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Living with PN, do you find yourself retreating from life?
Neuropathy | Last Active: Mar 5 10:44am | Replies (144)Comment receiving replies
Hi all. Thanks for the thought-provoking question, Ray. I can say I no longer take the kind of long, solitary hillside walks that cleared my mind and exercised my heart just a few years ago. Even with an AFO, and sometimes hiking sticks to boot, I'm scared of falling. I'll never run a half-marathon again. But last weekend, I did three miles on a popular trail, figuring someone would help me out if I were sprawled sideway in their path. I'm not keen on nighttime freeway driving these days but that's more a symptom of aging (I'm 77) than it is of PN. I have come to realize that I now have to exercise my will to do things I took for granted not all that long ago. I'm in an improv group that meets weekly in the basement of an old office building that was constructed before zong boards required elevators. To get to our dark little lair, I walk down 26 steps and I can tell you that I know each of those 26 steps like A to Z. Sometimes banisters can be a guy's best friend.
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You have me smiling, @chawk, if a bit ruefully. I applaud your being part of an improv group. You go on to mention steps and banisters. Oh, do steps and banisters bring back memories! You might know from some of my earlier postings that I made my living in the theater, and that my last stage show became my last because of steps and banisters. I'd gotten involved in the show, knowing that my balance was becoming a problem, a problem, it seemed, more and more every day. On the first evening ofrehearsal, when the designers presented their designs, I made a special point of intercepting the set designer on his way to his car. I asked him, if any step units he was planning on incorporating in his design, would be good SOLID steps, with good FIRM banisters. A short while later, while driving home, I said to myself, "Uh oh, Ray, you've never had to ask for those things in your life ever before. Something is wrong." A few weeks later, I got my PN diagnosis, and when I did, I decided it was time to retire from the stage. Ah, PN, what you do to us! 🙂
Cheers!
Ray (@ray666)