Since I damaged one tiny little bone in my foot indefinitely I have been either 1) revalidating or 2) thinking about how to literally get back on my feet again.
This past summer my boyfriend and I took the plunge and went for a longer travel again, the first time after we had to break up our dream journey of 9 months after two short months. We decided to go to Scotland and rent a car to drive the North-Coast 500.
Flexyfoot
It was the first time I decided to bring with me my recently bought Flexyfoot (in English) that I found through Skyline Mobility (in Dutch). It folds down into a very small package, you keep it in a sack that you can easily take with you in your regular handbag, it’s very light-weight, and has a flexible ‘foot’ (hence the name) that moves with you as you walk. It holds on irregular terrains, giving you the grip you need to walk on cobblestones, forestry undergrounds, sand of beaches… And since the foot itself is flexible you won’t need to put all your body weight on your wrist too much, which makes walking with it for longer periods of time that much more bearable.
[Look at me! Posing with my Flexyfoot.]
First-time use of Flexyfoot
In my own city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, I hadn’t yet 'dared' using my Flexyfoot. There were a few times I thought “Well, I could have used that support now!”, but somehow it felt very very weird to suddenly show up at people’s doors you’ve known for a long time with a walking stick.
I guess I wasn’t really prepared for questions, looking eyes, or even sharing my experiences with walking like this. All part of the 'becoming a person of limited mobility' thing.
The first time I actually used it was at Brussels / Bruxelles train station, where I wanted to switch trains to take the Eurostar to London.
I know from airport check-ins and security hassles standing in line can take quite a toll on my foot. On airports, however, I always request special assistance (ie guidance with a wheelchair), and I had no idea if a similar service would be available at the train station as well.
So I decided to breathe in, breathe out, and unpack my walking stick. Which just unfolds so easily! And also looks kind of cool with it’s black and orange. (Really, we all accept glasses to be an accessory, why shouldn’t we do the same with walking sticks? We all want to look a bit cool, even though we need some help to function properly, right?!)
I walked with the stick towards the security check-in and… Immediately was asked if I wanted to take the special shorter line!
Well… YES!
It’s so important if you need help you don't have to ask for it. You already feel vulnerable for needing something ‘extra'. You already want to feel ‘normal’ / which you are, but you’ve changed somewhat since your accident as well. You already don’t want to feel like there’s this extra hassle for personnel for letting you go through these normally standard procedures…
So having to ask is just annoying. NOT having to ask because the personnel just had a visual cue was… Very very pleasant.
Getting used to the stick
Since this experience, I started using the stick more and more for other walks too. It’s often pretty unpleasant to for example step into an overly occupied train and have to ask: “Please, would someone stand up? I really need to sit!”
I’m a 30-year-old woman and I look very healthy! I have orthopedically adapted shoes, but to the untrained eye that’s not noticeable. Ironically: with these adapted shoes I walk so well, I've never looked more secure walking! So without a stick, I feel (and maybe that’s just me! Oh wait no, I actually have stories about this...) judged by many many eyes in a full train - because most people don’t feel like standing in a moving train after a long workday. Right? So who am I, healthy-looking woman, to ask for that much-wanted seat?
But with a stick people either 1) offer you a seat spontaneously or 2) don’t even blink their eyes when you request one.
So, even though I have strong opinions about people having opinions about young people needing physical help ;-), I started using the stick as an innocent shield to get through the day without all the emotional strain that comes from ‘asking for help’.
I also started to use it for longer walks, up and down small hills, walks on the beach…
[Footsie taken on a lovely Scottish beach, one of the first longer walks I took my Flexyfoot on.]
And, on days I have a lot of pain I now even use it to get from the couch to the toilet if no one is at home to offer me a helping hand.
Rocking the stick
But rocking a stick is a different thing. As you’ve all been able to read I was a week in (street-artist capital) Lisbon. Well, Lisbon is ‘the city of the seven hills’!
This means: literally no path is straight! All paths go either up or down. And to make things worse: all pedestrian lanes have broken tiles, and/or have these annoying cobblestones, which makes walking hell for me since that tiny damaged bone in my foot registers literally even 1 millimeter of irregularity.
So I knew in advance: I need to start taking my stick with me every day. Not just on days I emotionally want or need to ‘shield’ myself, or on days I have so much pain I can’t even get to the toilet by myself, but on all days. Because this city is too much of a challenge for me.
So I did. I put on nice dresses all week, rocked my super cool orthopedically adapted walking boots, put on a scarf in my hair and walked straight up out of the hotel into the streets of Lisbon.
And I must say: it felt really good to be able to wear my walking stick like it was part of me even though I still walked straight up.
What places did Flexyfoot get me?
The walking stick took me to places I’d not been able to visit a year ago. I walked up streets, I walked down some streets, I conquered cobblestoned streets, I even walked on some cliffs.
Although the walk to the cliffs was made easy by a large pedestrian lane, I walked 10225 steps that day. Even though that was my minimum walk 3 times a week only a few years ago, the fact I can do this even once a month now is really something. It’s something I didn’t believe I would ever achieve ever again when all I did was sit on my couch and wait until the pain would get better.
[Do you also notice the '24 floors'? The app counts them every 3 meters up or down. There was a time I couldn't even have walked one floor up :D]
So where did the stick take me? To places, of course. But also to a better, more optimistic and confident-feeling woman taking on bigger walks again. Of course, all the while totally rocking it.
[My final destination for this day of 10225 steps. And no, it was not an option to make it all the way back as well. One-way only. After this I just ordered an Uber that drove me to the train station.]
All pictures on steemit.com/@soyrosa are created and edited by me, Rosanne Dubbeld, 2005-2018. Contact me if you want to discuss licensing or collaborations on creative projects :-)