Everything I do still takes an age – putting on makeup, tidying my desk, making something simple to eat – but I have developed a dogged determination to complete even simple tasks, a spirit of perseverance that I may never have otherwise known.
Over the following years, movement and mobility became more and more painful and challenging, but I was determined to stay on my feet – to still be a “walking person”.
But, gradually, I developed the skills I needed to go out with my children, or go on holiday, and started doing both much more than I was able to during the years of trying to stay on my feet.
When my rheumatoid arthritis became more aggressive, I clung to the idea of still being a ‘walking person’.
During the early days, when I hated the wheelchair, I would look at it by my bed and see it as a stark reminder of what I had lost.
