Out & About – Page 10 – Multiple Sclerosis & Me

My Bionic Foot

I’d seen the ads for this product before but never dug into the benefits of it. As my walking took a turn for the worse, I started looking into it and eventually i had the opportunity to get a free evaluation, so why not go check it out. During the evaluation, I could actually feel the difference the thing made. Essentially it’s a cuff (with two electrodes) that goes around my left calf and it stimulates the nerve that makes my foot “work properly” – meaning in the heel to toe action. Without it, most days, my left foot just drags as I try to move the leg to take a step. The device is made by Bioness and they actually produce 1 for the upper thigh (stimulates a nerve in the leg – don’t know which one as I wasn’t evaluated for this), one for the hand (I didn’t see results as drastically with this one) and the one for the foot. (Anyone want to take a stab at why the ass this font changed???)

It’s a 3 part device. There’s a sensor in my shoe – at this moment it’s in my sneaker (it can only work with shoes that have a strap around the ankle (ladies, a sling back shoe) or a whole shoe) – the cuff is secured around my left calf and I have a small remote to control it. When I’m ready to move I place it it “walking” mode and when my weight is off the sensor, it senses that I’m ready to take a step, I feel a tingling sensation and my foot “kicks” into action. It doesn’t allow me to walk further (cuz my legs still get fatigued) but it sure makes the act of walking less laborious for me so i definitely walk vs using the scooter when i can. There’s also a “training” mode where it stimulates the nerve without the sensor so my foot moves up and down on its own but the idea while doing this is that I actually move my foot with it (so in a sense I’m retraining my brain and foot to work together to get the foot moving properly).

My “problem” right now is that I really have to find other shoes with which it’ll work. A few months back, I had to go somewhere that required a dress and I wanted to walk vs using Soca Scooter. I had to make a decision – a dress (I’m short so I only wear short dresses) and sneakers or jeans with sneakers…what to do what to do?!?! In the end I wore the dress because that’s what the occasion called for but it was still kinda weird. So I have to buy some new shoes.

Why my bionic foot u ask? The day I got it, Learls and OB were here and that night as I was walking into my bedroom, she looked at the way I was walking and said, “u doh have on yuh foot?” It became “my foot” and when 1 of my aunts called and said, “I hear u have a bionic foot!” Well. How do you refer to it as a “Bioness device” after that? 🙂

Never Say Never

They say “never say never”. Well now, I guess I must agree.

I’ve said multiple times – including right here on this blog – that I’ll never go home again for Carnival. I mean:

I cyah play mas (my biggest reason)
I shouldn’t be in heat/sun – steups
(being on the scooter) Is never a good thing for me to be in crowds
I love my country but let’s be honest, a lot of places are not so Stacey-friendly

…wha’s the friggin point of going?

Well EVERY year without fail, I’s just be oozing salt when everybody talking bout when they leaving, who they playing with and of course, there’s Facebook; one will have to dig out one’s eyes to escape the status updates, pictures, random videos and various articles…and then…there’s the music! Sigh! Sigh!!

We always joke that as “people in foreign” we know the music (words included) faster than the locals cuz we are so bloody hungry for it here.

And can u tell me why in EVERY picture EVERY SINGLE PERSON must be smiling, looking good and having a good time? Nobody has a off minute when the picture is snapped??? Meanwhile, my ass sitting here working and is 4something degrees and possibly snow on the ground. This year I tortured myself until Friday evening when I logged off. I didn’t look at a non Bank of America device until Ash Wednesday. Well…NO MORE!

I actually don’t care about any of the aforementioned bullets. I’m at the point where I just want/need to be in the country. Asal played Monday night mas last year; it was an affordable, all inclusive band that was Stacey friendly enuf cuz it was small and guess what? No sun (I know I’ll still feel hottish but it should be ok). In addition, at that time, it was actually the only band – she had a great time and Monday night mas was a good time eons ago before I left home – I in dat! I will also do my due diligence to see if I can go any fetes…if not, is no scene, cuz I’ll be home. I figure nothing wrong with at least trying it once. If I go and I determine that maybe it wasn’t such a great idea, then I’ll hadda regroup. if I don’t go, I won’t know.

Enjoy!

Anyhoo, so ticket already bought…I’m going for a week – can’t wait!

Why Lyft

I planned on going more into my use of Lyft and then I heard a story on the news the other day that tied in very well…lemme explain.

So here in the US, there are ride-sharing options to use when u need to go somewhere. Essentially anyone who owns a car can sign up to be a driver with whichever company and thru the company app, when I’m ready to go somewhere, I input my destination and pickup location and the nearest driver (I suppose) accepts the request and comes for me. i get a picture of the driver and their car, they see a picture of me…easy peasy and they’re cheaper than taxis or a car service by far. In Atlanta, the options we have are Lyft and Uber. When T-ster suggested using Lyft, I was a lil skeptical because I’d used Uber previously and had a “not so great” experience both times (nothing to do with accessibility). But! Winter was winding down and I was ready to get out of…I did some reading and got the app. In so doing I realised that I could set up a handicapped profile (and request an accessible vehicle) and there’s a clause on their website that states that drivers cannot discriminate against disabled passengers – this kinda put my mind at ease (plus I couldn’t find anything similar on Uber) and I was ready to take the plunge.

The good thing is that I don’t need an accessible vehicle; Soca Scooter breaks down and fits quite comfortably in the trunk of any car. When I requested my first few cars, I used to give the drivers a heads up by text “hey I’m in a mobility scooter ok”. Well that stopped when one chick responded with “oh. U need a bigger vehicle then, I’ll cancel so u can get one”. I couldn’t tell her that I certainly didn’t – allyuh eh want to see me get into ah SUV…it’s not ladylike/pretty/graceful AT ALL; on top of which, it eh the easiest thing for me to do. I try to avoid them at all costs. My experience so far using Lyft has been great – all the drivers I’ve encountered have been helpful when I needed them to be and I’ve not gotten any complaints/run into any issue (they mighta been cussing me fuh so on the inside for having to haul the scooter in and out the trunk, but i saw no signs of it)

One lady had a trunk full of ferns she’d just bought but she did some rearranging and we were on our way. So…use my link if you ever decide to use them – i believe we’ll both get some kinda credit or something.

Now…bout that news story. A blind person with his service dog and his friend requested an uber driver. Story went that the driver pulled up, saw them, told them he couldn’t take them and drove away. Apparently the driver said (to a reporter after) that his daughter is allergic to dog hair and that’s y he couldn’t take them and he drove away to go read Uber’s policy. Woulda be nice if he’d explained the situation to the people – not the reporter…after the fact. who knows what really happened?

I’m not stupid, I know that anything is possible with Lyft and their drivers too, but for just a split second, I thought “yup…looks like I’m using the right company”

alright, i gone so…have a great weekend!

Stax 4 Part Deux

Before I start writing this post, I hadda say that I’m not writing in any order here. I’m just talking about the past year and if I have anything current to include, well that’ll happen too.

The dream of Stax 4 being an Infiniti coupe remains and will always be just that…a dream.

Had a real nice picture to insert are but either my dinosaur of a laptop, blogger or both of them together were fighting me so u hadda picture me in a deep, red G35 coupe – i look good eh?

I haven’t driven a car since May last year. OBs was here then and one day as we got in the car to go wherever (or it might have been when we were coming out), it occurred to me that I was relying heavily on him. The driving itself is fine (unless I get stuck in traffic – the constant stop and go switching from pedal to pedal fatigues dem legs), it’s the simple motion of hauling my left leg in the car after I’m seated and reaching to grab and close my door – that’s what I can’t do. (i’m beginning to really dislike Blogger – y is this text centered? steups) Lemme explain…my left hand curls up – ESPECIALLY when I need to use it – and I usually have to use the right one to open it up. In addition to that, when I need the hand, my elbow doesn’t like to straighten…ugh! So, I can’t reach the door handle and AND I can’t grab it to pull the door in.

I don’t remember what I did/how I spent last summer but I can tell u that when my hibernation period started, I wasn’t mad that I wasn’t driving cuz I wasn’t venturing out anyway. But of course winter FINALLY had to done this year and I started thinking seriously about biting the bullet (I haven’t had a car payment since May 2013!) and getting an accessible car – I knew that there was no way I could be stuck in here after winter was done, I’d lost so much independence because I couldn’t drive. Well I called T-ster cuz I knew he could guide me. One day while we were talking, he said “Stax. Y u putting urself in this expense. U ever thought bout using Lyft?” Lemme tell allyuh…long story short, that was the best advice EVER. let’s just say that from the first weekend (as nervous as I was, I was determined to get out), I’ve not looked back. Wild horses can’t keep me in this apartment on weekends and I’ve regained much of my independence.

Stax3 is still around. It’s amazing how people come into ur life sometimes just at the right time. I’ve known this older couple for years – one of the first outside Trini family – but we were never really close or stayed in contact outside social settings. Unfortunately it took a very sad event to bring us together, but they currently drive Stax 3 and do some other things to help me out just when I needed to find someone. I do miss my car and driving sometimes, but wha ah go do? In these instances, I just hadda think about the “what if situations (if I drive somewhere…and there could be many (GASP!))” and I know that this is how it has to be.

That’s it for now…hol it dong.

Stax

Hi

It’s been a little over a year. I stopped writing because my disability was getting worse and I no longer enjoyed(?)/looked forward to(?)/wanted(?) to write about things going in a downward spiral. I think I’m at a point where I’m dealing with the worsened state and I’m okay with it (at the end of the day, I have no choice right?) and I actually want to come back – been thinking about it for the past few days. So…how to catch up…plenty to talk about.

First things first I suppose, walking with my beloved canes became more and more treacherous. Before I get into that I must say that I have no additional/new MS symptoms – my complaint has always been the steady decline of my walking (I’ll get into details later) and it still is. Also, my left hand followed suit and curls up a lot (read “anytime I friggin need to use it”) and so that just got progressively worse over time. My canes…I had to overcome a psychological hurdle and come to terms with the fact that I need a walker. I doh care what u call me, but walking with a walker sucks…I do it…and I do it with style 😉 but at the end of the day, it’s a walker. I made the Soca Scooter my own and I still do (although these days the poor thing is making noises I never heard before) but there’s no way to “jazz up” a walker. I’ll admit though, I didn’t get the medical Grey one that u see people putting the tennis balls under, I got a 2wheel one that is black and grey with blue handles but guess what? Yup, it’s still a walker.

I NEED the walker…I cyah be schupid (it’s just how we pronounce stupid), so I use it. I think it’s just a chounx wider than those other ones but it works for me. I do use Soca Scooter more now tho than when I walked with canes – sometimes walking doesn’t make sense. The other day I bought a tray for the walker so that if I’m carrying food (hell anything in my hands) I don’t have to use the scooter in here. There’s good news too…I didn’t have any bad falls before switching from the canes. So, I had to “hang up” my canes. These days they just liming in a corner of my living room. sigh! I do miss them

Alright…not going to give u everything in my first post so I gone so.

P. S…Blogger has made some changes making me ketch meh ass to do this so bear with me as i get back into the flow of things.

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