Tuesday 26 April 2016

Why Do I Use a Power Wheelchair When I Can Walk?

Someone asked me recently why I use a power wheelchair when I have the ability to walk. Why don’t I force myself to walk? Why have I given up?
The following was my answer:
Please do not judge me until you live a day in my life and understand the disabling medical condition I endure daily. I am able to walk a few steps with the assistance of a walker or cane, but due to a rare, invisible, chronic, hereditary, debilitating mineral metabolic disorder called periodic paralysis, my skeletal and breathing muscles are weak and progressively getting weaker, permanently. 
I have developed exercise intolerance. This means I am unable to do physical exercise or exertion on a level those others my age can. This condition also causes extreme pain and fatigue after exercising or exertion and other debilitating symptoms such as a feeling of heaviness in the muscle groups. 

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