montreal

Filed under: Regular Contributors, Brian Segal, Themes, Wheelchairman of the Board

Trapped In A Web Of My Own Doing

(Or how vacuum cleaners and wheelchairs do not mix)

by Brian Segal

Although I am in a wheelchair, I still like to try and help out with the day to day chores around the house. There are limitations of course. Shovelling snow off the roof of the house is no longer possible. Crane operators will not insure the hoisting of my chair up on the roof. Click to continue »

Filed under: Regular Contributors, Brian Segal

Man’s Best Friend (Or how the windows in my home were replaced)

by Brian Segal

I’m not really sure where to start this story so I guess I’ll take the advice of the king in Lewis Carroll’s story Alice in Wonderland and “Begin at the Beginning and go on till you come to the End.”

For as long as I can remember I have always had a dog. Click to continue »

Filed under: Uncategorized

Socks

by Hal Newman

Cynthia is nine years old. She was rescued from her home after floodwaters reached the second floor. Her mom and dad and sister and their two cats all made it out safely.

However, right at this moment, in the middle of an overcrowded Red Cross shelter, among hundreds of other evacuees, the only thing that matters to Cynthia is that her bed socks were left in the top drawer of the dresser in her bedroom.

Cynthia has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder [OCD]. Every single night she takes a shower just before bed, then Click to continue »

Filed under: Uncategorized 

“I know, looking at the 35 year-old photo, that at any moment all Hell could break loose for that little girl. And everything could change dramatically.”

Looking Back on my Years with Epilepsy

by Karen Nesbitt

Click to continue »

Filed under: Regular Contributors, Brian Segal, Themes, Wheelchairman of the Board 

Before I start writing my little essay I would like to make a couple of things clear: Firstly, I accept the fact that I must use a wheelchair. My explanation to people who ask why I am in a wheelchair is simply that I have multiple sclerosis—an accident of life and nothing else. Secondly, and for me something that is obvious, is that I would much rather not have to use one. I don’t feel sorry for myself; I would simply rather not be in my present physical state. Click to continue »

Filed under: Irked Videos 

Click to continue »

Filed under: Themes, Cerebral Ballsy 

Ahh what a life: delightful, delectable, debaucherous, and…disabled. Click to continue »

Filed under: Books & Book Reviews 

“Losing My Courage, Finding My Hugs”

by Martin Neufeld

(an excerpt from the book Hugging Life: A Practical Guide to Artful Hugging)

Click to continue »

Filed under: Irked Videos, Irked Audio

http://www.indestructiblefilm.com

In September of 2002, at 31 years of age, I was diagnosed with ALS, a neuro-degenerative disease that kills 90% of its victims within five years. At the time, I was working as a playwright and actor in Chicago, running a painting company and changing my son’s diapers. Nine months later I began to make a documentary film chronicling my new life, not one I had chosen and unlike anything I ever could have imagined. Traveling by myself and then with a small crew we filmed the isolated world of ALS; interviewing patients and their families, medical professionals, scientists, religious figures and almost anyone we could find. I wanted to know (perhaps naively), “What does it all mean?”

Click to continue »

Filed under: Regular Contributors, Brian Segal, Themes, Wheelchairman of the Board

Some Musings on Using a Wheelchair

 by Brian Segal

I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was 39 years old. The disease was slow in evolving. For a number of years I could get around easily enough using just a cane. As time went on, the cane turned into a walker and eventually into a wheelchair. My story is not about multiple sclerosis, but more about what life is like living in a wheelchair. Click to continue »