do any of you need to use a scooter?

hi everyone. i am still waiting on the papers i am supposed to be served (if anyof you remember that)so I can't update on that. i left a message on the guys answering machine, but still not service of papers.

anyway, my pain has gotten progressively worse as i walk. initially my pain hurt the worst when sitting, although it still hurt in all positions. but recently, i am in tears just walking down the hallway, or having to walk through the grocery store. i mean, it brings me to tears to have to walk more than a few feet. my mom wants me to use a scooter, but i am reluctant. i know they help, cause i did use one at cedar point this year, cause there was NO WAY i could walk around that whole park.

i am reluctant because i have already gotten enough comments from people saying i should be ashamed of myself for "abusing" equipment meant for handicapped people. also, when i use my handicap sticker in my mom's car, i have had elderly people stop behind me and yell at me for taking the spot (even if there's a dozen other handicap spots). it's so frustrating that i don't LOOK disabled. no one seems to understand that one can have a disability and NOT be missing a limb, be 100 years old, etc.

i have considered going back to the surgeon to see if i could get a MRI done and see if anything has changed. I don't know what good it would do, but i have really been wondering if something else is wrong. the pain is the same, but it is just getter worse. it hurts all the time, but now walking is the worst position in relation to sitting. i don't know. all i know is i am only 30, and here i am not able to work, or walk, or sit, or anything, and having two young kids not understand how sick i am with the cancer and stuff. i am so TIRED.

anyway, i just wondered if any of you have had to use the scooters in the stores, and if you've been given attitude by someone because you're using it and you don't "look like you need it". wouldn't it be nice if we could just touch someone and they could feel our pain??? would make people a lot more sympathetic i would imagine.

I'm sorry I was not clear. The sticker is MINE, not my mother's. However, I am driven usually by her, so it stays in her car. I hope that makes sense. Of course I would not use a handicap sticker that wasn't mine.

I don't know why my pain has gotten worse when I walk,, but I intend to see if I can get a referral back to see my original surgeon and see what he says. Or perhaps asking my pain doctor. I can't stand the pain, it is just horrible. Even if I only have to walk down my hallway, by the end, I am in tears.

I only used the scooter once, and it was like a miracle how I didn't have to deal with the pain. However, I had to deal with nasty looks, nasty comments, rude people of all ages...the young to the old. I guess no gains have been made in how the disabled are viewed, which is a shame. I know about the Hoveround...I am a RN and many of my patients, especially the ones confined to a facility, used them with great success.

It's just hard for me to get over the fact mentally that I am not a young, fit 30 year old. I am an 80 year old disabled person, in chronic pain, cancer-ridden lady in a 30 year old body. That is hard to swallow. It has been very very difficult for me to "get over".

I have never used a scooter but I did have to have a wheelchair for a year.I so relate to the disability sticker.I can't tell you the time's that elderly people have came up to me and told me that I should be asamed of my self.There was one time I was going in to wal-mart and this elderly women that aproched me and hit me with her purse and demanded that I move to another parking spot.I was at the time so swollen up that you could'nt tell what was my feet,ankles it was really bad but any when I started to get out of my car she looked down and seen my leg's and she looked at me and said I'm so sorry please forgive me.I told I would let it pass but next time she needed to stop and think about what she was doing.So you are not alone and I and a whole lot of other people understand as well.But just don't let it get to you.