I'm going on one foot instead of on two, it isn't a thing I'm accustomed to do
The story begins at Day 1. The short version: I ruptured knee ligaments skiing, and am experiencing life with dramatically-reduced mobility. Today: shopping!
As mentioned before, I've been sleeping with my leg elevated on pillows. This isn't too bad for me; I sleep on my back anyway, and don't tend to move about that much in my sleep. (I don't naturally sleep on my back, but taught myself to a good few years ago because of ongoing neck pain.)
However, since my hip seemed to be hugely painful on waking, I tried a different tack and went to sleep the previous evening with my leg brace on instead, my leg flat rather than elevated. On waking up, my hip didn't seem to hurt nearly as much, so we'll chalk it up as a cautious success. I'm also trying to remember to use my hands to lift my leg when possible, to try and take the strain off my hip flexors.
Well, Saturday. What does one do on Saturdays? There were a few things I wanted from the shops, so we decided to mount an Expedition down to Ealing Broadway. Ordinarily to me, that's a ten minute walk down to the Broadway, a stroll about, and a walk back carrying any shopping. Clearly that wasn't quite going to work. Especially since grumbly Left Knee was still grumbling that it would like a bit more rest, please.
OK, we can drive down to Ealing. I also had a vague idea that one could borrow wheelchairs from the shopping centre, confirmed by their website. Right, this is looking quite plausible!
After a little fight with Google maps to get us through the traffic system to the right carpark entrance, ChrisC dropped me off at the Shopmobility office so I could hire a wheelchair while he parked. The lady in the office said that they did have wheelchairs, but wouldn't I rather have a powered scooter? She had a small fleet of shiny red electric sit-and-ride scooters, and thought I'd probably find one of those much better. I was a bit daunted, but she assured me that if I could drive a car (I can) a scooter would be no bother. Was it OK to take a scooter into shops? Of course. How much were they to hire? Free?? Bring it on.
I had a quick lesson in how to use one, and was off across the carpark (without leaving so much as a deposit) to find the lift. The scooter was easy enough to drive: a lever for forward, a lever for backward, and a dial that goes from 'tortoise' to 'hare'. Hare zooms forward with a terrifying speed clearly inappropriate for a crowded place. I dialled it back down to about quarter past tortoise and cruised through the carpark. This is easy! This is going to be fun!
The lift, when it arrived, had lots of people and a pushchair. OK, never mind, wait for the next one. I drove into the next one, totally failing to notice it was going up not down, so had a little detour of all seven floors of the multi-storey car park, and then made it down to the shops. I also pulled in at an angle that I realised was going to make it rather awkward for everyone else to get in and out, but due to lack of sideways gear I couldn't fix it. Instead, I apologised a lot.
To Boots! I figured I'd buy Left Knee its own sports support, in the hope it would realise that I do care about it, and do appreciate its work. Except... Boots has quite narrow aisles. And on a Saturday it's quite busy. Finding the sports supports, and the other stuff I wanted, was quite a challenge - among other things, you can't see the overhead signs telling you what's where when you're sitting down. It also involved a lot of waiting for the crowds to clear. And a few of those despairing moments (familiar from tiny carparks) where you realise you've got into a situation and really can't quite work out how to get out of it again. I really couldn't figure out how to manage the snaky queue to the tills, so ended up going to wait outside while ChrisC did that bit.
Primark was a little more successful, with its wider aisles and greater floorspace. I picked up a couple of pairs of cheap trackie bottoms, as they are currently featuring much more heavily in my clothing choices than usual. Of course, Primark had a huge queue (it always does). I joined the snake, and it was all going terribly well until I got called to the first till in the line, right on the bend, and discovered I was partially blocking the thoroughfare. I apologised to people who had to squeeze past me, up until a large lady with lots of bags couldn't get by. Primark's till system is a fiercely churning machine, and a blockage in it seemed likely to cause some kind of terrifying eruption of cogs and temper. I fled, leaving ChrisC to finish my transaction. (The Shopmobility lady later told me that Primark has a wheelchair-height till counter, and that one can go straight to it rather than queueing. I didn't spot that - maybe it's signed, but it hadn't even occurred to me to look for one.)
I kept finding myself in situations where I wanted to get out of someone's way, so I'd briefly turn the speed up to hurry off. I'd then forget to turn it down again, and - finding it surprisingly hard to judge - would set off far too quickly.
Feeling a bit dispirited, we headed up to the M&S café on the third floor. Becoming wiser, I reversed into the lift and tucked myself tidily into the corner so a push chair could fit in too. The café had another giant queue, and I couldn't work out where to put my scooter. The staff were very friendly, but not actually overly helpful ("Oh, wherever you want!") In the end, ChrisC moved a table so I could park up, and then he went to do the queueing. You may notice he is definitely getting the shitty end of the stick in this shopping outing.
Later, leaving M&S, I remembered something I'd wanted to hunt for and ChrisC kindly went back to check while I absent-mindedly browsed wedding hats. I don't have any requirement for a wedding hat, but it gave me something to look at while I waited. The hat racks are laid out with aisles that seemed plenty wide enough... until I realised that the display is slightly angled. I suddenly found myself in a situation where I needed to execute a considerably-more-than ninety-degree turn to exit... lots of reversing ensued. After three shops, I was pretty much knackered and we took the scooter back.
I think, on balance, I would rather have had a manual wheelchair. Although it is possible to take the scooter into shops, its bulk does make it terribly inconvenient in the hands of an amateur. Certainly in Boots, I should have left it outside and hobbled my way round slowly on crutches. I imagine a wheelchair would have encountered some of the same problems with snaky queues and angled aisles, but a better turning circle would have helped a lot. If there are any habitual scooter-users reading, is it something that improves with practice, or are shops just basically best avoided?
No blame attaches to Ealing Shopmobility, by the way, who run an amazing service. They offer free hire of manual wheelchairs, electric wheelchairs and electric scooters for use in and around Ealing centre, either on the day or booked in advance. Although they're clearly a shoestring operation, subsisting mostly on donations, I was very impressed. From chatting to the lady, I think most of the regular clients are elderly people on a day out; presumably their slightly different requirements mean that the scooters are way more popular than the wheelchairs.
Heroes of the day: Ealing Shopmobility, ChrisC.
As mentioned before, I've been sleeping with my leg elevated on pillows. This isn't too bad for me; I sleep on my back anyway, and don't tend to move about that much in my sleep. (I don't naturally sleep on my back, but taught myself to a good few years ago because of ongoing neck pain.)
However, since my hip seemed to be hugely painful on waking, I tried a different tack and went to sleep the previous evening with my leg brace on instead, my leg flat rather than elevated. On waking up, my hip didn't seem to hurt nearly as much, so we'll chalk it up as a cautious success. I'm also trying to remember to use my hands to lift my leg when possible, to try and take the strain off my hip flexors.
Well, Saturday. What does one do on Saturdays? There were a few things I wanted from the shops, so we decided to mount an Expedition down to Ealing Broadway. Ordinarily to me, that's a ten minute walk down to the Broadway, a stroll about, and a walk back carrying any shopping. Clearly that wasn't quite going to work. Especially since grumbly Left Knee was still grumbling that it would like a bit more rest, please.
OK, we can drive down to Ealing. I also had a vague idea that one could borrow wheelchairs from the shopping centre, confirmed by their website. Right, this is looking quite plausible!
After a little fight with Google maps to get us through the traffic system to the right carpark entrance, ChrisC dropped me off at the Shopmobility office so I could hire a wheelchair while he parked. The lady in the office said that they did have wheelchairs, but wouldn't I rather have a powered scooter? She had a small fleet of shiny red electric sit-and-ride scooters, and thought I'd probably find one of those much better. I was a bit daunted, but she assured me that if I could drive a car (I can) a scooter would be no bother. Was it OK to take a scooter into shops? Of course. How much were they to hire? Free?? Bring it on.
I had a quick lesson in how to use one, and was off across the carpark (without leaving so much as a deposit) to find the lift. The scooter was easy enough to drive: a lever for forward, a lever for backward, and a dial that goes from 'tortoise' to 'hare'. Hare zooms forward with a terrifying speed clearly inappropriate for a crowded place. I dialled it back down to about quarter past tortoise and cruised through the carpark. This is easy! This is going to be fun!
The lift, when it arrived, had lots of people and a pushchair. OK, never mind, wait for the next one. I drove into the next one, totally failing to notice it was going up not down, so had a little detour of all seven floors of the multi-storey car park, and then made it down to the shops. I also pulled in at an angle that I realised was going to make it rather awkward for everyone else to get in and out, but due to lack of sideways gear I couldn't fix it. Instead, I apologised a lot.
To Boots! I figured I'd buy Left Knee its own sports support, in the hope it would realise that I do care about it, and do appreciate its work. Except... Boots has quite narrow aisles. And on a Saturday it's quite busy. Finding the sports supports, and the other stuff I wanted, was quite a challenge - among other things, you can't see the overhead signs telling you what's where when you're sitting down. It also involved a lot of waiting for the crowds to clear. And a few of those despairing moments (familiar from tiny carparks) where you realise you've got into a situation and really can't quite work out how to get out of it again. I really couldn't figure out how to manage the snaky queue to the tills, so ended up going to wait outside while ChrisC did that bit.
Primark was a little more successful, with its wider aisles and greater floorspace. I picked up a couple of pairs of cheap trackie bottoms, as they are currently featuring much more heavily in my clothing choices than usual. Of course, Primark had a huge queue (it always does). I joined the snake, and it was all going terribly well until I got called to the first till in the line, right on the bend, and discovered I was partially blocking the thoroughfare. I apologised to people who had to squeeze past me, up until a large lady with lots of bags couldn't get by. Primark's till system is a fiercely churning machine, and a blockage in it seemed likely to cause some kind of terrifying eruption of cogs and temper. I fled, leaving ChrisC to finish my transaction. (The Shopmobility lady later told me that Primark has a wheelchair-height till counter, and that one can go straight to it rather than queueing. I didn't spot that - maybe it's signed, but it hadn't even occurred to me to look for one.)
I kept finding myself in situations where I wanted to get out of someone's way, so I'd briefly turn the speed up to hurry off. I'd then forget to turn it down again, and - finding it surprisingly hard to judge - would set off far too quickly.
Feeling a bit dispirited, we headed up to the M&S café on the third floor. Becoming wiser, I reversed into the lift and tucked myself tidily into the corner so a push chair could fit in too. The café had another giant queue, and I couldn't work out where to put my scooter. The staff were very friendly, but not actually overly helpful ("Oh, wherever you want!") In the end, ChrisC moved a table so I could park up, and then he went to do the queueing. You may notice he is definitely getting the shitty end of the stick in this shopping outing.
Later, leaving M&S, I remembered something I'd wanted to hunt for and ChrisC kindly went back to check while I absent-mindedly browsed wedding hats. I don't have any requirement for a wedding hat, but it gave me something to look at while I waited. The hat racks are laid out with aisles that seemed plenty wide enough... until I realised that the display is slightly angled. I suddenly found myself in a situation where I needed to execute a considerably-more-than ninety-degree turn to exit... lots of reversing ensued. After three shops, I was pretty much knackered and we took the scooter back.
I think, on balance, I would rather have had a manual wheelchair. Although it is possible to take the scooter into shops, its bulk does make it terribly inconvenient in the hands of an amateur. Certainly in Boots, I should have left it outside and hobbled my way round slowly on crutches. I imagine a wheelchair would have encountered some of the same problems with snaky queues and angled aisles, but a better turning circle would have helped a lot. If there are any habitual scooter-users reading, is it something that improves with practice, or are shops just basically best avoided?
No blame attaches to Ealing Shopmobility, by the way, who run an amazing service. They offer free hire of manual wheelchairs, electric wheelchairs and electric scooters for use in and around Ealing centre, either on the day or booked in advance. Although they're clearly a shoestring operation, subsisting mostly on donations, I was very impressed. From chatting to the lady, I think most of the regular clients are elderly people on a day out; presumably their slightly different requirements mean that the scooters are way more popular than the wheelchairs.
Heroes of the day: Ealing Shopmobility, ChrisC.