June 22, 2022
Last week, I bought myself a new
walker.
My daughter had picked up a
used walker for me several years ago, at a yard sale. She told me at the time
she knew I didn’t necessarily need it then, but it would be something that would
be good to have on hand, going forward, and “just in case”. She was right. I
used it a few times around the house, sometimes if I needed to tend something
at the stove for more than five minutes—the seat on the walker is just the
right height for me to sit on and use the stovetop easily for an extended
amount of time. I have used that walker a couple of other times to actually
help me get around, too.
Most recently and notably during
that several days-long period last year when I pulled a groin muscle (turning over
wrong in bed one night). It was a Godsend at that time. When my husband renovated
our bathroom to provide a door between it and our bedroom, he made sure that
door would accommodate a walker, since the main doorway into the bathroom from
the hall will not. He was able to do that, of course, because he had a walker
right here that he could measure.
Whether I want to admit it or
not, the truth is that down the road it will be a walker and not a cane that I
will be needing most often to get around. Sadly, arthritis is an ailment that
only gets worse, not better.
I have an electric scooter, as
you know, a three wheeled nifty device which comes apart into three pieces and
which remains in the back of my car for whenever I may need it. It’s a real
blessing, but I have never been able to put that sucker together on my own. It’s
just a bit too heavy for me to manage the task. This means if I want to go
anywhere and use that scooter, I cannot go there alone.
That, my friends, is not real independence.
My old walker, which is
currently employed as a clothes and blanket holder in my office when not
helping me at the stove, is really in sorry shape otherwise. The single most
important problem with it is that the brakes didn’t work. That doesn’t matter
too much if I’m using it just around the house here, or perhaps I should say it
hasn’t mattered too much yet. But if I want to take it out somewhere, well,
that would be a problem.
Last week I was scheduled to have
an outing, one where I could not take the scooter (and never mind that there
would be no one there to help me with it if I did). And that was why I bought a
new walker.
This one is fairly light
weight, folds nicely (the old one will not fold; we think the bolts are seized),
the brakes are functional and all four wheels of this shiny new one work well.
Now, even before I got the
scooter, I noticed that if I went into the grocery store for just a couple of
items, I was able to use the grocery cart as a “walker”, and that using the
cart meant I walked just a tad better than I did with my cane. With that as my
only background experience of being an arthritis sufferer using a four wheeled push
by hand conveyance, I anticipated being able to walk the more than two city blocks
that were going to be required on my outing with my new walker without any serious
problem at all.
And I did! It was amazing!
Now, the handles on the walker were a bit high for me that day (they have since
been adjusted), and because they were I did have some discomfort in my arms,
but walking? I tell you truly friends, I walked at the same pace I used to walk
before my arthritis got as bad as it is now, before I needed a cane for every
step outside and most of them inside.
Our outing had begun at a
Veteran’s social club, and after a couple of hours, it was time to make that
long (for me) trek to our second and final destination. I walked those two blocks
to the city market, and I walked around inside the market, including up a ramp.
The outing was a complete success.
However, the next day,
for me, was… interesting. I awoke early,
not because I had finished sleeping but because my legs were screaming. However,
I am pleased to report that I wasn’t at all stoic about the condition I was in.
Although I don’t usually take pain medications in the morning, I did that
morning. And while I didn’t just sit around all day, I didn’t push it, either.
And I counted the pain as
worth it, because the person to whose benefit that outing was undertaken thoroughly
enjoyed the event, and that was the most important thing of all.
And I will prove I’m still
capable of learning from my experiences. I promise to take it a little bit easier
with that walker, the next time I use it.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
No comments:
Post a Comment