Silly Things You Never Think Of - The Kitchen

Living in a wheelchair I have encountered a few things you would never think ...
When filling your teacup remember to leave plenty of room at the top. It's funny how even a little change from hard floor to carpet can cause sloshing. When you walk you think of keeping your hand even, but from a chair you have to also adjust for changes in the terrain. I hate to say this but on more then one occasion I have forgotten this rule, however, I have learned in these incidents to put the cup or overfull bowl on the end of the counter and when I get on the carpet I pick it up again. It's silly I know but it is one thing you never think of.
The oven and stove are an adventure. First you need to have something to turn on the burners and the oven if you are like me and have an electric stove with the controls on the back of the stove. I use a long pair of tongs that have a silicone end to turn food. While it is great for cooking the end helps hold the knob so you can actually grab. press in and turn. The tip is sturdy enough to hit the on /off button for the oven and to set the temperature.
Cooking and baking is another challenge. The innocent cup of tea can become an adventure to the ER if you aren't careful. First, teapots that whistle are great but make sure the steam pouring out is facing to the back of the stove or you will get an instant sauna for your face. Next, make sure that you are not wearing a sleeve that can touch the hot burner or that you lower your arm when using the tongs to turn off the burner. Either of those cases can leave a mark, yes I know from first hand experience.
Next, think of when you put something in a hot pan or cook ground beef and there is spatter. Naturally you flinch your head back when this happens but when your head is even with the pan even flinching your head back does not get you away from the spray. I have learned to add things very carefully and with tongs. Sometimes my cooking can be described as smoke and mirrors. If I don't use a mirror to look into a tall pot or a dish cooking on the back burner, I end up with smoke. Can I tell you fanning the smoke detector from a wheelchair is an act I have turned into a fine art.
Baking brings me to my knees, literally. Try as I might the only way I can see how the mixer is mixing is to turn my chair around and kneel on it to look in. The mirror doesn't help here because you can't get a good angle. This is painful for me so when I do bake now days I try to do it the day before it is needed so I can recover, no I am not kidding. Also, though I doubt it has to be mentioned taking anything in and out of the oven was tricky for me when I was two legged, now it's a miracle that my CRO boots, wheelchair and arms are not severely scarred. I have no tricks for this except to make sure I wear long gloves, pull the rack out as far as possible and have a spot clear. Doing all those things and muttering to myself "carefully, carefully..." seem to help avoid major accidents.
Today I cleaned my oven - all I will say is had I known the oven installed with my condo in the beginning was not self-clean I would have gotten one immediately. However, this little fact was not known to me until months later when I started to bake for stress relief. It is pretty ironic that what was stress relief before is now stress inducing. My oven is clean and thank you God for making me very bendy so that I could contort and scrub from my chair.
One thing I am very grateful for is not buying the built in microwave above the stove. I moved my current microwave from its corner to an angle on the counter and can reach it easily.
And one other thing you don't think about, when closing the dishwasher door make sure your electric chair is back for enough or you will charlie both your knees and say words that would embarrass a trucker.

A quick reply to Nancy, the cut should be about mid-calf maybe a little higher. They need enough room from both the knee and the bottom to fit the prosthesis properly to high or to low will cause problems. Too high, the knee may not get full range of motion, too low and the prosthetist will be limited in what type of device to use.