Sitting down. You’d think it’s the one aspect of my life as a wheelchair user that’s all sorted – but sadly not the case. Yes my wheelchair is custom-made to my measurements, has a special squidgy cushion and a taut backrest to make sure I am comfortable – which I am for the 14 hours a day I am seated in it. Sometimes I want or choose to get out of my chair. This could be to sit on the sofa or on the floor or to sit upright in bed to watch a movie. You get the idea.

I occasionally forget how dependent I am on a backrest. Without a backrest I’m pretty useless. My balance is really poor so if I try and sit as you might casually on a bed or a bench with no backrest I simply fall over. Then it’s a messy scramble with my pitiful abdominal muscles and grabbing hold of my legs to right myself.

Of course I have a technique to overcome this: Let’s play out sitting up in bed.

First of all I have to get into the bed.

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That’s relatively easy I just jump across from my chair onto the edge of the bed with my feet on the floor then I simply lie back and scoop my legs up with me.

Now I am lying down essentially.

To get from here to a sitting position is the hard bit. First of all I need to grab my legs. I grab behind my knees and pull so that I am in a kind of foetal position on my back.

Then it’s a kind of magic moment where I somehow manage to rock forward and get my body weight forward to a point where I can fold one leg under me, then the other, resulting in a cross legged ‘school assembly style’ pose.

Once I am sitting cross-legged I can relax. I have a stable base. The same is true of a nice slump on the sofa. I have to tuck my legs under me or I fall backwards and slowly and ungainly slide off the sofa.

It sounds melodramatic but if you witnessed it, it is quite the spectacle.

It is perhaps because of my spasms as well as my poor balance that getting to a comfortable seating position is such a faff but it struck me that’s its probably something that most of you take for granted as you relax into a lazy Sunday morning or the couch after a hard day’s work.

For me often it’s a choice of is it easier to stay in my chair and disregard my lower extremities and their inability to do what I want or call upon my friends to get me set up on the sofa or in bed?

It’s funny how being permanently seated in the same position makes you question and appreciate how you sit otherwise.

Who knew sitting was such a science?

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