Author: Nicola Golding

My name is Nic, I'm 26 and just happen to have Cerebral Palsy that I've had since birth. It mostly impacts on my legs and my left arm and so I use a walking frame. When I'm not blogging I can usually be found making YouTube videos, reading or trying to write a novel.

Yesterday’s physio appointment

I went to see my physio yesterday so that we could discuss if my Boxtox injections I had earlier this month had made a difference. Before I went into the appointment, I knew that I was starting to notice some changes myself. I’m already starting to feel less tight and my muscles didn’t feel as tight as they had previously done when I was having physio. I felt slightly nervous going into the appointment because I really hoped that my physio would agree with me and I didn’t want to feel like I’d let anyone down, especially myself.

Well, I’m very pleased to report that she was impressed! She started doing lots of my stretches and told me that she was pleased, so I told her about all the hard work that my family have been putting in to help me get the most out of the injections and she seemed really happy about that too. They’ve been helping out with the ones that I find it very difficult to do by myself, and constantly reminding me to keep going through those that I can do. Believe me when I say this support makes a huge difference and helps me stay motivated.

She gave me some new exercises to try, neither of which I find very easy at the moment, but I’ll just have to keep going with them until it gets easier. Then we did some work where I walk and stand while holding onto a bar on either side of me. She also said that she was impressed with how straight I was standing up too when she got me to focus on doing that. I’m not a medical professional so I don’t know if this is down to the Botox or not, but I was still glad that she was pleased.

Needless to say, I left the appointment feeling very happy indeed.

Physio again

Wow, I can’t believe that my next physio appointment has rolled around already. Today I’m off there and my physio and I will discuss if we think my recent  Botox injections have worked, and how much of a difference they may be starting to make.

Since having them done I’ve been putting in a lot of work, with the help of my family, into my stretches. There are plenty that I can do for myself but there’s still some I need help with. Before I had them done, I was surprised at just how tight all my muscles were feeling and just how much discomfort doing my physio was causing me. It wasn’t a nice thing to have to acknowledge, but at the same time I felt it was a good wake-up call and motivator to put the work in.

I’ve noticed over the last few days that the stretches haven’t been as uncomfortable, so I’m hoping that that is a good sign.

I’m strangely nervous to hear what my physio thinks, but I’m hoping that she’ll be pleased. I’ll let you all know.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve now set up a Facebook page for View From a Walking Frame, which you can take a look at here.

My blogging birthday!

Today is the day that View From a Walking Frame finally turns one!

To celebrate, I’ve given the blog a makeover, and created a new Facebook Page which you can ‘Like’ by clicking here. My walking frame Martha and I would love it if you did!

I just want to take a moment to thanks each and every one of you for reading, commenting and sharing the blog. I hope that you’ll all stick with me. Your support really does mean so much and inspires me to tackle things that I might find hard so that I get the reward of being able to write a post telling you all about it.

The past 12 months have been pretty eventful. I’ve been given new splints, conquered my fear of using the bus alone, had some serial casting and managed to fall over and cover myself in gravy, to name but a few of the things that have happened.

Once again, thank you all for reading, and I look forward to telling you all about my adventures for a long time to come.

Nic and Martha

About my splints and wheelchair

Well, my holiday is now over and it’s back to normal for me. Yesterday I went back to the orthotics department because my AFO splint that I’m supposed to wear during in the day still isn’t comfortable on my left foot. The one for my right foot is really comfortable and I could easily wear that one all day. Sometimes it takes a while to get these things right.

My day splints
My day splints

My orthotist tried blowing the splint out one last time to see if that would make it less tight. It helped a bit but not enough. He decided that he would recast that splint at an angle that should be more comfortable for my foot to tolerate. I should have it in a couple of weeks or so. In the meantime I just have to try and wear my current left one as much as I can without making myself too sore. I’m still keeping the really comfy right-foot one.

While I was there I also took my night splints back in because the walking grips that I had put on them a few weeks ago were starting to peel off. They’ve been set off to be re-glued and I should have them back soon too.

My night splints
My night splints

This morning I’ve also made an appointment to have my wheelchair booked in for a service. It’s been a while since in had one done and I think there’s a few things that need looking at. I’m not a professional so I don’t know for sure, but I’d rather get them checked out. That should be happening within the next few days so I’ll let you know what happens there too.

My London adventure

Hey guys,

Sorry things have been a bit quiet around here lately, but there’s a reason for it.

I spent most of last week on holiday in London. It was the first time I’ve been there and I’ll admit that I was really nervous about going because of the size of the place and how busy I thought it would be.

Thankfully, I went with some members of my family who go to London quite a lot so they know their way around fairly well. They’ve been trying to get me to go with them for a good couple of years now and I’ve always refused out of fear of the unknown, but I finally decided that it was time to face my fear and go experience the city first-hand.

I have to say that I’m very glad I did. I took my wheelchair with me rather than my walking frame Martha so that I wouldn’t get too tired from walking and so that I’d be able to see more things. I would’ve liked to have taken Martha instead, but I didn’t want to spoil my holiday by overdoing it.

In the end I was really glad that I did go because I had a really lovely time. I got to visit lots of nice places, see lots of nice things and I found that the public transport wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be once you figured out where you were going.

Don’t me wrong, I didn’t like all of it. Lots of places were really busy and crowded so I don’t think I would’ve liked to try and walk through them. Some people were really nice and moved out of the way as best they could, but the amount of people who stepped over my wheelchair footplates to get past me was also quite a few, and this is one thing that really annoys me because I personally find it quite rude.

One of my favourite days was the day I spent the morning that I spent in a park. My little sister spent ages pushing my wheelchair up and down some humps that I think where there for people skateboards and bikes to use; went with me on the swings and helped me down the slide. Other members of my family helped me do other stuff like sit on a zip wire. I took lots of photos of this stuff so I’m going to do a post dedicated to that later on.

The holiday was nice while it lasted and I think I’ll definitely visit London again at some point.