MND Moves On
I had a bad fall on Sunday, banging my head hard on a parquet floor, cutting an eyebrow in two places and giving me a shiner of a black eye.
I have been aware for some time that my left leg, although fully functional, has lost strength, while the weak right leg continues slowly to get weaker. The right leg can hold my weight and still has some push for walking, but very little lift.
In the last few days it has become obvious that the left foot is starting to drop, mirroring what happened with the right foot a year ago. As the loss of left foot function develops, it will stop me driving using foot pedals.
This also brings nearer the time when I'll have to start using a wheelchair. In the meantime, use of rollators, now well established, is getting more essential.
We have been researching Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAVs) and have visited a couple of companies, one in Newbury, one in Dorset. We'd like one that we could both drive, me with hand controls. But these visits have shown that you cannot reliably choose a WAV without being in the power wheelchair you intend to use. I sat in a candidate vehicle in a borrowed wheelchair and found I had insufficient headroom. I don't expect to receive a power wheelchair from the NHS until the end of the year.
I have been aware for some time that my left leg, although fully functional, has lost strength, while the weak right leg continues slowly to get weaker. The right leg can hold my weight and still has some push for walking, but very little lift.
In the last few days it has become obvious that the left foot is starting to drop, mirroring what happened with the right foot a year ago. As the loss of left foot function develops, it will stop me driving using foot pedals.
This also brings nearer the time when I'll have to start using a wheelchair. In the meantime, use of rollators, now well established, is getting more essential.
We have been researching Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAVs) and have visited a couple of companies, one in Newbury, one in Dorset. We'd like one that we could both drive, me with hand controls. But these visits have shown that you cannot reliably choose a WAV without being in the power wheelchair you intend to use. I sat in a candidate vehicle in a borrowed wheelchair and found I had insufficient headroom. I don't expect to receive a power wheelchair from the NHS until the end of the year.
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