Category: Uncategorized

Getting it right the first time

As  I’ve said before, I don’t always find shopping for new shoes easy, and I don’t always find it enjoyable either. However, last week I went on a new shoe hunt that was a totally different experience to what I would normal have.

I noticed that I was getting a hole in the pair of boots that I wear when I’m not leaving the house in my splints for whatever reason. I always seem to wear the toes on the away because of the way that my feet scrape along the ground when I walk. It doesn’t always take long for this to happen either. But I have to have some different to wear when I’m not using my splints because I need to get a bigger size when my splints are involved so that there’s room for them to go inside.

We’ve had quite a lot of rain here recently and I don’t really like getting wet feet, (who does?), so I knew that, as much as I didn’t want to do it, it was time to hit the shops and look for something new. I decided to do it while I was out with my mum, so that she could help me with any that I decided to try on. I pictured us going round loads of shops and it taking me quite a while to find anything suitable for me, or that I would feel comfortable in.

Oh, how wrong I was.

This time, we were really lucky.

“What about something like this?” Mum asked, holding up a pair of brown boots. They were lined inside too so they would help keep my feet warm. I also quite liked them, but I’m always prepared to buy whatever I can get that seems like it will be okay, even if they aren’t always the things that I would choose based on appearance alone.

I tried them on, but I was also trying really hard not to get my hopes up, just in case.

But…

They actually seemed really comfy, and I felt pretty okay walking in them. It really wasn’t a hard choice. I decided to get them. They were only the first ones I’d looked at but I knew that I didn’t need to look any further. I had found my new boots.

Getting the right ones straight away is something that hardly ever happens on my shoe shopping trips. Sometimes, I come away empty-handed the first time and have to try again on another day. Not that time though, no sir-ee! Needless to say, I was pretty happy about that.

I know that they won’t get worn too often soon once I bed my new splints properly, but I like to have something around that I can turn to if I need to.

I’m hoping to post an update about how I’m getting on with my bedding my day splints in, and also about how I’m finding my new night splints, later this week when I’ve had a bit more time to get used to them.

Still, as fun as that shoe shopping trip turned out to be in the end, I would be quite happy to wait a while before I have to get more new footwear.

My busy morning

I think it’s fair to say that I’ve already had quite a productive morning.

I’ve been back at the hospital today for a few things. First up, I popped to the orthotics department, (the one that I go to about my splints), to have a few adjustments made to the one I wear on my left leg. I got given this pair a few weeks ago, and the right one feels really comfy, but the other still felt a bit too tight for me. I went back and had it blown out a bit shortly after I got them, and it did make a difference, but I felt that it could do with having it done a little bit more for it to feel as comfortable as possible.

This is no one’s fault it just happens sometimes.

Now that it’s been adjusted again I could tell straight away that it feels loads better and I’ve managed to wear it for a few hours. Now I just have to bed it in slowly for a few days, like you would with a pair of new shoes, and then see how it feels after that.

While I was there I was also told that my night splints were ready for me too. These are ones that I’ll wear at night, or at times when I’m going to be resting for a while, like when I’m reading or when I’m watching TV.  I’ll take photos of these next week when I’ve had chance to use them properly and get used to them a bit.

I tried this pair on at the appointment and I didn’t want to take them back off again. They felt really soft and comfy. I don’t know if I’ll feel the same after I’ve had them on for a length of time, but we’ll see.

After I’d finished my appointment at the orthotics department, I went for an appointment with my physio. We did some stretching and then we worked on standing straight and she looked at how I walked in the new splints.

She’s given me some pointers of things to work on and watch out for, and then I’ll go back in about a month so she can see how I’ve been getting on. At first, I think it’ll be hard to get into the habits of the things that she wants me to pay attention to when I walk, especially if there aren’t any mirrors nearby for me to look in while I’m trying to do it. Hopefully though, I’ll be able to make some kind of progress, however small (or big) that may be.

Oh, I also picked up some equipment that an occupational therapist had left for me to try out. It’s a rocker knife that is curved so that you can’t cut up your food using a rocking motion instead of pushing and pulling the knife back and forth.  I think I’ve mentioned a few times that I find cutting things up difficult, so I’m really looking forward to giving this a go. It’s being loaned to me for a couple of weeks or so to give me a chance to experiment and then if I like them, I’ll get one of my own.

It looks like I could be in for an interesting weekend.

So, I finally got a onesie

My mum and my little sister both love onesies. In fact, I’ve lost count of how many my sister has in her collection now. A bit like me with books, I suppose.

For at least a year, they’ve both been telling me that I should buy one too, to try help me keep warm in the winter. For at least a year I have resisted getting one, because I thought that they might be a bit hard for me to get in and out of, and because I thought that having to almost entirely wiggle out of it so that I could use the loo would get on my nerves.

I accidently bought a playsuit once, thinking that it was a dress, and not really being very good at using changing rooms, it wasn’t until I got home and tried it on that I noticed. I groaned a lot, but in the end I kept because it looks kind of nice. However, I hardly ever wear it for the above reason about toilets.

Anyway, my little sister has been telling me for ages that if I didn’t get a onesie of my own, then she would get one for me. I stood my ground and compromised by getting myself some large, long jumper-style things that you wear over pyjamas instead. The first one I bought was an owl one, and now I have one that is a panda, and one that’s bright red as well. I still didn’t buy a onesie.

No, I didn’t buy a onesie for myself. But my mum bought one for me.

Last week, it was my birthday, and when I unwrapped one of the gifts from my mother I found that that was what was hidden beneath the wrapping paper.

The look on my face must have been priceless because the room erupted into laughter.

I joked that I would still refuse to wear it, but we all knew that I would. They’d been kind enough to buy it for me after all.

Last night, I finally tried it on and found that it was a perfect fit. I didn’t find it too hard to put on actually, which was a nice surprise. I found it a bit harder to get out of, but it still wasn’t too bad. And they were right, I found it really warm. Admittedly, the huge fleecy PJs that I had on underneath it  could have had something to do with that too.

While I don’t plan on giving up on my big jumper-style things that you wear over your pyjamas completely, I will be wearing the onesie again because, yes, I do like it after all.

Thanks Mum. You were right, again.

Walking hard

Yesterday evening proved itself to be one where I was more achy and stiff than I am on an average day. I can’t say I was too surprised though because the weather’s pretty cold, I’m full of cold, and I think I’d probably pushed myself harder than normal on a walk that morning.

Oh well, lesson learned. I think. At the time, I didn’t really notice how tired I was getting at first. Then, I had my first sit down and noticed that I didn’t really feel like doing much more, but I made myself finish the walk I had started, and felt good knowing that I did so.

I could tell that I’d done the exercise by later on in the evening. I sure felt it.

It wasn’t just my legs either, my arms and shoulders knew about it too from pulling my walking frame Martha along behind me too.

I was kind of annoyed at myself for making myself work so hard in the first place, if I’m honest. But at the same time, I was glad that I did, just to remind myself of what my limits are. Although I must admit, I don’t plan on testing them (quite so much) again anytime soon.

After a good night’s sleep I’m feeling loads better.

A surprising shopping trip

It was my birthday earlier this week, and it was a really lovely day for me.

The weather was quite kind to us too on that day because it was dry instead of rainy, and I went out for a shopping trip with my friend. I decided that I would take my walking frame Martha with me instead of my wheelchair like I might choose to do if I was going to be out for the whole day.

I haven’t walked as much as I would have liked to over the past couple of weeks. I didn’t really leave the house all that much in the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas, and when I did,  I mostly used my wheelchair because of the wind and rain that we had.

When I went out, I was expecting to need to take more rest breaks than I would usually have needed to because of all of this, but actually, I surprised myself by not needing as many as I was expecting to.  I think that this is mostly because I took advantage of the seat that my walking frame has on the back of it. I could just unfold the seat and use it while I was waiting for my friend when she stood in line to pay for her things or use shop changing rooms to try things on, so I think I took most of my walking and standing breaks in more frequent, shorter bursts throughout the day. I think this probably made a huge difference. Don’t get me wrong, I still had a couple of long sit downs, but I’m still quite proud of myself on the whole.

A couple of years ago, I really don’t think I would have been able to handle walking around the place that we went to because of the size of it, and so I always used to take the wheelchair with me. I still do go there in my chair if I’m having a bad day, but I like to think that me being able to use my walking frame there now, even with lots of breaks scheduled into the day, is a sign that the effort I’ve been making in recent years is paying off.

While I am feeling rather tired today, I think that has more to do with the fact that I don’t think I’ve quite managed to catch up on my sleep from the past couple of weeks just yet. I think a couple of early nights are in order from now on.