How do you cope with disability?
- get on with it.
My experience of losing the use of my dominant arm in 1990 was one of ‘just get on with it’. I was hospitalized for around a month as a result of a motorbike accident that pulled the nerves from my arm out of the spinal cord, broke my jaws in so many places the upper and lower had to wired together for 8 weeks, and numerous other exciting injuries. Being looked after in the orthopaedic ward of Dunedin Public Hospital meant I had a shared room with 3 other guys. Due to their various conditions, young as I was at 17, I could still see that there were othersmuch worse off.
One bloke had been in a wheelchair for so many years that his internal organs were starting to fail. He was however, a fuckin crackup that always kept everyone in good spirits. Another bloke had broken his neck. This poor bastard had to lay in bed 24 rs a day in a god-awful brace system, with regular turning of this and his bed to try and limit bed sores. Fun stuff!
I was introduced to another one-armed bloke, Charlie. He also had the same sort of accident years earlier, so was a great source of inspiration for me. He showed me how he adapted to driving a car one-armed, and also a motorbike. It probably sounds quite difficult, and it was at first, but I eventually got a little two-stroke motorbike that I used to zip around on one-armed much to the surprise of other motorists.
- there’s always someone worse off.
Conventional wisdom about unexpected disability is that the patient goes through a number of stages, grief/anger etc. As I wasn’t reacting conventionally the hospital had me see a psychologist to chat about things. We chatted for half an hour and I got the tick of approval, ‘nothing to see here, carry on.’ So anyway there I was, almost 18years of age and having to learn to use my other arm/hand to do everything. My perspective was embrace the challenge & overcome. (with a healthy dose of ‘fuck it’) I had an obvious physical disability, but a nut so obvious struggle with pain – which was, and still is, far worse. You may have heard of phantom pain, the pain or sensations that amputees have in their missing limb. I had, but I’d thought it was just tickles or funny sensations like it was still there. This myth is often perpetuated by patients themselves, who try and mask their struggle. For me it felt like my hand was being crushed in a vice, electrocuted in random spots and burnt also in random spots. Needless to say, this fuckin sucked. (Now, over 20 years later, my phantom pain has reduced, but replaced by chronic pain).
- outpatient pain clinic
- change your attitude.
- don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.
- mixed blessings.

- I discuss my experience with computer games and my difficulties and solutions with one-armed gaming.
- I have created this page on resources for living one-handed.