Hi @tessie63 - I don’t use the rollator type of walker because the braking/hand gripping is too much with the neuropathy in my hands. The seat on it did seem handy when I first started walking again (after 6 months in a wheelchair), but it wasn’t the most comfortable position for me as I recall. I try not to go out on extra weak leg days and hope there’s a chair nearby, but I fortunately have very few days that disruptive anymore.
The most disabling issue with my walking is the knee function. They bend enough for me to walk a little stiff, but I can’t jump, hop, skip, run, crawl, or climb, and squatting is extremely difficult & unsafe. I consider my upright walker my “Swiss Army Knife” for both safety & practical purposes. It allows me to:
1) Lean on it to reach high shelves
2) Hold onto it to get to the low ones (seems most of my groceries fall under #1 & #2)
3) Help me get on & off curbs and climb the occasional wide step or get over foreign objects
4) Helps me get on doctors’ exam tables if they insist
5) Has a large strapped on pouch to carry things I think are important: wallet, keys, small medicine pouch, sugar tablets, CELL PHONE, pen & sticky pad for notes, chapstick and sunglasses (otherwise what most women use a purse or handbag for). I keep the contents as light as I can. It can also fit some grocery items, and I keep a couple of plastic bags in there for when I’m shopping & need to put other items in a bag, because I can’t carry one of those plastic totes stores provide
6) It has a hook that allows me to hang those plastic shopping bags that I might fill up while walking around the store. Depending on size or weight of items, I can get 4 bags easily, and it’s so satisfying that I’m able to have walked all over a store to get that exercise in!
7) It has a cup holder… radiation left my mouth/throat dry and I need hydration every so often if out for long. It’s perfect for carrying my yeti cup with ice to the pool for fun & exercise, with my pool bag carrying my towel, sunscreen, snacks & book hanging from the hook described in #6.
In other words, my walker that I call my Swiss Army Knife provides safety and some independence! It’s nice not asking my husband or other people to help me with things this walker can do instead. The hardship for me then actually comes from walking this tool! While it’s not heavy, I lean on it to push. I’m putting weight on my arms and shoulders I shouldn’t have if just to walk. I have it set high and try not to grip the the handles too hard, but even with ski glides, it is actually more work than just walking, so that’s the added arm/hand/shoulder collateral from using it. I’m learning now to carefully assess my mission and time each time I go out and make a choice on whether I should use a cane or nothing at all, but there’s those “purse” type necessities that requires carrying a bag and then worrying about sidewalk cracks and curbs in new places etc. I’m still trying to figure it all out, but I know I have choices I can make regarding safety and convenience, and am thankful for that!
One choice I consciously make now is to not take my walker inside a doctor’s office if at all possible. A doctor YELLED at me because of it, he really upset and disappointed me. The appointment was about a possible necessary surgery, and just from seeing that walker in the room, not even seeing me use it, he ranted about me being unfit for a surgery that would require some effort on my part for the physical therapy afterward and so on. I wasn’t able to get a word in to explain my Swiss Army Knife or show what abilities I had; he already had a very nasty opinion of walkers and I was speechless anyway. Thank GOD I didn’t need the surgery or this doctor, so I no longer have to (or would) see him again. But I started noticing other doctors’ notes on my patient portals over a couple of years, whether my PCP, GI, Cardiologist, and eventual Oncologist notes, saying “patient uses a walker for mobility ”, I imagine sometimes the same comment was cut & paste from doctor to doctor. Well, I started feeling a little stigma about it; I didn’t feel those few words represented my mobility as positively as I would like, and my memories I can’t shake of how that nasty doctor yelled about it, even though I know he was just one bad apple. So I take a carrying bag to doctors appointments with everything I need in it. I keep my walker in my car. I’ll carry a cane if needed or to be safe, but fold it up in little pieces and put it in my bag before I enter the office. I don’t want them judging me by a cane or walker, they need to see what I can do, and not have the walker note any more. I am nabbed if they ask me to climb up on the table or have to ask them to help me off. I (and my medical records) tell I’m limited/disabled and I be sure to explain I am a fall risk if they’ve forgotten. I just want them to be able to see what I AM capable of. I know it’s not the safest choice and seems like a poor reason for me to stop carrying my walker into a doctors’s office of all places, but I sure made a terrible incorrect impression in that one situation and don’t ever want to risk that happening again. Like I said, I am lucky to have that CHOICE to make. I have gotten stuck at a curb and have asked strangers for help.
So, your daughter would be 100% correct if she was suggesting what was adding to my discomfort in my arms & shoulders! Your case could be the exact opposite. I have set my walker as high as it will go. I don’t use it in the house. I am so grateful that I haven’t “needed” the walker or wheelchair for much at all in the past couple of years when it just comes to the walking function alone. I’ve only had a few weak times, injuries, or surgeries when I briefly needed them. We only have so much energy we have to expend, and only so much we can ask people to do for us instead of seeing how we might be able to safely do more for ourselves, so if my walker is the smartest tool for the job, I will choose to use it! I appreciate your help and am sending prayers your way!