Exoskeleton advice
I have been using a Steps exoskeleton support for six months now.
Just wondering if anyone else here uses similar.
About to transition to a hypershelll x ultra custom made for my situation.
Comments
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That is so cool!!! I never knew that existed IRL, only in Sci Fi.
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Not everyone is suited to an exoskeleton.I have used a steps exoskeleton for a while now. They take a little bit of work and time to put on. I am told that I am stubborn as I refuse to lay down and die and will crawl if I cannot walk.
many times I have crawled. It is good that I have had a team to work with me and could see my determination to walk again.0 -
This is how I am able to live on my own.
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People with high levels of spasticity would not be suitable for this equipment
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35 years ago when I did rehab there were a couple of guys with low, incomplete spinal injuries who were being trained to use what were then called calipers.
Similar design to the exoskeleton but they weren't powered, people essentially picked themselves up and swang their legs in order to "walk".
It struck me as a lot of work for what I considered insufficient gain, but my disability wasn't really suitable for them.
Like exoskeletons, calipers claimed to enable increased independence and social interaction. I've always found those things available to me in my wheelchair.
I'm pleased however to read that exoskeletons have come as far as they have (thanks for the heads up!) and if that's what you or anyone else desire good luck to them.
The lessons I remember them most often hearing were all about managing potential pressure points on their skin (although having sensation made that somewhat easier for them) and trying to engage in a range of exercises, to avoid RSI.
Good luck
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@jonf I have peripheral neuropathy in my feet for various reasons that allow only minimal standing and walking. My symptoms started in 2011. Eventually it may progress to the point of having to have my feet chopped off, at which point I think I'd rather throw in the towel. But who knows how I will react in the future. I've said never would I ever, and then I do because, like you, I'm blessed with a huge dose of stubbornness AKA perseverance. Sometimes I'm downright pig-headed, but the upshot to that is that when I do decide to let go I know I've gone way past when I should have given up and therefore can walk away saying I gave it my best shot. Ring a bell?
And maybe there will be some invention down the road that gives me other options, like this option you have that wasn't available in the past. You give me hope. Thank you.
Anyway, now I'm dependent on my mobility devices. But ironically that dependence allows me, like you, to live independently. I'm so very grateful to live at a time when these devices are available to us.
So is this exoskeleton you use widely used by others? Or is it cutting edge?
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Hi @jonf I posted this last night but it disappeared and now it's lost its place in the queue. Maybe it was filtered. I hope you see it.
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I never say never. I have been so very low and not so long ago sat with an HS precision in my mouth. Would have happily ended it all. My own distant family took everything after obtaining a court order after I sustained a very serious accident.
Fortunately for me and unfortunately for another family that I know,their son took his own life and I could see the damage it had done to the family left behind.
I met a very kind soul who helped me get back to the UK and through the veterans charity I was able to fight another fight and win through the judicial system a lot of what was legally mine. Cannot get blood out of a stone but revenge is sweet.
That was a little over two years ago. My only options at the time were to wipe out my whole family, that would have made the headlines. Take my own life or accept help from another human.
Let’s say I was very broken.
So we keep fighting in this life until it is time to ring that bell.
Today I am at the hospital again, it is my second home. They just want to check how my body is coping with all of the medication.I am happy now and I have my independence and my gingers.
One day at a time.
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You've clearly been through a lot @jonf. How is it going at the hospital? I hope everything is ok.
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I am ok thank you. Just everyone tries to fix their little part of me at the same time and it takes it’s toll.
You only get one life so party hard. No good wishing that you had done something when you are 100.
Strike while the iron is hot.
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Love that perspective @jonf, very inspiring.
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I have my quiet moments or reflections of what on earth am living in the uk for. Medical here believe me is good . I have seen people in other countries turned away who cannot pay.
I am always looking for a new home away from uk.
Will certainly be gone within three years from the uk.
The uk now is not the country that I grew up in and fought for.
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Hi @jonf and thank you for writing about your experiences. I've been hanging on by a thread since I was a kid, but there is always something that trumps letting go. For you it was the family you knew. Sometimes it seems so silly later as to why we hang on. And sometimes that makes me wonder who is putting ideas into my head when I have fallen to my knees in the depths of despair with no solution or even hope in sight. Often we have the most clarity when we have hit rock bottom, as is often said. You know that song by Lady Gaga (sorry to bring her up if you don't like her) called Million Reasons? It's framed as a love song, in that she's looking for one reason to stay with her guy after he has given her a million reasons to go. But I frame it as a song about wanting to break up with life itself. And she knows that all she needs to balance the million reasons to go is one reason to stay. So when I find that one reason now, since I've been in that place so many times, I think of that reason as a gift.
There is a movement called the Semicolon Project, which, in a nutshell, says it's okay to think about it, as it just could just be a pause for thought, as one of our many options. But like a sentence that can end, with a semicolon it allows you to continue your sentence, or your life. I put a tattoo on my ankle a few years ago in honour of this movement. We live in a time when the Thought Police are in full force internationally to ban all thoughts or dialogue about this option. It is in fact illegal to think about it or talk about it, because if you do, there are laws in place to punish you, including forcing toxic medications on you and forced confinement in mental wards, where atrocious behaviour is the norm. This so-called treatment, IMO, is only making matters worse. And I don't understand why that cannot be obvious. I think of us as canaries in the mine - those of us who are disabled - in that we feel things and see things and think things that abled people don't. It is like in biological ecosystems you have bioindicator species that are very sensitive, and we have learned that they are very important indicators of the health of the ecosystem, because when they are sick that indicates the ecosystem is sick. So the solution to a toxic coal mine is not to keep the canary alive. And the solution to a dying bioindicator is not to keep the bioindicator alive. Rather, the solution is to fix the canary's mine, or to fix the bioindicator's ecosystem.
So are you saying that you had an accident, and that is why you need the exoskeleton?
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@jonf my reply disappeared again. Hopefully it's just caught up in the filter or some glitch and it will appear later. Regardless, I'm sending you huge hugs and thanking you for opening up.
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As a result I learned restraint, betrayal, both mental and physical torture from other peoples greed and I have a saying that I felt vulturised.
One thing I have learned is tomorrow is a new day and I never look back, no regrets here.
I guess I have been there and got the tee shirt.
Watch and see I will be eating my fish & chips at Chapmans Peak during Christmas time. I will also sit on that dam wall unaided.
today I managed 100 steps on my own, last week it was 53.0 -
I guess it’s a don’t judge until you have flown on my broomstick.
does that make sense.0 -
Hi @jonf yes, I think I understand what you're saying except for your first paragraph,
"As a result I learned restraint, betrayal, both mental and physical torture from other peoples greed and I have a saying that I felt vulturised."
As a result of what?
Oh I'd love some English fish & chips! That's a perfect incentive. 👍😊 I miss fish and chips here. Woe is me!
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By the by, are you talking about the mountain Chapman's Peak in South Africa? I just looked it up. That's insanely gorgeous!!! For real?? As in this ....?
Chapman's Peak
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I am yes. I used to live at lake Michelle Noordhoek which leads onto Chapmans Peak. It is a beautiful spot lace of it were not for crime. I guess no worse than London these days.
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Well that's an amazing goal. Awesome. I adore nature. It sets my heart in place. It's one of the things I don't like at all about where I live - the lack of wild nature. So if I can get my act together and learn to be more independent and mobile, I'd love to move to Northern Spain. I've never been, but just the pics make my heart sing
Did you see my first post from today? I'm not sure if you would prefer not to answer or if you missed the post. Either way, that's okay. Just wondering.
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