To ask you what you TRUTHFULLY think when you see a 'young' and 'healthy looking' person on a mobility scooter?

[fassbender]

I have multiple sclerosis and am 36 years old. Over the past year my walking has got worse (I use crutches) and I am now thinking that I need a mobility scooter. It sounds silly, but I am so nervous! I know that I should have a 'screw what everyone else thinks' attitude, but I think that I am going to feel self conscious. I live in a small town and have been well until recently so I know that I might get lots of questions/pitying looks. I also wonder what people will think if they see me at the park, for example, and then I get out of the scooter to play with the kids, then get back in to go home.

Ragged I probably wouldn't be leaning on crutches when I hopped off, hopefully using the scooter instead of walking would save my legs enough that I could hobble along without the crutch for a short time while I watch the kids - that's the idea anyway

I dont think I've never seen anyone young and healthy looking on a scooter. Actually maybe this proved that I wouldn't notice

Nothing. Unless you ran into me or something!

Anything that eliminates difficulty from one part of your life, to allow more energy in a better part (eg from walking to the park, to playing with your kids in the park) is a good thing and who cares what anyone (stupid) might think. N

I usually feel sorry that they have mobility issues.
My friend is like this, very young and pretty. I know she'd swop her youth and beauty to be able to run about with her dd.
maybe people don't think she has mobility problems, that must be a double blow to have people doubting you.
Fuck them OP, if they judge that's their problem.

Oh come on, they are quite fun: compared to having pain and fatigue they are anyway. They are rubbishly designed and engineered though. I always make this point on these threads in the vain hope that some entrepreneurial boffin is reading, and will design and manufacture much better ones for us all, (and in doing so make a mint). Are you reading, all you potential Sirallans?

My dad was going to get the RCA to get together a design competition to 'redesign the scooter' after hearing me complain about mine so often.

So many obvious design faults which show it has never been designed around an actual person. So frustrating as I conpletely depend on it but could be so much better.

But he died of EDS on jan 1st. That's the trouble with the industry, anyone who cares is either too ill themselves or too busy caring for someone else to affect change.

I wouldn't think anything of it, unless you're driving like an idiot, then I'll judge you for your driving, but that is true of anyone of any age using one.

I'd only assume you needed it and weren't using one for 'nothing'.

I'd assume you had something like MS or EDS.

Like so many on this thread, I wouldn't think too much beyond wondering if you had MS or ME or similar.

I might feel sorry for you that you had some condition like that and needed a mobility scooter; but it wouldn't be in a head-tilty "poor you" type of way.

I certainly would never imagine that you didn't need it!

I can't say I've ever noticed a young and healthy looking person on a mobility scooter!

They mostly seem to be old people or people who are just too fat to walk far.

misc that sounds like a great idea. Did your late father have contacts that you could keep in touch with to keep it going?

"people who are just too fat to walk far"

This is exactly what I worry about. When people get it arse about face. I am fat and ugly because I'm disabled. I didn't make myself ill by being too fat.

I'm fat because I can't sit to eat, prepare my own food, or cut/ bite a lot of foods. I'm fat because I can't move.

Please don't see me like that. It really hurts.

MS person here, Misc. Do you have a pal that can help with all the trivial appearance stuff that never gets prioritised? After years of searching, I've finally got a decent hair dresser ( who has a family member with a chronic condition ).
I have a relative who has struggling with being very heavy for most of thei life. It has a huge impact on them emotionally but I know they have always given hair and makeup a priority. It helps a little.

I know that is the case with many people Misc and i know a coupld of people who ballooned because of aggressive steroid treatment and were unable to excercise it off because of poor mobility - it's a vicious cycle, I am aware of that. But I also truly do believe that there are many people these days who have been incapacitated purely by their obesity rather than becoming obese due to being incapacitated through illness iysiwm.

I would assume they needed it for health reasons.

My first thought would be "OMG however do people manage to manoeuvre those things?!" - which is what I think whenever I see a scooter or wheelchair. The age of the driver just isn't an issue for me - and I say that very sympathetically, as someone with her own mobility problems.

I'd think they were disabled.

I'm disabled myself and have to use a wheelchair now and I'm 39.

Gotraight as you can't tell in which category of people that 'obese' person falls into, the kindest thing you can do is to assume it's a consequence of their illness and to stop judging them tbh.
A bit of compassion goes a long way!

I've been using a scooter since my late twenties, I use a stick when I am walking now. I'd like to think that people just see another disabled person who needs a bit of help with mobility.

I'm pretty overweight these days mind you, mostly due to the lack of mobility and some of the medications I need (steroids etc). I wasn't fat until I was disabled, rather than being disabled because I am fat. I would hope that this doesn't mean people think it's laziness, I'm in pain whether I carry weight or not.

Before I lost my mobility I would walk up to ten miles a day, even with arthritis, it was an injury to my ankle that has really knocked me off my fitness. I loved walking, these days I am too scared to go out without my stick for balance, I fell walking on flat pavement and ended up in hospital, and my ankle has never recovered.

I have put a on a couple of stone since I had the scooter. It is a source of concern to me. My muscles are wasting too. I go to the gym when I can, but frankly, it's not enough. But I can't do enough because I'm disabled.

What I mean, OP, is that while you're moving as much as you are keep it going. Use the scooter to get to gym, get in the habit of going there as soon as you get the scooter.

Yep, i got fat after becoming ill too.

Off topic, but i'm sick of groups relating to my health issues recommending weight loss to ease the condition. As if us stupid fat people hadnt thought of it

My uncle is in his 60s & has Parkinson's. He has a scooter and is happy now because he can go on his scooter while my aunt walks next to him.

So when I see people in scooters I think, well at least they have something to give them mobility & to help them travel independently.

But when I see certain people on scooters on the roads round here I think they have a death wish because the roads are so dangerous!