Tag: disability

Avoiding crowds

It’s safe to say that I’m not a fan of crowded places. It’s not the noise that bothers me as such, its more that I’m afraid of being knocked over or knocking someone else over with my walking frame or my wheelchair.

I use both buses and trains on a regular basis, and I always try my best to avoid using them in rush hour times. It often means that I sometimes have to make my homeward journey sooner or later than I would like, or arrive far earlier than I need to. This can be annoying sometimes, but I feel much more comfortable doing things that way.

Yesterday, I found myself in a busy train station just after 6pm. I thought things might have been a bit quieter by then, but there were still loads of people around. I followed my mum and the man who would be helping us onto the train with the ramp to the platform, but ended up just behind them because I couldn’t weave my way through the people going the opposite way quickly or easily.

My mum noticed what was going on and started walking at my side, stretching out her arms to stop people from walking into me if they hadn’t already spotted me and started moving out of the way. The man who worked at the train station also kept hanging back to make sure that we didn’t get separated.

In the past I’ve almost had people walk into me on lots of occasions and I’ve had to let out a yelp to let them know I’m there so that neither of us end up on the floor. If someone catches the back wheels of my walking frame, that can sometimes throw me slight of balance and make me wobble too, so I have to try and be aware of what’s going on behind me as well as in the front and at my sides.

It doesn’t bother me quite as much when I’m in my wheelchair because I’m already sitting down, but I still don’t find it pleasant and I’m sure whoever is pushing me at the time doesn’t either. That said; I have almost ended up with someone sitting on my knee a few times when they haven’t seen me coming.

Making decisions

Just lately I’ve found myself thinking about how my Cerebral Palsy impacts on some of even the smallest decisions that I make in everyday life. Often, I make these choices without really realising I’m doing it. They aren’t big, important, or life-altering, but they can make thing a whole lot easier.

Take buying shampoo and conditioner for example. I will always try and pick some that comes in smaller or lighter bottles because I find them easier to lift. I’ve dropped some of the bigger bottles on my feet in the shower before and it’s not nice.

I also try and avoid buying anything that’s too expensive because I have trouble keeping the shampoo or condition on my left hand before it even gets to my hair, so quite often it will just end up on the floor and I’ll have to start again. This can be frustrating at times.

My CP also sometimes has the deciding vote in whether or not I should buy that item of clothing that I’m drooling over in a shop because I look at how easy with would be for me to get on and off. I sometimes struggle with buttons and zippers. It could be the most beautiful dress that I’ve ever seen, but if it’s one that I wouldn’t be able to manage very easily, there’s a good chance I might not buy it.

I try to keep my CP in mind when I’m choosing where to go for a day out. If I know that I’m going to want to walk on this day out rather than take my wheelchair for whatever reason, I have to choose somewhere that is a manageable distance for me to walk around, preferably with lots of places that I can stop for a rest. Although, now I have a walking frame with a seat on the back, finding places to take a break is less of an issue.

This is just a short list and I could probably go on. These are just the first few things that came to mind.

Cooking with pans

Many of you probably know that I struggle with cooking. I talk about it often and I’m hoping it’s something I can gain more confidence with, or at least be able to find more meals that I can easily make for myself. I’m also hoping to come up with some ways around doing things that I find hard.

There are lots of reasons why I find it hard to make my food because of my Cerebral Palsy. I’ve mentioned some of these quite a lot and you can read more about some of them here.

One of the things that is tough for me is cooking in saucepans on the hob. I find it hard to balance, hold the pans in place and stir whatever is in them. If it’s a large amount of food, that makes it harder for me to mix it around the pan too. More often than not, bits of it end up falling out so I make a huge mess, and half of it ends up stuck to the pan because I hardly ever seem to be able to do it properly.

The other day my heart sank when I was asked to keep an eye on something that was cooking and give it the odd stir. I placed one hand on the worktop to balance myself and stirred the food constantly with the other, even though I probably only needed to do it once every so often. Thankfully, the pan was sturdy so I didn’t worry too much about it slipping.

My mother came back and I asked her to check if any of it had stuck. I was so relieved when she told me it was all fine. It felt like a small achievement, because I’d been a bit worried that things would end up going wrong.

I’m glad they didn’t. I hope that one day I’ll feel more confident when it comes to cooking. For now, I guess I’ll just have to keep trying.

 

 

 

 

An Update about my night splints

My night splints
My night splints

People who’ve been following this blog a while might know that I got given some new night splints a bit ago. These are to wear when I’m in bed or just resting in the house. I like them. I personally find them really comfortable and can feel the stretch when I’ve had them on.

However, I could never manage to wear them for an entire night because I haven’t yet managed to be able to get them on for myself, and they didn’t have walking grips on the bottom. This meant that I had to take them off if I needed to get up in the middle of the night, and kept them off because I didn’t want to wake my mother up to get her to put back on again.

However, at my last appointment with my orthotist, he offered to put some grips on the bottom for me if I brought them back in to make this easier.

I’m really excited about this because I’m hoping that I’ll be able to move around in them easily so I’ll be able to wear them for longer.

It will be a little while before I get them back, but I’m already looking forward to it.

I’ll let you all know how it goes as soon as I can.

Feeling unsteady

Thankfully today’s post is not about falling over. I think you’ll all agree with me that that’s a relief given that I’ve managed to hit the deck twice in the past fortnight.

That said, I have been feeling a bit more wobbly on my feet than usual over the last few days, and a lot more aware of how I’m moving around, even when I use my walking frame Martha. To be honest, I think this is mostly down to nerves that I’m going to land on the floor again.

There were several occasions during the weekend where I felt like I was going to topple over, but managed to catch myself in time.

Sometimes, when I have a fall, it makes me feel unsteady for a couple of days afterwards and I find myself being extra cautious for a few days until that passes. It knocks my confidence for a bit. How long this lasts depends on what I was doing that made me lose my balance and how much I hurt myself. Sometimes it doesn’t dent my confidence at all and I just get on with things, but if it I hurt myself quite a bit, or have a few close together  as I have done, it makes me feel a bit unsteady for a while.

I’ve certainly felt this way over the past couple of days, but I’m hoping it will pass soon.