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Let’s talk about the challenges of being paralyzed from the waist down. The first challenge is not being able to use my lower body. So everything I do has to be done with my arms and upper body.
I wear a brace that goes from just under my arms to the bottom of my feet, which allows me to walk with assistance. I got my first brace when I was 11 months old. So I guess you can say I walked around the same age that most children do.
Wearing a brace poses some challenges of it’s own. Like clothes and shoes. I can either wear clothes over or under my brace. I hate wearing pants and dresses over my brace because they have to be biggerer than my normal size. And I have to admit I have always hated dresses anyway. My mom use to make me wear them to church every Sunday! So around the time I became a teenager I started wearing my pants under my brace and my shirts over.
Now for shoes, they have to be wide width and cannot have a heel since my brace prohibits me from bending my foot. Both these things makes it extremely hard to find cute stylish shoes.
As I mentioned earlier I am able to walk with assistance. I have 3 main ways to get around.
Walker– I pretty much only use one now when I’m cooking or doing dishes. I can also use it to get around better in snow. I use to use it when I was in school but than I got to highschool where I had to go up and down the stairs too much. When I was little I wanted a walker with wheels on the front, but never got one because they said I walked good without the wheels.
Crutches– These are what I use when out in public. I started using them mainly in 2nd grade because my classroom was upstairs. But I still used my walker in the classroom.
Wheelchair– I use this around the house and at work. It enables me to carry things on my lap and makes it faster and easier to get from one place to another. Initially I only used it when going somewhere that required a lot of walking like the mall.
So that is how I get around.