Day Out

4th May

I had a bad back and bad knee when I woke up, don’t know why!  Think my knee might be hurting because it is slightly bent when I walk, as my left leg was lengthened a little during surgery. I noticed it in the hospital when I started walking with the PT.  Hopefully this won’t be a permanent thing and won’t cause me too much difficulty.  I am gutted though.  As if things weren’t bad enough.  Now I am going to look like a freak.

My tummy muscles are also bothering me, because I am relying a lot on them when I sit up in bed.

Our sofa is unable to be raised; our sofa legs are non standard.  So a platform needs to be built to put the sofa on.  For now I will have to use the cushion.

Car ride-

I went into town with mum today; she put a cushion on the seat of the car so that I had a flat surface to slide onto, because of the stupid bucket seats.  It was much easier!  Going over the speed bumps was a bit jolty on my hip but was bearable.

We ended up having to raise the cushions on the wheelchair because when I sat in it my knees were higher than my hips and it was really uncomfortable.

Mum was panicking when pushing me round town; she didn’t want anyone knocking into me (my leg was sticking out a little).  I was wary too, a lot of people don’t watch where they are going and I didn’t walk around town on my sticks because I wasn’t confident enough.  I felt safer in the chair.

When I got home I did my PT, I feel abit scared doing some of them.  I don’t know how far to push myself or if I am doing them right.  I suppose most people feel like this at first. 

I miss being able to walk around the shops, it is so difficult in the chair because a lot of places aren’t very accessible, and I find that checkout staff talk to the one pushing me rather than me.  Which is just rude in my opinion and it really annoys me! 

Having a shower is such an ordeal!  I thought I would be ok having a bath board.  Well, I am ok getting into the bath.  But when it came to standing up to get under the shower, I had a problem.  I had nothing to hold onto to get myself up; my grab rail (fitted years ago) was too far away to reach.  I managed in the end but I had to bend forward a little which hurt me.  I had the same problem when I went to sit back on the board.  I had nothing to steady myself and I felt very unsafe.  I used my grabber in the end to grab a towel to put on the floor of the bath, to give some grip.  If it wasn’t for the towel I would have slipped.  Well done me! 

After my shower I was shattered, it took ages!  I miss having a bath!