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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! My way of dealing with the aging and balance issues is that I have no shame anymore! If invited to an evening event, I happily say, “I don’t drive after dark, would you pick me up?”. When approaching outdoor steps without a rail, I wait until someone comes along and ask,”Could I hold your arm to go up these?”. I’ve planned a neighborhood walking route with the least amount of broken uneven sidewalk squares and walk daily by myself and weekly with an older lady neighbor. I knocked on her door and asked if she’d like to- people are looking for new friends!
I go to small group meetings at my church, but don’t attend services. I’ve found people in large groups close together make me nervous about being jostled and thrown off balance. That happened at a museum when someone pushing a wheelchair behind me pushed right into my ankles and I started going down. I instinctively reached out with both hands to a man in front to my right, he grabbed my arms and saved the day. Another time in a crowd, I was hit from behind by a stroller being pushed, I went all the way down hard.
Both times, the people weren’t very nice, tried to say it was my fault. It was other people who helped me up and made sure I was okay.
In stores that might be crowded, I bring a cane, people tend to give you a wide berth. I try to suggest going places during not busy times- I google the place and check the graph for those times.
It’s a life of being very careful. After my last hard fall by myself outside, my brother insisted I buy a smart watch, it gives me a lot of piece of mind.
Replies to "Hi all! My way of dealing with the aging and balance issues is that I have..."
@centre
I can sympathize with you. I had a couple of falls. the most severe and worse, was at my son's residence. It was a hard landing, no injury. A piece of his furniture was totally damaged and my son helped me up. Embarrassed, realization kicked in that, things aren't the same anymore. That event was hard on me and coming to terms with my disability that didn't have a major impact on my daily activities initially because of my isolation from the public, which was avoided because, contracting Covid-19 again was unthinkable, but it happened later. You must understand a person like myself, with high blood pressure, was a Covid-19 target three to four times more likely before those who were not. My wife's relatives brought the virus with them from Europe in January/February 2020. They thought it was the flu according to their doctor at the time because, no one knew it was something else. My wife gave it to me, March 2020 and later that month, EMS wheeled me to the hospital ICU unit, unconscious. Where I remained hospitalized for almost 80 days.
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@centre Hi centre! WOW you sound like me, I do exactly what you are doing... no crowds and if necessary I use the dreaded walking stick. I go to restaurants for dinner very early, I use to laugh at the people who went for early bird specials, WELL here I am. I park my car as close to curb, so that I can use headlight for assistance up the curb. I try to stay as active as possible, indoor water aerobic at local college 2x a week, go to gym 2x a week. At home I have a under dest eliptical, a tens machine and a vibrating platform with a handle bar for stability. BALANCE ismy chief complaint. No pain just burning in feet and tingling, mainly at night. I consider myself sorta fortunate not to have pain, but balance issues certainly makes living life limited. Best Wishes to you! Oh I also found having the right shoes help. So far the best for me is the Hoka Ahari, just bought the OD Oncloud Nova, still not sure about them....We must always keep trying and doing our best! Thank goodness for Mayo Connect, better than any neurologist I have ever been to and I have been to 6, I have PN 10 years now. They just cant help!