Home. Days 109-130 July13-31st

 Another eventful couple of weeks 🙂. We had some lovely reactions to the interview we did with the wonderful Gary Philipson from Radio Tees and one of the recurring comments was how strong a team David and I seem. During the conversation I also realised that , while my initial reaction coming out of the coma last year was one of sheer dread, there really are worse things in life than being a Quad-amputee.

Feel free to listen to it on the link below. It starts about 20 minutes in. 🙂

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09m8vm2

I’ve also been trying to get myself out and socialising more. I have to get back to feeling comfortable mixing with people so we arranged a meet up with an old friend of David’s and strong supporter and new friend of mine, Julie Munton who was in the area for the first time in a while. It was lovely to finally meet face to face. What Julie didn’t know was that it was the first time I had had dinner with someone outside of the immediate family but she made me feel totally at ease and as a result,the thought of eating in front of friends seems slightly less scary now.

I was also invited by my neice to a garden relaunch of https://instagram.com/sams_seasonal_circles?utm_medium=copy_link . It was a chance to meet up with some lovely women who are building their own local businesses, but it was also a stark reminder of my need to consider accessibility of venues. The photo below shows me having a much needed rest after having to negotiate 9 steps up into the garden! Check the link below to show how I made it back down …..

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdcTrAE3/

You may remember that I was fitted for new sockets. Well, in the build up to receiving them, my Physio Gill encouraged me to do some no stick walking outside. 

I was still using my old sockets, packed out with extra socks, so it wasn’t the easiest but that’s the furthest I have walked without my sticks!.. it may not seem it from the video but I was walking down quite a gradient on a fairly sloping path. I can’t believe how much difference that makes and my core balance was pushed to its limits. I tried walking back up the slope but didn’t manage to get as far and quite frankly I was elated but shattered.

The next day however was in total contrast when I woke up with horrendous vertigo. It’s something I suffer with from time to time and my biggest worry was that it would prevent me from going to my outpatient appointment to try my new legs. It left me bed bound for three days but thankfully I was able to make it to James Cook hospital to pick up these beauties🙂

My first try of them was good but they felt totally different to my old ones. I managed a couple of lengths of the balance bars without sticks but the fit wasn’t quite right so unfortunately we had to leave them with the prosthetist for some further readjustment.

(Please forgive the jazzy Tiktok treatment😂)   https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdcTpYhv/

I’ve since been able to bring them home but I’m finding it really hard going. I just can’t seem to get the fit right and after a couple of hours yesterday I was left in quite a bit of pain. I shouldn’t complain as so far I have been very lucky with limb fit and stump condition. I know it can be an ongoing problem for many amputees. Fingers crossed it’s just a case of getting these bedded in. 🤞

https://gofund.me/7ef94f67