#WordyandWheelyWednesdays: First Steps

Hello my lovely readers

Today's #WordyandWheelyWednesdays entry is a special one. Not only is it filled with exciting news and video evidence of my walker, it also (entirely coincidentally) is my hundredth post on this blog. I couldn't have asked for a more appropriate subject than the fitting for my Grillo frame. (I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it was for me not to make a pun in that sentence, so hopefully you'll appreciate my restraint.)

Before I wax lyrical about proceedings, though, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported our crowdfunding effort, both through donations and sharing. The overwhelming generosity and kindness of spirit has been such a motivator - and I'm thrilled to say not only have we met our target but the order has now been placed! Somewhat uncharacteristically, I don't have enough words to encapsulate my gratitude.

Hopefully the video at the bottom of this post will go some way to conveying it. Rather than bore you with a lengthy description of the fitting, which would probably be of interest to the physios, OTs or engineers amongst you, I thought I'd come up with three things I learnt during it. These things directly correlate to various points in the video.

1) Muscle memory is a real phenomenon. Although the first steps were incredibly difficult, each further one got easier, and I realised that, despite there being over a decade between this new venture in a walker and my last regular exercise in one, my body knew what to do once we got started. That was a huge relief.

2) I am nevertheless extremely unfit. As will be evident from my heavy breathing during the video, the fitting and trial was very hard work. I have never been one to shirk in other aspects my life, though, so I am determined now to apply that dedication to my physicality on land. Due to the 4-6 week shipping time required, I am not exactly sure when my own walker will arrive from Italy, so will continue training in my hoist until it does. The advantage of this delay is that walking in the hoist takes significantly more effort, so I am considering it the equivalent of hill training for a longer run or marathon.

3) Stability is everything for me. During the fitting, in order to get all the angles, heights etc into the most suitable position for me, I had to take up some rather interesting poses myself - including, at one point, pretty much kneeling on the floor. However, because I was securely fastened into the support harness, I felt completely safe and stable. (I mean that sincerely, not in the empty rhetorical sense of the phrase that is bandied around in politics these days.) This carried over into my walking, so much so that (had I had the energy) I would quite happily have attempted a little jog. 

On that note, I feel I should speed up slightly with this post, so without further ado (but with much love and gratitude) here is the video.

Jx