it’s difficult to overstate how tough it’s been to deal with limited mobility. hiking and cycling used to be such a fundamental part of my life.

i can still walk. but barely. the break in my hip may heal but will come with some chronic pain and the nerve damage in the other hip is permanent.
i can still cycle but only on level ground for short distances. i still love it, but it’s not the same.

and so, here i am…
to be able to do more without assistance a chair might be more useful than a cane.

@Eggfreckles i gave up on most “getting around” about 7 or 8 years ago. i can do some things, just not too much. the more i do the larger the cost — measured in units of chronic pain.

fortunately for me i exercised enough for a few lifetimes by the time i hit 30. and even after that, after my big accident, i still had another ten years of backpacking. just a bit more limping on each trip.

now moving hurts. yep… pretty much all moving. walking around a grocery store is a big ask.

@Eggfreckles i know it’s not healthy to not move — but there are no real alternatives. and there are no treatments for severred nerves other than treating the symptoms. that means pain killers and nerve deadening — pretty terrible stuff.

i still ride my bike occasionally. and i still swim occasionally. both hurt, sometimes, maybe most times, it hurts a lot. so i can’t do either very often — but hurt less than any other moving — so i’m choosing to hang on to them for as long as i can.