Lani's Blog

Place yourself in the shoes......

Prompt:Place yourself in the shoes of someone who has a disability and write about something


they THINK they cannot do but after trying and trying, they find they are able to





I don't know that I'm a good enough actor/writer to put myself in someone's shoes and write about them overcoming  something after trying many times. I can write about a friend who overcame difficulties.





My friend, Sandy, in high school had terrible rhumatoid arthritis. It was to the point that her last three digits on both hands were swollen and useless. They curled under into her palm claw-like. She never complained and never talked about it. She could do anything anyone else could with ten fingers. I never really noticed until we went to vocational school together.





Several of the area high schools supported a technical school to help high school students. This school was for those not planning to go to college right away. I was in Health Occupations which gave me basic anatomy and physio plus basic nursing care. When we graduated, we were Certified Nursing Assistants.





Nursing Assistants are the eyes and ears for the RNs. They do basic care for the patients including vital signs. Sandy could do anything anyone else could do except take a blood pressure. The applicance used to take a blood pressure is called a spygmomanometer. It consist of a cuff to wrap around the arm and a soft bulb to pump up the pressure. The bulb requires that it be squeezed, something Sandy could not do with her claw-like hands.





We talked about her difficulty many times. She was endanger of not passing the class because she could not be certified unless she could take a blood pressure. For a time, in our mock clinicals at school, the teacher allowed the student Sandy was practicing on to pump up the cuff. She would listen and get the blood pressure. Finally toward the end of the semster, the teacher told Sandy she needed to come up with something else. What if her patient is unable to help her?





Sandy spent a weekend trying to come up with a solution when she hit on smashing the bulb. She took the bulb and placed it on the bed and took her balled fist and smashed to bulb. This pumped the air into the cuff. It too most of the weekend to learn how to control the air release valve.





I'm not sure why this simple solution didn't show up in our discussions. Probably because we were 17-18 yrs old and the anxiety of having to find a solution or no graduation is enough to freeze brain cells. I 'm sure the teacher wanted Sandy to find the answer herself for the sense of accomplishment. Also a solution for something so personal needs to come from the person most affected. Otherwise it may not work.





Sandy graduated and went to nursing school with me. We lost touch after that. I did go back to the vocational school once to give a talk about life after high school. The teacher gave Sandy as an example of never giving up and if she can find a solution to her difficulties why are you (students) making excuses.