I'm not entirely sure what I've just done to myself apart from slipping on a leaf but
um, meet my walking stick! Yeah!
[Upbeat intro music]
Let's talk mobility aids. It's that
wonderful time of year when temperatures drop and pain levels rise, or illness levels, whatever
you wanna call it. I find that I struggle more with pain in the cold as well as the
obvious. I think it's probably the right time to introduce you to my mobility aids. It's
not exactly a secret that I use a wheelchair on occasion, I talked about it in this video
when it was wheelchair access denied with instant karma because that was great. That
was in summer, that was a rare high pain day on a hot day. Now that temperatures are dropping
and I'm probably always going to be out with this, maybe out with this, and sometimes out
with this. We should get to know one another. My walking stick, or my cane, however you
wanna call it, I don't really mind. Um, I just usually call her the stick and yes, she's
a she. All of my mobility aids are she. She's a bit [cane rattles] rickety, I bought her
on the internet for less than a fiver with free shipping because I loaned mine to somebody
I thought was a friend but they disappeared off to Scotland and never returned it. My
folding stick, she fits nicely in my bag and I use her when either one of my legs hurts,
or it's a wet day so I don't fall over like I did earlier on, wet leaves will be the death
of me I swear to god- my balance is just a little bit off, or I just need a little bit of
extra support. I'm like 5ft1 5ft2 and this is the shortest it will go and she's still a little
bit big for me so she's not as supportive as she could be. She's got a nice floral print,
I don't know if you can see it but I will probably put a close up picture on my Instagram
at some point. She'll probably be on me or with me everywhere I go while it's winter
and autumn. She'll be with me. And because she's foldable, she's like my go-to for if
I'm having a good day but I want to be on the safe side. So let's move on to crutches.
There are two of them but I don't know where I've put the other one. I think it's upstairs
somewhere. They're a bit more sturdy um, these were courtesy of the NHS. I use them when
I need support from two legs, or my lower back, anywhere that I need kind of even, balanced
support, or a lot of weight bearing support so with my stick she's kind of- don't really
use her to weight bear I just use her to support but this- I'm not phrasing this very well.
There are a bit more adjustable as well so when it's more important that I have the right support
this is good because I can- I can alter it. They do hurt my elbows and my wrists a little
bit more than my stick but they're good for when I've like fallen down the stairs and
I don't want to hurt my leg but I've got stuff to do and they're like- they're like a go
between between the stick and the wheelchair. I don't really use them that much if I'm honest.
I only really use them when I've got my boot on. I've got my boot hold on. She's good because
she's got a hook as well so I can do this. Yeah, she's good for this. If I'm finding
I need this, if I've rolled my ankle and I've got to put this on this on, I'll use a crutch with it. This I
cannot wait to yeet into the sun when I get a new one, it should just be an insole [Max
laughs] I don't know how I ended up with this when just- y'know. They're kind of not as
pretty, much more medical, and they are- they invite the question "what have you done" whereas
the stick is kind of "what's wrong with you" even though that is not a better question,
it's a different question. I feel like you probably know what I mean with that. My crutches
aren't foldable because they're NHS issue, so they're big and clunky so if I take them
out I take them out. That is a committed decision. As is my wheelchair. This is Betsy- Betsy
the nonbinary wheelchair who also uses she pronouns- it's just a bit of fun. I had to
crowd fun for this, she cost a couple of hundred pounds which I didn't have but I needed her.
This was when I was in my third year of uni so it was like- I needed to be there and I
couldn't, so I had to make the decision to "OK, it's time for me to invest in a wheelchair".
I was- I was very fortunate because I joined wheelchair basketball at the start of my third
year and that kind of gave me the confidence to be like "look how much better I can move,
like, I'm going down the court with a ball and I'm playing sports and it's not causing
me pain" I don't really know what to say about her really, shes a wheelchair, she's a manual
chair, she folds, doesn't use smart drive or anything, um, probably could have used
it at my worst but I haven't been at my worst for a long time. Will I use her much more
over winter? Possibly, possibly not, she's very easy to keep warm in because you can
have blankets, I would tuck a hot water bottle in with me because you can kind of sit on
the hot water bottle or like have it under the blanket so you're nice and warm you can
have it behind your back, there are so many like subtle wheelchair perks that make me
feel better about needing one. I don't use her around the house because maybe one day
there will be a house tour but I live upstairs, I cannot carry my wheelchair upstairs, and
it's not worth using her in the kitchen slash living area space which I'm straddling right
now. So I bring this with my chair on a bad day so that I can get out of my chair if I
need to if I want to, I will use this for balance and to help me get out of the chair
sometimes on a really bad day the action of getting out of the chair I need that extra- see, a matching set,
so what I do with her is fold her in half and just tuck her under a leg, or usually
under the seat because that's not very comfortable. I can't really use my wheelchair and take
my crutches so it's like a- there's lots of things to consider when choosing your mobility
aid for the day, or choosing to use one at all, so yeah. That's- you've now met my mobility
aids, if you would like to know more about any of them, let me know in the comments section
below and while you're there don't forget to like this video, subscribe to my channel
if you haven't already, I do have lots of ideas for wheelchair based videos so they
will be coming out when I'm using my chair a bit more, and ring that notification bell
so you get notified every time I post a new video, videos go up every Saturday at 6pm
UK time with at least one bonus video every single month. See ya!