I admit it, I am a junkie. A total, dyed-in-wool junkie…

I want my walker fix, I need my assistive walker fix! If I don’t have my fix, I go crazy! I have a difficult time doing routine things like, well, walking! I need to lean! I want to lean! I want your support walker! UGH!

Seriously though, folks, being a gimp as my medical posts have so often referenced, I’ve been using a walker since last August and I’m starting to get peeved I am still dependent on it. Oh no, it’s not because I physically can’t walk without it any more… It’s that… Well, I can’t LET myself walk without it. It becomes so difficult!

I looked around the Internet and I couldn’t find anything on the psychological dependence patients build towards assistive devices in case they are using them for a long time. I’ve been confident that exists for a very long time after seeing plenty of elderly people, after surgery, insist on continuing to use assistive devices that they no longer need. It’s easier that way. I have to agree with them but at the same time — I’m a 24 year old and walking around as a gimp without something to lean on kills my social life.

Friend: “So, you wanna hang out?”

Me: “Sure, just make sure you drop me off curb side because the pavement is cracked in front of the building. Also help me get to my seat — screw chivalry! — I look like a fool pushing this aluminum walking thing around.”

Fun stuff :rolleyes

SO I gotta try to kick the habit. Be that by upgrading to a cane and making it Swing or by just getting rid of the walker and forcing myself to walk without it. Easier said than don, either way.

3:50 this afternoon — give or take a few minutes… I finally saw it in person… I finally got to marvel at the technological wonder known as the Segway Human Transporter.

I went to a guys house here in Palm Harbor and got to see and try the Segway. Not as long as I would have liked to have tried it, but I tried it ever still and I took to it pretty well for someone who has been reading about it for 2 years and hasn’t ever interacted with one.

I won’t call the Segway the vehicle of dreams, nor will I say that the Segway is as bad as certain governments have made it out to be for pedestrians on the sidewalk. The i167 version of the Segway – the one I tried – is a little bulky but at the same time, it isn’t a menace for pedestrians. It isn’t a toy either, though some may make it out to be. For JR – the one who gave me the demo – and myself, it’s an assistant device that’s a damn site better than a wheelchair or motorized-shopping cart that we would be otherwise forced to use.

To dream about something for years and finally have it happen, well it’s a good feeling deep down but it leaves you slightly disappointed for no apparent reason. At least that is the case with me. Maybe that would happen when I met people who I have talked to online for a while, or exactly how I felt after the Bucs won the Super Bowl.

Now I just need an extended glide on one of these things and I’ll make the call if I should get one or not.