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Would you be embarrassed if....


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Our last big city trip last weekend involved tons of walking. Plus I had been working many many hours in the past four weeks . All of my working hours are on my feet with children ( caring for them) . I have very bad arthritis and after the tons of walking on the weekend my foot blew up like a balloon and is very bruised. It is either that or my knee blows up like a balloon . Either way I have come to the end of the 20 km walks that my husband does on these trips. I only did 10 km and my foot looked like a sausage after .

 

I have been thinking of getting a wheelchair for these excursions . The thing is I'm only 50 years old .

 

Would you be embarrassed at this age to get one? I guess I have insecurity about it because my mother says it will be so embarrassing. My mother just had her knee replaced less than two months ago due to arthritis and she says I don't even have a wheelchair what would you need one for . However I don't want to continue to ruin my joints like she did .

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I would say get a wheelchair if these walks are a regular occurance. That way you will be able to enjoy the time you spend with your Husband rather than having to go through such awful pain & discomfort afterwards.

 

Dont listen to your Mum, do what is right for you & your family.

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I had what some doctors think was a heart attack recently and I was in a weakened condition. I had to go out and walk around with a cane for the first time in my life. At first, I felt it was embarrassing, but then I noticed that strangers didn't care and people I knew noticed it and then ignored it.

 

Look, if you need a wheel to enjoy the company of your family on long walking adventures, then do it. Have the kids take turns pushing you. Or get a motorized chair. Some of them can go faster than walking. Save your knees! Not all knee replacements are successful. I know of relatives who now suffer in as much pain as before they had the operation. Walking 12 miles would cause even healthier people problems.

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I had what some doctors think was a heart attack recently and I was in a weakened condition. I had to go out and walk around with a cane for the first time in my life. At first, I felt it was embarrassing, but then I noticed that strangers didn't care and people I knew noticed it and then ignored it.

 

Look, if you need a wheel to enjoy the company of your family on long walking adventures, then do it. Have the kids take turns pushing you. Or get a motorized chair. Some of them can go faster than walking. Save your knees! Not all knee replacements are successful. I know of relatives who now suffer in as much pain as before they had the operation. Walking 12 miles would cause even healthier people problems.

 

Sorry to hear that dan , hope you are over it now .

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I would say get a wheelchair if these walks are a regular occurance. That way you will be able to enjoy the time you spend with your Husband rather than having to go through such awful pain & discomfort afterwards.

 

Dont listen to your Mum, do what is right for you & your family.

I don't have to tell her either.

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I had what some doctors think was a heart attack recently and I was in a weakened condition. I had to go out and walk around with a cane for the first time in my life. At first, I felt it was embarrassing, but then I noticed that strangers didn't care and people I knew noticed it and then ignored it.

 

Look, if you need a wheel to enjoy the company of your family on long walking adventures, then do it. Have the kids take turns pushing you. Or get a motorized chair. Some of them can go faster than walking. Save your knees! Not all knee replacements are successful. I know of relatives who now suffer in as much pain as before they had the operation. Walking 12 miles would cause even healthier people problems.

I am sorry to hear about your issues.

 

Yes, my husband is strong as an ox so nothing keeps him down. He was raised in the country so he had to walk fast and far to get to do anything . So walking is nothing to him . Plus he has no physical ailments at all . My son neither. And you are right even though my mom's knee replacement has been very successful doesn't mean mine would be .

 

My husband and my son really wouldn't mind pushing the chair . And then I could participate. It would probably help with my PTSD too. When you're in a wheelchair people have to walk around you not on top of you bumping into you pushing you . So I will be less likely to get agitated .

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Bugger what anyone else says vic , you do what you have to do ..we are not at an age now were we need to push boundaries , throw ourselves down the torture chamber and cause more injury ...It's not the same I know , but I have electric bikes to get around .

Yes ,her and my stepdad don't go on jonts like my husband and I and our son . They are 71 and 77 so they don't go on long walks anymore . Although my mom walks 100 times better now after her knee replacement . They're still not going on 16 km walks and such. Plus I am so much shorter than my husband and my son so by the time we get anywhere I've taken twice the steps they do . The pain and suffering after is not worth it .

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Girl I'm 27 and if you make me walk that far, I would be looking for a wheelchair too!! I've got some old basketball injuries to my ankles and knees, so I know exactly the pain and swelling you're talking about. Unless you're interested in surgery, there really is nothing else to be done for it other than temporary fixes (pain meds or steroid shots), and even then, doesn't always work. Save your body. Ride that scooter. And put a big fat "Kiss My A$$" bumper sticker on it!!

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Get a power scooter!!!! Do not be embarrassed! So normal - people have surgery, different types of arthritis, and other conditions that they need a well deserved break form walking. And are your age or younger or older. Doesn't matter.

 

Unfortunately, a power scooter would never fit in my house or vehicle. I don't need it all the time just if we go on long walks . My dad has the power scooter it out because he's had too many strokes and falls down easily . But he lives in an apartment building so it's easy for him to get his scooter in and out .

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Girl I'm 27 and if you make me walk that far, I would be looking for a wheelchair too!! I've got some old basketball injuries to my ankles and knees, so I know exactly the pain and swelling you're talking about. Unless you're interested in surgery, there really is nothing else to be done for it other than temporary fixes (pain meds or steroid shots), and even then, doesn't always work. Save your body. Ride that scooter. And put a big fat "Kiss My A$$" bumper sticker on it!!

 

Hahaha thank you. My mom tries to make me feel guilty. Her line is if you get a wheelchair you're giving up . Well no I'm saving what I have left of my joints . Her other line is ,well just let them go by themselves . But I want to be with my little family . And they wouldn't mind pushing a wheelchair .

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Ride with pride

 

Doesn't matter the age. We humans go through things. Anyone who would judge that, is a tool in my book.

 

A little blunt?! Lol

Lol, I won't call my mom that she might remove my face but sometimes she has some really nutty beliefs and guilts she got from her parents about weaknesses and suffering. I am trying to unlearn these things .

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Embarrassed by who? Nobody walking around you is going to question the validity of your need for the chair, and anybody who knows you either respects the nature of your condition or isn't entitled to your concern about what they think. As for Mom, I'd challenge her on which is more healthy--grabbing a chair for long hauls out in the world, or isolation? I'd leave the provinciality to her if she wants to hold onto it, and I'd go on jaunts with the people in my life who want to go.

 

I'd rent the chair and push it around empty or as a holder of family belongings until I start fatiguing enough to need it. Then I'd plop my azz down in it and enjoy the rest of the outing, alternately walking and resting as it suits me.

 

Head high, and remember that nobody cares a fraction of what we do about our self image.

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Embarrassed by who? Nobody walking around you is going to question the validity of your need for the chair, and anybody who knows you either respects the nature of your condition or isn't entitled to your concern about what they think. As for Mom, I'd challenge her on which is more healthy--grabbing a chair for long hauls out in the world, or isolation? I'd leave the provinciality to her if she wants to hold onto it, and I'd go on jaunts with the people in my life who want to go.

 

I'd rent the chair and push it around empty or as a holder of family belongings until I start fatiguing enough to need it. Then I'd plop my azz down in it and enjoy the rest of the outing, alternately walking and resting as it suits me.

 

Head high, and remember that nobody cares a fraction of what we do about our self image.

Absolutely, I could remind my mother that she got her total knee replacement so she was no longer isolated . That her life was becoming very isolated even with in their own home never mind anywhere else . My life is just beginning to become isolated . But she likes to play the compare game between me and her . And I constantly remind her I am me and not her. And she reminds me that I want you to be 1000 times better than me . And I tell her well I have to deal with what I'm given . We both have RA and osteo and it goes at different rates in different people and at different times. So I am progressing faster than she did nothing I can do .

 

I would say though since a lot of my extensive therapy most of what she says I no longer take to heart nor take as insulting but just take as her not understanding where she got her own issues . And take as her not understanding she's trying to hand me her handbag of problems that I refused to pick up . We have good boundaries now for the most part .

 

Other people who want to judge me I really don't care .

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