September 2015 – charcot cha-cha

I wheelie, wheelie hate the wheeled life!!

ARGH the wheels!! Like I mentioned in a past article, I thought I was being really smart by purchasing a wheeled office chair to scoot myself about the condo…And it worked really good, sorta, for the first two weeks…then a wheel fell off! So then I bought another chair. But although the wheels were faster, they refused to go straight!! For every 10 inches of forward motion, I would have to make an adjustment in my direction! It was going to make me lose my marbles, so I finally bought another transport chair. The wheels are silent and I know that makes my downstairs neighbor happy. And without having to correct my path, I can wheel into the other rooms very fast. Am still stuck with the super irritating front wheel drive, which means for every inch forward, if you want to suddenly go back the big 7inch wheels have to do a reverse, and they bump into everything in their path!!!! All stuff that adds to my already unstable mindset!!!

And don’t talk to me about trying to wash your hands in a wheelchair…water running down your arms to your armpits…super argh!!!!!! Putting your food or coffee in the microwave?? Have to stand up to do it! Cooking on the range is the same trouble…have to lift up the shoulders to do any of this stuff, which makes the shoulders scream at night when you want to sleep on your side.

Well, this is just me Bitching and moaning, which I am really adept at! I know that all of you other Charcot sufferer’s can totally understand what I am talking about!! The good news is that hopefully your condition is temporary, and you can move on to greener pastures! So hang in there with all this wheel crap!!

CHARCOT FOOT: BAD DAYS AND GOOD DAYS!

For all of the thousands of Charcot Foot sufferers around the world, remember that for every bad day, there is a good day just around the corner! For me today was a good day, but it had a lot of frustration because I had four stops to make on my errand list. For those of you who are semi-mobile like myself, (that is, can drive and get your wheelchair out of the car), or are using crutches or a walker, you know that stops = WORK. Especially if one is a place you’ve never been before. Today I had to make a stop at my insurance agent, and the parking lots handicap “ramp” was about as narrow as the wheelchair and had a big uplifted crack which stopped my wheels. Then there was a step up into their office…fortunately my friendly agent whipped me up the step with ease. But it’s scary and a tad embarrassing all the same! Then I got frustrated at the grocery store, because I wanted to do the self checkout so that I could load my own bag…(I get tired of telling the clerk or bagger to try to get everything in one bag…”ALL of it??!!” is their usual reply…but it’s imperative because I can only handle one bag, I don’t care how heavy it is!) But then I couldn’t read the screen from wheelchair height, and typing in the codes for produce was a challenge…I had to rely on my 10-key knowledge to guess the number pad….oops, the avocado rang up as a cheaper banana!! (don’t tell anyone!)

Well, the whole affair gets me so frustrated sometimes I want to tear-up a bit…but by the time I get back into the car and the music is happening, I am back to my chipper self. It is just extremely hard being disabled, every task is about 4 times more complicated that it would be otherwise. We just have to remember that it is important to not get too stressed over it, because stress is very unhealthy! So hang in there fellow Charcoters…try to stay cool while the summer heat hesitates to go away, and remember to keep your chins up…a better day is coming along!

GET YOUR NOODLES WHILE THEY LAST!

Just thought I’d better remind those of you who might be using my advice to use pool noodles on your walker handles (to reduce calloused palms!) to get out there and buy 6 or 7 of them while they remain available for purchase. Summer is wrapping up and stores are reducing the price on the noodles because they are about to pull them from the floor, and you will not be able to find a noodle for nothin’ through the upcoming holidays! Probably won’t see a noodle till April of next year….so snatch them up! The .99 cent store has some…dollar tree….lowes has them on sale too.