10-01-2024, 01:55 PM
I figured this would be the best place to post this. All of this is my opinion due to my personal experiences.
Not looking for pity, I live with the body I have. I'm borderline heavily handicapped - no feeling in my right leg (but I can feel pressure and pain so I can sort of walk and drive), vertigo, can't lift my feet past knee high, falling down a few times a day and my favorite, Syncope. That's the short list. All sorts of great stuff. All due to illnesses, injuries (Spine injury in 2000, Anthrax in 2002, viral lung infection in 2012) and reactions to medications. And now, due to a seizure in 2012, my right arm is 4 inches shorter than my left - due to shoulders dislocating from the seizure. My doctor is surprised I can function as well as I can. The neurologist back in 2000 said I'd never walk or work in the printing industry again (I said hold my beer, 20 years later I retired from printing).
I'm not letting being crippled stop me. I don't like the term handicapped, it generates too much pity and unless it's a visible handicap, people think it's a mental issue. You could say my pronoun is crippled. Many times the level of nerve pain is debilitating so I take synthetic morphine a few times a month on especially bad days.
My point with this is this: If you find yourself becoming handicapped from an illness or injury, don't let it stop you and (this is my personal view, in my opinion) take PT with a grain of salt. In my opinion, people put too much stock in PT when they can do it themselves with just a little research. I do my own PT - part of my handicap is my tendons tear easily. Two years ago my left quadricep tore with a giant snap - I thought I had been shot at first because it was so loud when it tore. Put on my removable leg cast, compressed the heck out of my thigh, waited 7 days for healing (and taking collagen powder), did my own PT, didn't bother my doctor.
What you have to do is adapt to your body and it's new (lack of) abilities. Don't let it stop you. Yeah, you can get bummed out and depressed over it all but in the end, you have to live with it so get busy living or busy dying. I took paramedic training and had the fortune of having one of the best internist doctors in the country. Art always taught me to learn as much as I can about the human body. With my issues, I normally have more understanding and information than my doctors do. I guess my point is, now that I'm thinking about it, learn as much as you can about specific areas of your body that are involved - spine, legs, knees, shoulder, cardiac - whatever part is injured.
On to the boat in question or as I call it, the neverending project from hell. Having an engineering background has helped more than I thought it would.
Let me describe my greatest difficulty so far. A boat. Throwing a few photos of the boat, slip and wheels in question.
So we have a 16 foot fiberglass rowboat, handmade in the late 1950s. I rebuilt the interior (rails, seats, floor) twice now. I build whatever I can for any project I take on.
My physical issues are plenty when using the boat.
Standing while in the water with the vertigo is entertaining to say the least. But I use my cane so I've been able to deal with the staggering around in the boat. I'm going to make stabilizers for the boat to stop the boat rocking as much.
The seating is also an issue. Since I can't lift my feet past knee high, I either have to straddle the seat 100% of the time or twist around to get to the motor which (of course) leads to spine pain. I'm thinking a pedestal swiveling seat might be the answer but that has it's own issues in as the swiveling will make the vertigo go nuts. So it's probably going to be a static pedestal seat. Making that next week.
Getting out of the boat is basically impossible at the dock. My first try resulted in me falling into the water. So I built a boat slip, kind of like a trailer with no wheels but with the little wheels you see on boat trailers for the boat to roll on. Now I wear knee high rubber boots, drive the boat onto the slip and get out once it's stable and not rocking using my cane, sitting on the bow cover and twisting off into the water.
Most everything in the boat has to be within armslength so I don't have to get up while in the boat. Falling down in a small boat is not a good idea. Ever.
I'm having to design and build my own motor tilt assembly since the existing one I can't reach since I can't get up and move around in the boat - boat rocking, looking down into the water and vertigo is dangerous.
Not looking for pity, I live with the body I have. I'm borderline heavily handicapped - no feeling in my right leg (but I can feel pressure and pain so I can sort of walk and drive), vertigo, can't lift my feet past knee high, falling down a few times a day and my favorite, Syncope. That's the short list. All sorts of great stuff. All due to illnesses, injuries (Spine injury in 2000, Anthrax in 2002, viral lung infection in 2012) and reactions to medications. And now, due to a seizure in 2012, my right arm is 4 inches shorter than my left - due to shoulders dislocating from the seizure. My doctor is surprised I can function as well as I can. The neurologist back in 2000 said I'd never walk or work in the printing industry again (I said hold my beer, 20 years later I retired from printing).
I'm not letting being crippled stop me. I don't like the term handicapped, it generates too much pity and unless it's a visible handicap, people think it's a mental issue. You could say my pronoun is crippled. Many times the level of nerve pain is debilitating so I take synthetic morphine a few times a month on especially bad days.
My point with this is this: If you find yourself becoming handicapped from an illness or injury, don't let it stop you and (this is my personal view, in my opinion) take PT with a grain of salt. In my opinion, people put too much stock in PT when they can do it themselves with just a little research. I do my own PT - part of my handicap is my tendons tear easily. Two years ago my left quadricep tore with a giant snap - I thought I had been shot at first because it was so loud when it tore. Put on my removable leg cast, compressed the heck out of my thigh, waited 7 days for healing (and taking collagen powder), did my own PT, didn't bother my doctor.
What you have to do is adapt to your body and it's new (lack of) abilities. Don't let it stop you. Yeah, you can get bummed out and depressed over it all but in the end, you have to live with it so get busy living or busy dying. I took paramedic training and had the fortune of having one of the best internist doctors in the country. Art always taught me to learn as much as I can about the human body. With my issues, I normally have more understanding and information than my doctors do. I guess my point is, now that I'm thinking about it, learn as much as you can about specific areas of your body that are involved - spine, legs, knees, shoulder, cardiac - whatever part is injured.
On to the boat in question or as I call it, the neverending project from hell. Having an engineering background has helped more than I thought it would.
Let me describe my greatest difficulty so far. A boat. Throwing a few photos of the boat, slip and wheels in question.
So we have a 16 foot fiberglass rowboat, handmade in the late 1950s. I rebuilt the interior (rails, seats, floor) twice now. I build whatever I can for any project I take on.
My physical issues are plenty when using the boat.
Standing while in the water with the vertigo is entertaining to say the least. But I use my cane so I've been able to deal with the staggering around in the boat. I'm going to make stabilizers for the boat to stop the boat rocking as much.
The seating is also an issue. Since I can't lift my feet past knee high, I either have to straddle the seat 100% of the time or twist around to get to the motor which (of course) leads to spine pain. I'm thinking a pedestal swiveling seat might be the answer but that has it's own issues in as the swiveling will make the vertigo go nuts. So it's probably going to be a static pedestal seat. Making that next week.
Getting out of the boat is basically impossible at the dock. My first try resulted in me falling into the water. So I built a boat slip, kind of like a trailer with no wheels but with the little wheels you see on boat trailers for the boat to roll on. Now I wear knee high rubber boots, drive the boat onto the slip and get out once it's stable and not rocking using my cane, sitting on the bow cover and twisting off into the water.
Most everything in the boat has to be within armslength so I don't have to get up while in the boat. Falling down in a small boat is not a good idea. Ever.
I'm having to design and build my own motor tilt assembly since the existing one I can't reach since I can't get up and move around in the boat - boat rocking, looking down into the water and vertigo is dangerous.
