Tag: walking frame

Decorating Martha…sort of

My Nimbo walking frame that I call Martha
My Nimbo walking frame that I call Martha

It’s no secret that I love my walking frame Martha. I’m not sure that I could manage to get around outside of the house without her.

The only problem is that I can’t fold the thing up myself because she’s too big and bulky and I’d probably fall over if I ever tried. It’s probably not as hard as it looks once you know how it’s done. Just tip it onto it’s back legs, push the right buttons and it should just collapse.

However, Martha has lots of them on her frame so that you can change the height of each leg invidually, so if you don’t know which ones are the ones you’re supposed to press, it’s easy to get confused.

Martha's new stickersYesterday I knew that I would be taking a taxi, so Martha would need to be folded up to get her in the boot. Mum decided that to make things a bir easier for the drivers (and other people who may need to help me collapse the walker later on), she would put some red tape next to the buttons that you have to press in.

So, Martha has now been slightly decorated beyond all of the things that come stuck on by the hospital and the manufacturers. In the past I’ve covered my walking aids and wheelchairs in tinsel at Christmas time, or tied ribbons to them as mementos of holidays that I’ve taken. I don’t know if this is something that I would carry on with. We’ll have to wait and see.

 

 

Learning to take it easy

Believe it or not, learning to spend a few days using my wheelchair instead of my walking frame isn’t something I’m very good at.

I can hear when my body is telling me to do this; I know the signs and the feelings, I know what happens when I push myself too hard, and yet, I always try and ignore it.

I wasn’t actually planning on leaving the house yesterday. Sunday’s can be quite quiet where I live and my hips and knees weren’t feeling up to much. Then my mum and her partner told me they were going to the supermarket.

They’ll be chocolate there, I thought to myself. I’d really love something sweet right now.

I know that I could’ve just asked them to pick some up for me, but the thought of going and hunting out the best bargain for myself was just too strong.

“Can I come? I asked

“Course you can. Martha or wheelchair?”

Usually I’d say that I wanted to take my walking frame Martha before they’d even finished the question, (they always offer the choice, even though they know that I like to walk as much as possible), but that time I did something I hardly ever do. I hesitated.

The word “wheelchair” was on the tip of my tongue, that should have been a big hint to myself, but I bit it back “Martha.” I said.

“Are you sure?” They then asked why I wanted to walk and risk making my pain worse. I knew they had a point, I’d already been walking on it for the last few days, and maybe it was time for a break. I made it halfway up the stairs to get my bag before I changed my mind.

In the end, I’m glad I did because we ended up going around more than one store and they were quite busy. I got walked into at least once by someone who wasn’t looking where they were going, so it was probably for the best all round.

I found that I got to sleep much faster last night too and I feel much better today.

I guess I should let this be a lesson to myself, huh?

Things don’t always go to plan

Yesterday I found myself having to go somewhere that I had never been before.  I always get a bit nervous about doing this, especially if I’m on my own, for obvious reasons. I decided to take the train because, although I getting used to taking the bus without help, I still find the choo choo much easier to handle. I booked my assistance in advance (as advised) so I was optimistic that things would run smoothly from a public transport point of view at least.

Despite being nervous, with the help of station staff and taxi drivers, I got to my appointment on time with very little stress and without getting too cold or wet, which is always nice. I think the meeting went well too, so I was feeling fairly pleased and wondered why I’d been awake half the night worrying.

After my appointment, I knew I had a bit of time before my train back home again so I thought  I’d brave walking back to the station rather than getting another taxi. I wanted to get some exercise anyway.

That was around the time it started to rain. Not too much, but enough to make the idea that I might get lost on the way seem even less appealing than it would do normally, so I decided I’d make things easier for myself and just take a cab.

It arrived. My walking frame Martha fit into the boot, albeit with a bit of persuasion.

“Where to, Love” the cabbie asked.

“The train station, please” I replied, thinking it would all be plain sailing from here. Little did I know that the area I was in for my meetings had two nearby train stations so I didn’t bother to specify which one I meant, because I thought there was only one and it would be obvious where I wanted to go.

I just so happened to be closest to the one that I didn’t want to be at, but because I didn’t tell the driver I wanted to be at ‘Station X’, because I thought that he’d know where I wanted to be because the place where my appointment was at also had the place “X” as part of its name. However, station “Y”, where he took me, must have been closer to where I was, because that was where I found myself getting dropped off. Only silly me didn’t realise straight away, not being from the area and all.

Yes, I ended up in the wrong place. Away from where I had already booked my assistance, only because I didn’t know either of the stations I didn’t realise until he had already driven away.

At this point I really couldn’t be more grateful to all the staff who helped me that afternoon. Not  only was I somewhere else I’d never been before, but the station was also being operated by staff from a different rail company to the one I had booked my travel assistance with.

Once upon a time, this would have thrown me into complete meltdown, but I stayed calm and wondered over to the assistance desk where I relayed the story to the nice person behind booking office, even though I was still a little confused as to how the driver and I had managed to get so mixed up.

He was amazingly helpful and rang the other train company, explained the story and offered to put me on the next train that would get me to where I needed to be. They agreed to cancel the help I had arranged for the other place, and informed the staff at the station I was going to that I’d be coming in on another line, at an earlier time than expected.

That sorted, I was helped onto the train, and the people working at the station I was going to still managed to fit me into their schedule to help me get my connecting train home again. Now that I got through it all safely I find it quite funny.

I’ve learned a lot from this experience, and it was quite a confidence boost for me that I didn’t panic. I’m actually quite tempted to write to both companies involved to praise them for their customer service and thank the staff involved for going the extra mile, but I don’t know any names so it probably wouldn’t make any sense to whoever ended up reading it.

But thank you to all who helped me out yesterday to make sure I got home again in time for dinner. I couldn’t have done it without you.

 

 

 

 

Why you probably don’t want to get caught in the rain with me

I’ll admit that I’m probably not the best person to be out and about with when it’s pouring down with rain.

If I’m using my walking frame Martha I walk quite a lot slower than most of the people I hang out with, so can’t dash for cover in a hurry, and I’m pretty sure trying to move a wheelchair at speed with me sat in it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do either. And if I just so happen to have an umbrella, my designated driver for the day usually gets hit in the face by it a few times (unintentionally, I promise.)

I know that Martha and my callipers don’t really like the wet weather all that much either, because they both tend to develop, high-pitched squeaks of protest and everyone around can hear us coming for miles. It’s bad enough when it’s just one of them, but when they both start kicking off, it gets really, really annoying.

And yet, despite all this, my dear mother has still offered to take me, along with Martha and my callipers to the shops today when it eases off a bit.

Thanks, Mum 🙂

The Surgery Diaries: Getting more walking frames

So there’s just under a week left of August which means that my posts reflecting on my surgery six years ago in this month are almost over. Thanks for sticking with me so far. Today I’m going to fast forward to when I had the second operation. If you’ve missed anything so far and want to catch up, feel free to do that by clicking here.

Eventually I managed to build up my walking stamina enough to be able to do it around the house again. The problem was that the Kaye Walker frame I was using at the time was too big to fit around our house, so I was given some smaller ones. One that went in front me but didn’t have wheels so I had to pick it up to walk with, and one that did have them so I could roll. We tried crutches too, but the physio and I decided very quickly that they weren’t the right kind of walking aid for me. I felt like I was going to fall over the second I got hold of them, and apparently it showed because the colour drained from my face.

I was back in my own bedroom too by this point and was no longer sleeping in the dining room on the ground floor. Mum made dad redecorate it for me as a special treat and it was nice to be back in my own space again, if not a little strange. Being able to use the bathroom unaided was also something I will never, ever take for granted again.

One little frame stayed upstairs and we kept the other one downstairs. I was surprise how well I managed with a frame that went in front of me rather than one I pulled behind me. There were a couple of mishaps, including one where I almost lost a front tooth. Thankfully it only came slightly out of place and was fixed when Mum accidently bumped my wheelchair down the kurb a bit too hard in her rush to get me to the dentist. My jaws rattled together and somehow this managed to knock it back into the right position it had always been in. Talk about lucky. I just had to eat soft foods for a week while it healed and it was good as new. Phew!

I was starting to finally feel a little bit better about how things were starting to happen. I could see progress every day, even if it was quite small some of the time, but it was starting to happen. I could see a time when I could walk unaided again, and I’ll tell you more about that in my next post!