My post-shower routine is to sit on my clothes hamper, wearing a short nightie while I pull my jeans and braces on, and then transfer into my power chair. One morning I needed to change the shoes on my braces, so I set a brace on my power chair and removed the screws and nuts from the ankle joints. I fumbled one of the nuts, and it rolled under the chair. No problem, I thought, and I used the brace to turn the power button on, operate the joystick and carefully guide the chair so I could retrieve the nut.

As the chair rolled backwards, I lost control of the brace and it fell onto the joystick. Before I knew what was happening, the chair jetted forward and almost took off my toes before it did an immediate 180-degree spin and careened across the room. It smashed into the far wall, brace stuck on the joystick, tires spinning and motor whining.

There I was, barely dressed and sitting on my hamper without my braces or chair. I didn’t want to call for help, so I gathered my thoughts.  Luckily, my trusty reacher and some impressive stretching allowed me to free the brace from the joystick. I put both my braces on and then retrieved the chair. A lesson was learned and no one was the wiser. Well, unless they noticed the telltale dent in the wall.
— Rhonda Rome