Saturday, September 15, 2018

A Victim of My Own Stupidity, I Simply Should have Known Better

 Gabriel Iglesias aka “Fluffy” Comedy Show Casino Rama

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When it comes to living with Muscular Dystrophy and slowly losing the ability to do things you once could do with little to no trouble, at times you end up making a few mistakes. I truly should have known better but the other night while attending a comedy show by Gabriel Iglesias aka “Fluffy”. Sadly, the mistake I made on this night resulted in me finding myself in a awkward situation the moment the show came to an end. But first let me explain how I became a victim of my own stupidity - you see a friend of ours ordered our tickets and claims he asked for accessible seating. Unfortunately, when we checked in with our tickets the usher told to go up the escalators to access our seating, this is when we found ourselves at the top of the theatre at Casino Rama - at this point I thought something might be wrong. So we checked with an usher asking if there was another way to our seats that didn’t involve going down twenty steps - he joked with us saying you could slide down the railing if you like. I guess since he didn’t take us seriously I just went along with it making the mistake of thinking I could actually make it down to our seats. I guess I simply didn’t want to be a bother so we made it down to our seats which I hoped by some miracle might be accessible in some way but as with every theatre they offered the smallest amount of legroom. At this point I decided to just sit back and relax to enjoy the show and it wasn’t until the end when I started wondering how I was going to get up from my seat to exit the theatre. This is when my problems began.

Once the show ended our friend went out ahead of us, as my wife needed to use the restroom I told her to not worry about me and to go ahead as well. Giving her my phone as having it in my pocket would hinder me from getting up. So I was on my own without my phone as I waited for the theatre to empty out, this is when I attempted to get up by using the back of seats. Unfortunately, the seat backs move as they are not fixed in place so I was unable to use them to assist me in getting back up. It really didn’t help that I was in a tight area with nothing to push off of to get back up, this meant I was stuck and that there was nothing I could do as a result of my leg muscles being so weak. At this point I sat back for five minutes trying to come up with a strategy to get up so I could exit the theatre. Eventually, I noticed an usher a couple rows up from me so I asked her for assistance in holding the seat back in place so I could get up but this didn’t work - I simply couldn't get up. Then she called a few other ushers over one who grabbed me under my arms to help support me but with my leg being so weak I almost ended up sitting on the floor, thankfully he was able to lift me up back into my seat. There was nothing they could do so they called for security to help me, I was so frustrated and even embarrassed so out of frustration gave it my all to build up enough energy to force myself back up. Thankfully at this point I was successful in getting up but still my legs were very weak from the whole ordeal. A few seconds later the security guard arrived and thankfully was able to help me down what seemed to be about forty steps to the bottom of the theatre.

This is when I apologized to the usher and the security guard telling them I should have known better, that I should have just asked for fully accessible seating - he told me they are always prepared for these situations and that they would have happily exchanged my tickets. Which would have resulted in us sitting much closer to the stage. Anyways, once I was back on my feet I was able to meet up with my wife eventually connecting with our friend so I could make the long drive home. By the time we arrived home I could barely walk so I went straight to bed though it was hard to sleep as whenever I moved my legs they felt like 100 pound weights. It was actually the first time I was scared that I possibly wouldn’t be able to walk at all the next day. When I woke up in the morning my legs were so weak that it was nearly impossible to take a shower which was beyond frustrating. Worst of all this resulted from my own stupidity of not  asking for accessible seating the second I found myself in this situation. I guess what frustrates me the most is the fact that this could have all been avoided if I had just spoke up. I think at this point in my life I really need to start taking the fact that I have Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy more seriously as the days of trying to ignore it are over.

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