When I was in hospital the physios decided just to let me start walking at my own pace. Normally you have to complete various stages before they let you home – walking with crutches, walking upstairs etc. However as I wasn’t your normal ‘joint’ patient, anything I did was a bonus.
I managed to walk unaided using a Zimmer frame and at various times walking supervised on crutches. However whenever I started to make good progress on the crutches, I’d be back at the ‘woodshed’* and end up back on the Zimmer.
When I left hospital I was allowed to take with me two Zimmers (one for downstairs, the other upstairs) but not the crutches. A referral would be made for me to be assessed to start using them again and I would be notified of this by post.
Last week I received the referral. Someone would be coming out to see me in six months time….
I decided to take matters into my own hands so bought a pair of brand new crutches (even better ones than they had in hospital) on Ebay for £15.
They came on Wednesday and I’m making steady progress with them, though I haven’t gone walking solo with them.
When I was in hospital, due to lack of strength in my non-hip leg and my other being extremely swollen, I wasn’t able to climb stairs.
Now that I’ve got a lot more strength in my left leg and the swelling has gone down in my other leg, I thought it was time to try the stairs again. So yesterday using my new crutches I managed, extremely slowly though, to walk up and down them.
The stair lift won’t become redundant but it’s nice to know that I’m slowly making progress. Who knows that I’ll be doing this time next month….
Marie
* the name I gave for the operating theatre
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