Well. Going to the conference wasn't such a great idea. Today I am completely crippled. My own fault, mostly because, although I use the wheelchair, I don't usually have to propel myself around in it - my left arm started playing up immediately and my shoulders and right arm joined in very rapidly, followed by my back (I usually walk a little and sit down a lot but I spent all day sat in the same position from 9.30 am to 8 pm) and my knees. By the evening my legs and ankles looked very much like elephant's legs or the proverbial tree trunks and were letting me know how uncomfortable they were about the whole thing.
The centre is not designed for wheelchair access - doors difficult to open and at odd angles to the corridors, making the approach to fairly narrow doors quite difficult (scraped my knuckles several times trying to get through). The "accessible" toilet was behind 2 of these heavy outward opening doors (grabbing the handle with one hand and trying to push a wheelchair backwards with the other). Finding how difficult it was on my first visit, I drank very little to avoid having to go back. So woke up around 2 am with all the symptoms of a hypo, which turned out to be dehydration not low bg. Also managed to have 3 hypos during the course of the day. Must have been because of all the energy used.
The single person lift was also behind one of these very heavy doors and impossible to access without help. To get out I had to back against the door very hard and struggle to get through and clear of the door. The lift opened into a "domestic" hallway on the ground floor - where the cleaning staff stored their equipment and blocked doorways with boxes and baskets, making life even more difficult. This was also one of the main fire exits. Doors all had quite high cills to get the wheels over. Even people helping me found it hard to get the chair through the doors. Shan't be going there again in a hurry.
Stiff as a board this morning despite taking pain killers so I can't go for the 2nd day. I did, however, manage to bake off the remaining biscuit dough last night and Neil will take them in for me a bit later on. Not being there, I hope I get all my bits and pieces back. One thing that always goes missing at these events is teaspoons so I hope I get mine back (just some odds and ends from old sets, not my best ones). I'll also need to make sure I get back my plastic boxes used for transporting food. That's more important than the spoons.