"Normal": More Than a City in Illinois

By Jan Chait There are still some kinks to be worked out, but things are slowly getting back to whatever passes for "normal" here. Unfortunately, some are too slow. Lounging around in a hospital for a week tends to wreak havoc with strength — as in the upper-body strength I need to get on my scooter. It isn't all the way back yet. Normally, I get onto my scooter by putting one hand on the seat, the other on the tiller, and lifting myself onto the seat. Normally. I've gotten to the point where I can get onto my scooter from some places — such as my desk chair — but not others. The bathroom, for example, is a problem. I give it a couple of tries, making sure the scooter is close enough to the toilet that I can get back on it when I fail to settle into the seat. After two tries, I switch to an alternate way: I put Kenny (my stump, or residual limb) on the seat and, using the grab bars on either side of the toilet and pushing up with my other leg, lift myself onto the scooter. (Kenny is the name of the podiatry resident who gave my now-missing foot its last pedicure. I don't like the word "stump," and Kenny's last name is actually very close to "stump," so I named my residual limb after him.) Getting back onto the scooter after a shower is tending to make me not want to shower. It takes a while, but I get there. I can't use the "putting Kenny onto the seat" method there because the scooter seat is higher than my shower bench. Getting into bed? Aw geez! That ...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs