Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason and Jana Banana

What Do You Do When Life Goes Wrong? They Lost My Wheelchair...

• Jana and Jason Shelfer • Season 5 • Episode 19

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Picture yourself as a solo traveler returning home from a foreign land, unable to move without your wheelchair - a piece of essential equipment left behind by the flight attendants. That's the challenging predicament Jana found herself in after a trip to Costa Rica - a paraplegic stranded in the jetway with no way to navigate through customs. We share this personal experience, not just to narrate an unsettling travel experience, but to underline a critical lesson about advocating for our needs, especially when these needs are not immediately understood or considered by others and also to show that we deal with obstacles every day. We all deal with obstacles and some seem insurmountable. Spinning Positive, asking empowering questions, and Responding opens new possibilities and can turn conflict into collaboration.  

Switching gears, let's talk about finding that elusive silver lining, even in the face of adversity. Using the airport incident as a backdrop, I'll walk you through my journey of maintaining a positive outlook and finding gratitude in a less than ideal situation. We'll discuss how focusing on the brighter side of things and the bigger picture can help us sail through difficulty. Remember, it's not just about surviving the storm, but learning how to dance in the rain. So, join me, as we discover together, the importance of never shying away from speaking our truth, even when the odds seem stacked against us.

#LivingLucky #DisabilityTravel #SpinPositive #SoloTravel #TravelDisasters #Stranded #Isolation #Communication #AirportIssues #Arguments #Miscommunication #JanaShelfer #JanaBanana #JasonShelfer #LostWheelchair  #ADA 

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The 4 pillars of Living Lucky
Believe in yourself
Believe in the people around you
Believe in your circumstances and
Believe that God is working through you, for you, and always conspiring in your favor.

*Previously Recorded

Speaker 1:

Are you ready to create a life you crave? Let's spin that doom loop of negativity into an upward success cycle and start living lucky. Good morning, I'm Jenna and we are living lucky. I hope you are too. Okay, guys, I told you I would give you the skinny. I got back from Costa Rica. I had this great empowering trip. I'm a strong, independent woman.

Speaker 2:

This wonderful self-discovery for this solo trip to Costa Rica.

Speaker 1:

Solo vacation overseas, all by myself. I'm meeting new people, I'm doing things on my own, I'm feeling on top of the world. I get on the plane to come home and the plane lands. I was on the plane for four hours because I was the first person on the plane. The plane was delayed a couple different times so I had not gone to the bathroom for four hours. We land in Orlando. I'm the last one off the plane because I'm a paraplegic, so I'm waiting for the aisle chair and just to give everybody a little bit of context.

Speaker 1:

An aisle chair is a chair that doesn't have wheels and it fits between the aisles of the airplane.

Speaker 2:

Some people have no context about what four hours of not going to the bathroom is either. That's something you might just have to do. Most people do, I think. But anyway so, and also traveling, you need to stay hydrated, all these things. So yeah, just imagine.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so we're living in our imagination. I'm trying to give you the scenario here. So they put you on this aisle chair and then they take your wheelchair and they put it under the plane with the rest of the luggage. They put you on, they roll you through the aisles and then you transfer to the seat. That's the whole process of onboarding an airplane with a disability. That's how it works, and then you are the first one on the plane. You're also the last one off the plane.

Speaker 2:

To make it more convenient for the other passengers and also, hopefully, more convenient for you.

Speaker 1:

So we land in Orlando, I'm the last one off the plane and I get into the aisle chair. We roll off the airplane and my wheelchair is not there, and so I say where's my wheelchair? And the lady says, oh, it's in customs. And I said how am I going to get there? I need a wheelchair. I don't walk, I need a wheelchair in order to get to customs. And everybody just looked at each other with this blank stare Like, oh my gosh, we didn't think about that.

Speaker 2:

That's just. That was the extra step.

Speaker 1:

And I said I need my wheelchair. And all of a sudden it just became an ordeal. An ordeal it was out of possibility for me to get my wheelchair.

Speaker 2:

So the normal procedure is, when you gate check a wheelchair, just like gate checking a stroller, yes, at the end of the flight, whether it's an international flight, whether it's a domestic flight, is that those items come back up at the jetway when you disembark the plane.

Speaker 1:

Yes and so then especially a wheelchair the flight attendants realize, oh my gosh, someone screwed up. And it was probably the flight attendants, because when we got on the plane the flight attendant was tell I was like I think my wheelchair fits on this plane because the new planes on Sprint are a little bit wider.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's nice.

Speaker 1:

And I was like I think my chair will fit right down this aisle. And she was like oh no, your chair is not allowed on here. It's our policy. And I was like why? I don't understand why my wheelchair is not allowed on the plane. And she was like it's our policy. Like she was not listening to me at all. She had this negative energy and I was like okay, it might have been her policy.

Speaker 1:

And maybe she was just having a bad day, you know. So I was like, okay, I'll follow your rules, that's fine, could?

Speaker 2:

have been. Somebody had gotten a wheelchair stuck before and it held up a flight.

Speaker 1:

At any rate. So I believe that it was. You know, when I transferred them to the getting on the plane I don't think she correctly tagged my chair and putting it under the plane which told the baggage handlers baggage handlers that they needed to bring it up after the flight, so that's where the miscommunication was.

Speaker 2:

That can very well be, and that's and it's. It's probably hard to stop that process once, especially when they've already gotten everybody all a couple hundred passengers off of a plane and by the time they have to have unloaded all the luggage by then, because that's a pretty quick process, Okay.

Speaker 1:

So here's the thing. No matter how it happened, I'm I'm screwed, You're stuck, I'm stuck and I'm screwed and I'm like how am I going to get to customs? I'm traveling all by myself.

Speaker 2:

And you got to go to the bathroom.

Speaker 1:

And I need to go to the bathroom and I'm on a, an aisle chair which doesn't have wheels, so I it's not like I can push myself.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's got. So it's got wheels, but they're little two inch.

Speaker 1:

They're little caster wheels that are on like a grocery cart.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you can't reach down and push them. You can't maneuver anything. It's, it's. It's not a.

Speaker 1:

I can get around in this and all of a sudden, once I start speaking up, the flight attendants get very defensive and in fact they kind of looked at me and said you know what? Our shift is over. We've been working all day long and they actually take off. They just they're like you know what? We got to go catch our Can't get over time. Yeah, yeah, you know we're we're done, we're off the clock, so we got to go get our hotel.

Speaker 2:

I'm on this jetway, I'm getting paid overtime and they are not having overtime Right. And these low prices and we got to show up early in the morning.

Speaker 1:

So, hey, good luck to you. So they leave me there. And now I'm there with this woman who doesn't speak English, and she's upset with me because I'm like no, I don't want to be pushed, I want a wheelchair, I need my wheelchair, and we're having like this back and forth and I feel like the more that I try to speak up for myself, I'm becoming belligerent that's the word that is being used. So I decide to get out my cell phone and start Videotaping.

Speaker 2:

Oh no, you didn't.

Speaker 1:

And now, all of a sudden, this has become an international Incident in which the police get involved. How does this happen to me? Well so your life is not happening to me, but let me rephrase that. Well, how does this happen?

Speaker 2:

I felt just like a lot of people in life, you were stuck, but you were physically stuck and there literally wasn't a way out for you here.

Speaker 1:

I.

Speaker 2:

Felt. So you're. You've tried disempowered. Tried communicating I did so and that was being blocked. You've tried Reasoning I did. And you've tried asking for help, which a lot of people don't ask for help true and Now your. Your only option is to reach out further, and I saw where you. You had called me and I missed the call right. So, and our way of communicating has been for the last three years on, on online, through live video.

Speaker 1:

I know, I just went live.

Speaker 2:

You just picked up went live and like I'm going to the media my phone started blowing up of hey, did you have you seen this? Have you seen this? Have you seen this? And I'm just circling the airport trying to navigate traffic. I know that wasn't fair to you and I Was like, okay, well, I need to park and get inside and try to figure this out. But you're like, no, I'm working through this, We'll get. Well, I will figure it out inside, but I do want you to know why I'm not getting out.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so here's how this all went down. I ended up having to be pushed on this little aisle chair through customs that's comfortable and the only way that I was able to go to the bathroom is if I had a stranger Push me into the stall, and I wasn't about to have that happen because I didn't want to put my bare butt on this Public right. I was like that's just a little too nasty. Yes, that's like getting that's crossing a line that I'm not willing to go to.

Speaker 2:

That's like getting butt naked and rubbing your hoochie on a bus seat.

Speaker 1:

I didn't want that visual, but thanks for going there it's kind of even Worse and also I, this woman. I mean, we had like negative Energy between us and I didn't want her in the stall with me.

Speaker 2:

Well, when you start, it's like if you're gonna have negative energy with someone and they're gonna take you to the bathroom and you're already kind of in a situation where you're powerless with that negative energy, yes, and could I? Could I get left in here on a toilet? How bad does it get then?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it felt really it felt like she had the upper hand, and I did not like that.

Speaker 2:

So I'm like I'm not gonna stay out here in public in the in the middle of not going there. Let's get to the end of this process as quickly as possible.

Speaker 1:

And plus we didn't speak the same language, could you?

Speaker 2:

imagine that yeah let's get me to my dependence, like to my, to where I can be independent as quickly as possible.

Speaker 1:

So, anyway, the police came over and next thing, you know, I got a talking to mm-hmm and I was told to take my video down if I knew what was best for me.

Speaker 2:

That's what bothers me the most.

Speaker 1:

And I was also told that this could escalate very, very quickly, because I was told not to videotape and I continued to do so.

Speaker 2:

So when the police officer, I believe in authority and I believe to trust the police and I believe that you did everything correctly. So there's one thing about everyone has their own truth and it's about having conversations to get to the middle and I understand sometimes there's not time to investigate everyone's truth. When chaos is ensuing, when everything seems to be under control here, for him to come and say, look, little lady, you better take that video down, or if you know what's good for you, is a threat, I agree, and that's kind of that's a little bit, that's a power trip and that's not what law enforcement is about. So he is a I don't want to. That's something that's a problem for me.

Speaker 1:

I grew up feeling that the police are your friend and I just tried to smile, I mean, he came over and he said hey, you know, I know we all have bad days and I said, really, because I'm having one of the best days in my life. I just came back from a fabulous vacation. Are you having a bad day? And so I tried I really tried to just be kind and and be my Jana self. I also know that I had some media outlets call me and want me to go on air talking about this situation, and I really don't want to spend my energy becoming a an advocate fighting the airlines. That is not my where I want to spend my energy. I want to spend my energy making my dreams come true. However, I do know that this was my particular situation and if I can help find a solution that will help others and help educate, then I do feel that that is my subsidiary responsibility.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, and what we do every single day and what we're excellent at is realizing that life happens. Things happen and there's a way through it, and there's always a positive way to come out of it. Life doesn't always work out the way you want it, but it could turn out better depending on your perspective. I like that.

Speaker 1:

I like that, and I think that's where where I'm going to land with this. I did eventually get to my chair, I did eventually get my luggage and I found Jason, this kind woman. Actually, after all of this ordeal not not the same woman that was arguing with me, but a different woman named Carla then offered to help me with my bags, and I was so grateful for that because she helped me carry my bags all through the airport, and that's cool. And then, once I found you, you had Chick-fil-A waiting for me and I was like, oh, that's nice. And then I got to see Tater Woo. What a great ending. So, if you can find what you're grateful for, sometimes we focus on what went wrong, and really there was a lot that went right as well, yeah, so I need to really make sure that this one incident doesn't cloud what was a fabulous trip for me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the mountain is huge and wide, the valley is narrow. Focus on all the big wonderful things that happen, not the narrow valley.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Thanks for listening, thanks for letting me vent and just know that we all, we all have these moments, right.

Speaker 2:

We always have things that happen. How are we going to focus on? What are we going to focus on? How do we build from it and how do we build bridges of communication to learn and grow? Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Keep living lucky, bye-bye. If the idea of living lucky appeals to you, visit us at startlivingluckycom.