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.

The sisters are doing it for themselves

Well, my little sister Sophie came to my aid again yesterday. I needed to wonder into town to collect one of my book reservations from the library (Joyland by Stephen King, if you’re wondering) and I’d already agreed to spend some time with Sophie while my mum ran some errands, so I suggested that we turn it into a girly shopping day. I knew she wanted to pick up some accessories for a new party dress she’s just got, plus it would give me the chance to spoil her a bit for all the stuff she does for me.

I was mostly expecting her  to say that she’d much rather have movie day because she loves the chance to choose a DVD from my collection rather than the family one, (just lately we’ve tried to watch the Addams Family Values about four times but we always keep getting interrupted), but she agreed straight away. She said she was in the mood to find something pretty for her new outfit. She even declined the offer to go and see Monsters University at the cinema afterwards, telling me that she wasn’t in a film mood. However, I wouldn’t have blamed her for backing out when I mentioned that we’d have to get the bus together.

Whenever we go out, it’s usually my folks who take care of the folding and unfolding of my walking frame Martha so today would be a first for her. She’s seen some of the challenges I’ve faced on public transport with mum around so I did wonder if she’d change her mind, but she didn’t. I showed her how to collapse Martha and put her back up again and she seemed to manage just fine. I gave her the option of staying home again, but she said she still wanted to go, so she helped me with my shoes and off we went.

I could tell that she was nervous, because she was really quiet as we waited at the stop. To tell you the truth I was equally nervous being the one responsible for the safe keeping of her mobile phone and spending money (courtesy of the Bank of Dad). Luckily when the it arrived there were no other prams/wheelchairs/walking frames so we were okay. She helped me guide Martha on safely, took her own seat and gave me a massive grin,

“Feel better now?” I asked. She nodded.

At the other end a nice gentleman helped me get off again and she took care of Martha. That was the hard part over with. I was so proud of her. If she was worried, it didn’t stop her from taking on the bus challenge with me. I tried my best to make sure she had some fun and even took her for milkshake, a very well deserved milkshake.  Oh, and some hairspray. And some hair clips.

Calliper/blister update

My callipers
My callipers

Well, I went to the hospital to show them that my callipers and boots have been blistering me again, and, as promised, I thought I’d give you all an update.

The man looked at my feet and how they sit inside boot and suggested that we try adding some extra straps to another pair that will change my foot position and hopefully be more comfy to wear. He ordered them and suggested that I come in for a fitting rather than just collecting them so that he could show me how to attach the calliper to them because it will be slightly different this time around. I’m just hoping that I’ll manage to get them on by myself, although I don’t see why not.

With this will then come some upping the ante on my physio and stretching regime, but that’s probably a good thing to do anyways.

As for the chaffing that the callipers did to my legs when I first got them back in January, I showed him the mark that is still on my leg (although somewhat fainter now, which is good) and when he found out that I wear them over the top of my jeans rather than underneath them, he suggested that it might be a good idea to wear jeans with small seems in case that was what had irritated my skin in the first place. They haven’t rubbed there for ages though so I’m hoping that that part has sorted itself out at least. I know that I could hide them under my clothes if i really wanted to, but I figured that seeing as I spend my time wondering around with a big blue walking frame, it seems a little bit pointless, if you ask me.

So, there you have it. Not all that much to tell really, but let’s hope it works. Needless to say, I’ll keep you posted.

Helping around the house (or not)

When it comes to housework, I’m not exactly great at it. I mean, sure I do the dishes sometimes and pick up the things that are on the floor but that’s about it.

Truth is, I don’t find household chores all that easy to do, once you take away the ones I’ve just mentioned. I’d struggle to vacuum up unless I was using a hand-held mini vac, and laundry isn’t a walk in the park either.

A lot of the time (well most of the time in truth) I feel bad that I don’t do more around the house to help my mum. I try my best but there’s always work left over that she has to do. If I clean the living room she’s still left t plump the sofa cushions, and in the bathroom I can take care of the toilet and sink but the shower is pretty much a no-go.

Instead, I help out in different ways like entertaining/keeping an eye on/irritating my little sister after school and in the holidays while I’m not working, and making her the odd cup of coffee (which she then has to come and get because I can’t carry it unless I make it in a thermal mug). While she says she doesn’t mind, and that she can do it faster than me (I have no doubt that both of these statements are true) I’d love nothing more than to have dinner on the table for her when she gets home from work, but I don’t think beans on toast would cut it somehow.

My lack of summer shoes

One of the downsides of summer for me is that I can’t wear summer shoes. In years gone by this hasn’t been too much of a problem for me because it hasn’t ever really got that warm, but boy, oh boy, I am feeling it this year.

I’m not able to wear flip-flops or open toe sandals to help me keep cool in the heat, and I’m still limited to my usual choice of callipers, boots or trainers. Usually this doesn’t bother me too much. If I’m honest, because I’ve never done it, the idea of wearing flip-flops seems totally odd to me. The idea of wondering around all day with something shoved between two of your toes and having the sole of your foot slapped by whatever they’re wearing every time you take a step seems like it would really get on my nerves, but I guess you must get used to it after a while.

Maybe there would be something different I could wear, I don’t spend enough time in shoe shops to really notice.

For the past week, I’ve taken to wearing an old pair of ankle boots I bought a couple of years back. My callipers are too warm to wear at the moment, and they’ve blistered my feet really badly again anyway. This happens every so often and I’m not really sure why, but I’m off to the hospital next week to hopefully try and get the problem sorted out. They don’t blister me as much as the AFO splints that I used to wear, but still, it’s not nice when they do. My foot was so sore last week that my boyfriend even offered to carry me so that I wouldn’t have to walk on it until I could change into something that wouldn’t irritate me quite so much. I didn’t take him up on the offer, as tempted as I was by the time I got home.

For now, I guess I should look on what I guess you could call the brightside: at least I have an excuse to wear something that’s not quite so warm without having to feel guilty about no wearing the callipers.

Every cloud, eh?

My problems with summer clothes

The UK is still enjoying lovely warm weather which has given me the perfect excuse to break out my summer wardrobe of dresses and skirts that I’m usually just too cold to wear. You would think that I’d find these things easier to buy and put on, right?

Wrong.

I have loads of pretty ones in loads of colours and patterns, but I have to be quite choosy about which ones I buy. I’ve written before about the problems that I have when I have to shop for clothes and shoes at the best of times, but I have my fair share of issues with summery garments too.

Lots of women’s dresses come with zips. I don’t usually have a problem with the ones that come on coats and jackets, (usually being the word), but when it comes to dresses and cute vest tops its’ a whole other story. They’re often on the left side of things which happens to be the same side as my weak hand. Guess what this means? I can’t often can’t do them up without help, or manipulate my arm well enough to get it through the straps. Needless to say that I usually go and smile sweetly at my mum or little sister at this point so they can help me into it. For reasons unknown I can usually get back out of them on my own, which is better than nothing I suppose. Thankfully I haven’t had to go to sleep in something until there’s someone around I trust enough to help me if I get stuck inside something, but I just know it’s going to happen one day if I ever live on my own…

As for zippers on the back of stuff – forget it. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve had to help my able-bodied friends with these though so I don’t feel too bad about that one. I usually try and go for things that I can step in/out of or that go over my head as much as possible.

Then once I’ve had to navigate my way through those, there is the issue of tights. Given how cold my feet pretty much always are, I always have to wear at least one pair. I struggle with socks on a good day, so you can imagine how many times I’ve fallen over/ripped pairs/sworn trying to deal with these things. Once, I went through three pairs trying to find some that I hadn’t already laddered, I was nearly in tears with effort but I got there in the end.

I love my summer wardrobe, it’s just a shame it doesn’t love me back.