A freak accident left author Robert Prondzinski a quadriplegic at the age of 17. Forty-four years later, he talks about the ensuing years with a mixture heavy on humor and deep contentment, light on self-pity and outrage in his book Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Us Into: The Life and Adventures of a Quad.
The beauty of his story is that it appears that’s exactly how Prondzinski sees himself: a fortunate and happy man who’s had to negotiate a few bumps on the road of life.
Living in a Wheelchair after SCI
Other spinal cord injury survivors and able-bodies alike will appreciate his honest outlook regarding the utter boredom of whiling away hours, days and months in bed, the extreme difficulty of getting hired, the satisfaction of sharing a bonfire on a riverbank with newfound friends and the sheer frustration of dealing with a medical system that seems, at times, oblivious to his situation.
Prondzinski’s life in the Midwest is not a glamorous one. There’s no Paralympic victory, no world-wide acclaim, no website with a sexy video to help sell the book. But one senses that his is an honest life, well-lived, full of the small joys and pathos that are the sum of the best among us. When the author tells the reader about the one time his father breaks down and cries, you’ll be hard-pressed not to relate.
But for Prondzinski, one realizes that the time for those joys is much abbreviated. When months in recuperation is the consequence of two days at higher altitude (and a fuller seat cushion, resulting in pressure sores), the reader’s heart drops along with the author’s over the necessity for him to return home and miss a special trip he’s been anticipating for a year.
Readers Treated Like Friends
In fact, most of the book is comprised of more than 25 tales that Prondzinski has told time and again at a dinner table, surrounded by friends and family.
“As with most good stories and anecdotes, the situations weren’t always so funny during the time my friends and I were going through them,” he writes. “Yet, putting years between the actual events and the telling of them helps to find new perspective on how truly comical some of them were. Now, when various friends and I get together, we often reflect back on these predicaments and laugh.”
There was the time he thought he could pilot the pontoon boat and instead sailed it up and onto a sandbar, where he had to wait for a slow tow that wouldn’t dump him or his wheelchair in the river. Then there was the airplane flight from hell that was supposed to last about three hours and wound up stretching out for days.
The author is frank about his physical needs, his lack of a sex life, his near-death experiences in hospitals. He tells about learning to live as a quadriplegic. His early experiences hiring caregivers are both hilarious and scary. Who knew there were that many alcoholics, or that the gentle war veteran would have Vietnam flashbacks?
But mostly readers are immersed in the love and care of Prondzinski’s close-knit family. Although the author educated himself and worked mightily for his independence, their support and presence in his life are recurring themes.
Assistive Technology Resources
An addendum to this hopeful book is full of advice for everything from train travel to wheelchair seat cushions, computers to alcoholic beverages. (Who else is going to tell you that Carlo Rossi’s Paisano wine generally won’t give you diarrhea, or that the best way to find a good wheelchair cushion is to have your butt pressure-mapped?)
“If this book can help just one person or family through some of their questions and concerns about the future, then it will have been worth the writing,” the author concludes.
This book is recommended to a wide audience. It’s a wonderful gift for the family of a quadriplegic, the quadriplegics themselves and all their friends and colleagues.
Nurses and other healthcare personnel could benefit from walking a mile in Prondzinski’s shoes, too. Add it to your hospital or spinal cord rehabilitation center’s library for maximum impact. Make it worth the writing.
Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Us Into by Robert Prondzinski. 2008 by Nasus Publishing, Bloomington, Minn. 263 pp. ISBN 9780967029122.
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