I'm a wheelchair user. I doubt anyone who reads this doesn't know that. I have Cerebral Palsy (CP). I do independent standing transfers and can walk a very few steps with a walker. Accross a room is pretty much my limit without getting stupidly breathless (due to being unfit) and having really sore legs (that's the CP). I can't stand unsupported however.
The inability to stand unsupported makes weighing myself a total nightmare. A lot of people suggest making sure I do it exactly the same way each week. This isn't possible. My inability to stand unsupported is because of my poor balance. And I have good balance days and bad balance days. In fact, no two days are the same. I also have a lot of issues with spasticity which can lead to my also having difficulty with standing and weight bearing.
Since April I've been having a lot of support from one of the practice nurses at the GP surgery I go to. It's really useful but they have no way of weighing a wheelchair user. I've ranted at them a lot about that seeing as how they have 10,000+ patients meaning I cannot be the only wheelchair user with weight issues. But nothing doing. A formal complaint to the practice manager may have achieved something but moaning at my GP and the nurse is pretty much all I've done. I've let the matter go now as a waste of my time and energy. The nurse now keeps telling me that I seem to be in a much better place mentally and in terms of my depression. This is definitely true but I do wonder how much of that she's basing on the fact I've stopped moaning about the ridiculousness of their having no facility to weigh a wheelchair user.
Anyway, I've been finding have no real record of my progress difficult. A couple of months ago the nurse started helping me to do two measurements. Neither have noticeably changed.
But a couple of weeks ago my mum said she had seen a stool (I assume a perching stool as those are vaguely Emma's CP friendly) that she thought would fit on a normal set of scales if we could find one big enough. And last week we thought we'd seen one but didn't know if it was big enough. So when we got home I looked on Amazon to see if they had measurements.
Couldn't find the measurements but I did find the perfect set of scales for weighing me and being able to do it without standing up. Weight Watchers Remote Display Precision Electric Scales. They were rather more money than I would have liked to have spent. But I tried them Monday night and they worked perfectly.
Monday night fully dressed in jeans, hoodie and trainers I was 18st 11.5lb (263.5lb).
I'm hoping to be 17st something by Christmas.
Yesterday was a lazy day but a good day for food. I've had a migraine type headache since last night though. So here's hoping...
4 comments:
So glad to hear you've found a solution so you can weigh yourself more easily and accurately Emma :)
Take care,
Moll x x
It's great you found a way to weigh yourself and good luck with your weight loss. I'm also trying to lose a few pounds by Christmas.
I love your blog so keep writing.
xoxo
Alyssa
LOL at people equating more cheer with complaining less
Well done - amazingly unhelpful of your GP surgery though, I've been going to a cardiac clinic for over 30 years (born with heart problems) and there's always been a seated scale there, where the chair is part of the scale so isn't included in the weight calculated. Anyway, you've sorted it now, so well done you!
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