve their quality of life.
