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I have found that my walker with over size tires made it possible to get around my very uneven yard. I had bilateral Achilles tendon ruptures and have had one fixed, but the other one is still gone (the tissue was destroyed by an antibiotic), and I'm having to retrain my foot and ankle how to walk. I have CIDP, but it doesn't affect balance, just loss of sensation in various areas.
I know that the day will come when I can't do everything I do now, and we'll have to sell our place, with the plan for a smaller place that doesn't require all of the work our house on 10 acres does. Until then I'm working at staying active and making the place lower maintenance. Aging is a real challenge full of opportunities to learn new ways to do things.
Jim
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Hi, Jim (@jimhd)
That's quite a coincidence that you mention one day finding it necessary to sell your house and move into a house that's less maintenance 'demanding.' My partner and I are in the throes (and it is 'throes'!) of doing exactly just now. For 30+ years, we've lived two miles apart; my partner in a multi-floor house, built in the 1890s (1890s = mucho maintenance), and I in a one-floor house, reasonably low-maintenance house. We've given ourselves lots of time because we've each got a whale of a lot to do. We will combine households next June. In the meantime, we're each investing in making my one-floor house elder-friendly: roll-in showers, grab bars galore, etc. The goal is not to make my house friction-free, only welcoming of those with 'modified' abilities. Neither of us wants life to be totally devoid of reasonable challenges.
I have idiopathic large-fiber sensory-dominant polyneuropathy. That messed with my balance. Then, last March, I developed a sepsis infection, which messed even more with my balance. The problem with negotiating my partner's garden is not just the uneven terrain but all the encroaching growth (think: an English garden drunk on Red Bull) and an overhead maze of low-hanging branches. Nevertheless …
Onward, ever onward!
Ray (@ray666)