davidgillon | Entries tagged with walking is overrated

Left house for lunch at 2:30, home at 7pm.

Lunch first (see previous post) then I drove over to Wickes to price up some replacement roofing felt for my shed (the existing stuff half ripped off in one of the spring storms), plus loft boarding, passing an accident which had just happened on the way (one car had t-boned another - no injuries, but sitting in the middle of the main road). Passed by a police traffic car with sirens blazing as I parked at Wickes - 'I know where you're going!' Their felt was 50% more than at Homebase for the identical brand, similarly for the loft board (I'd checked there earlier in the week), so back up to Homebase, queueing to pass the accident again, now with police in attendance. Get the felt, drive back past the accident again. Drop off the felt, head up to Asda, getting to the accident just as the recovery vehicle arrives, waved past by the police for the third time in an hour. Do my shopping, head back, and at least this time the accident's been cleared and I'm not waved past by the police, who must have thought I was taking the piss.

Dump the shopping and immediately head out for my daily waddle, because once I sat down I wasn't moving again.

Got a hundred metres, turned around and came home again. Changed into ankle braces (AFOs), headed out once more. I was fairly certain too much time on my feet was provoking the intermittent drop foot issues I've been having, but today was all chair, and the foot drop was the worst I've seen. My left foot was catching literally every step, my right about half that. Definitely time to talk to my GP about actually getting this looked at and AFOs officially prescribed and properly fitted (as opposed to bought from Amazon), but also important to know it seems to be fatigue-linked, not activity-linked, which makes it much harder to avoid. Passed one of the regular dog-walkers while on the second attempt: "You're definitely walking faster!" he says. Didn't have the heart to explain why.

So tiring, but useful.

Current Mood: Bracing
Current Location: Dropped

Once around the two streets of my little estate is almost exactly half a mile. The last time I did physio, at the pain management class in 2014, my physio was insistent I get out and walk a little each day, so I started doing that circuit of the estate, which takes me about 15 minutes. But I fell out of the habit last year, when the infected toe meant I was bleeding every time I walked more than a few yards. I've been meaning to start again, and had a few false starts, but now the weather's warmed up I've managed it every day for a week, which is a good sign.

The route's sort of an inverted question mark, marginally downhill as you head away from the house, uphill as you head back, and all on footpaths. I've been doing it around 2-3pm and there tend not to be too many people about - usually mostly dog-walkers, who've been fairly good about keeping dogs to heel - I got nervous about the rottweiler that was headed towards me yesterday, but his owner reeled him in before he got to me. Car owners parking on the pavement are more of an issue.

My performance has been mixed. Real problems with foot drop making my toe drag the first couple of times, but that hasn't been an issue since. Which is surprising, I remembered it as being more of an issue. Hips, however, have been making themselves known, and they have a nasty habit of kicking in right at the furthest point from the house, when I can't cut the route short. But that's uncomfortable rather than a killer.

Now the trick will be to see if I can keep it up when the weather isn't quite as warm as it's been.

Current Mood: Owie
Current Location: Prostrate post-perambulation

AKA Life with Dyspraxia.

Stumbling half awake across the living room and kick over a glass left from last night (it was at least on a tray, though if I'd been too lazy to put it on the tray it would likely have been somewhere I wouldn't kick it over - no deed of voluntary housework goes unpunished).

Glass lands roughly where my foot was meant to be coming down, I'm left standing on one leg, the dodgier, wobblier left one, with my foot dangling in mid air while trying to work out where the hell do I put my foot that isn't 1) on top of the glass (pint pot, not likely to end well) or 2) the tray (also not likely to end well).

In trying not to lose my balance, I end up throwing myself headlong across the arm of the sofa and onto the floor beyond, fortunately avoiding the wall beyond that (which I'm still not sure how I achieved, it took a 45 degree change of direction in mid-air).

I escaped with a sore knee, but let's hope that's not an indication of how the rest of the day is going to go.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Pitched headlong
Crossposts: http://dwgism.livejournal.com/29566.html

So after our regular Saturday coffee date my friend and I decided to call in on another friend,.

Only I couldn't park across the road from them due to Mon-Sat residents only parking, so I left my friend at the door and ended up next street over, about a couple of hundred metres away. I'd just pushed back to the car, it was slightly uphill, I really couldn't face hauling the chair back out of the boot and pushing it, so I decided to walk. One problem, neither my sticks nor my crutches were in the car - and annoyingly I'd actually been meaning to move the sticks back to the boot, but had forgotten in the rush of running late. That would make it the furthest I've walked unaided in, well, as long as I can remember.

'It's okay,' thinks I, 'If I cross over, then I can use the wall to steady myself against if I need it, and then there's walls all the way.'

Good plan, assuming I made it as far as the wall. I'm not quite sure what I did, but it involved my foot not making clean contact with the kerb, and the next moment I'm headed decidedly floorward. Classic faceplant: knee, then hip, then hand, arm, shoulder and finally forehead, with my glasses skittering off into the distance. It's a side road, so no one to make a fool of myself in front of, but equally no one to help.

I really did do a good job on myself, it was several minutes before I felt up to standing, and that pavement wasn't exactly comfortable. First thing I checked was how badly I was bleeding from my forehead, and I was most surprised to find that I wasn't, and that my glasses had survived.. OTOH it was pretty clear I'd skinned my knee even though my jeans were intact, but that was the only real damage. I really was shaking quite badly, so the first few minutes at my friends' turned into a patching-up David session, and they insisted on driving me around to the car afterwards, which was probably wise.

But damn, I've never done that before that I can remember (well, not since screwing my back 25 years ago), there've been the odd few unintended descents to the carpet when I've overbalanced in the house, but always in a semi-controlled fashion, never a complete facepant in public (even if there were no public)

The moral of this tale is don't leave the damned sticks in the house, make sure theyre in the boot for when you need them!

(And I really am okay, the only serious damage is to my dignity)

Current Mood: sore
Current Location: On top of Mt Oh, bugger !!!!
Current Music: Dizzy, Vic Reeves and the Wonderstuff

I've been using the chair in the house, I've been using the chair out and about, what I haven't been doing is using the chair to get from in the house to out there - I've been pushing it out to the car whenever I go out. So yesterday I decided to actually wheel out of the front door for the first time. I realised this was a mistake when the chair jammed at a 45 degree nose-down angle and the cushion, with me atop, slid neatly forward... I caught myself before departing company with the chair/landing ass first on the path, but this doesn't look to have any easy solutions, especially as the steps in the path caused similar issues. I could potentially wheelie off, but I'm not actually up to that as yet (my wheelies are getting longer, and I'm probably on the edge of being able to manouver while up there, but not just yet). If I end up using the chair all of the time (more on that in a moment), then I may need to consider ramping the path.

Having stood up and loaded the chair into the car the old-fashioned way, I headed off and ran a couple of errands, and in the middle of PC World (nope, not paying that much for a can of air), I realised that there was something different, that I was enjoying moving around. Mostly when I'm using crutches it isn't actively painful, but it isn't pleasant, moving around is a chore. In the chair that's not the case, even with shoulders that aren't really up to the job yet. If things are going to get better than this (especially when I eventually replace the monster with something lightweight), then I'm not certain there's much justification for using crutches instead. This doesn't mean giving up on standing, there's still plenty of circumstances around the house where that's the easiest, but the whole point of the chair is that I find walking about with crutches enough of a chore that there are things I don't do anymore, and the advantage the chair offers turns out to also to apply to the walking I still do.

And in other news, I just had an email from an old friend/colleague asking if I'm up for sailing again this summer. We haven't done it in several years given families and kids, but the four sailing holidays we've done have all been great fun, so, fingers crossed, Mediterranean here I come (the Argolic Gulf west of Athens is the current favourite for where). And of course that then raises questions about whether I take the chair or not - if it's still the monster, probably not, if I've sorted out something lightweight and dismantable by then much more likely (as it may have to share a cabin not much bigger than my bunk with me). OTGH, Greece, not the most wheelie friendly country ever....

I guess I'd better get that passport renewal sorted (one of the errands was new passport pics).

Current Mood: Anticipatory
Current Location: On wheels
Current Music: I've Been Wheeling in My Chair,Madness (not necessarily the original lyrics)