Tonight is especially bad and I am just so tired of feeling this way!!
nancy

I can walk for short distances inside -- like my home and office. I can't even imagine now walking outside or for any distance without it.

Definitely helps in keeping the balance. I have had many, many falls.

I know it's hard to give in sometimes to what we need, but if it will help you, I would say go for it.

Is it possible that your hip and leg pain could be sciatica? I get that badly, due to a ruptured disk in my lower back. It seems that more than a handful of us lymies also have disk problems.

I had back surgery last year and used a cane for about 2 months thereafter. Not so much because it helped me walk, but because my gait was so weird I didn't want people in my office complex contacting Security about the drunk weaving around the courtyard.

The combination of lyme and back surgery did prompt me to get a 3-legged fold-down seat cane. I used it mainly in lines -- at the airport, at the driver's license place, etc. I noticed that I would get envious looks from senior citizens while sitting my way through lines!

Do what you need to do!

The trick about canes is to find a really sporty model. Forget those old clunky things you see in rest homes. The sporting goods stores, like REI, have nifty ones for hiking, and some that have shock absorbers and that fold down for travel. They are sturdy but much thinner than the other canes you see that are stainless steel.

Once you start using a cane when needed, you will notice how many others use them. To match your cane, you should get a handicapped parking tag, so that on bad days, you don't have to walk so far to get into the store. I had one when I broke my leg and realized it was a godsend for the neuropathy.

Sorry you are in such pain. If it is nerves, might you ask your doctor for medication that can ease that? Sounds like sciatica almost.

Please use a cane if you think you need it! Just because you might need one now, does not mean you will have to use it later! I wished that I used one way back then! I had many falls, and weird ways of walking...

I ended up in a wheelchair for 5 years-off and on. The crazy thing for me was-I could run, jump on a trampoline, etc. Then at times I had myoclonus so bad, that it would leave me with a type of paralysis. I would have to hurry up and get in the wheelchair and strap myself in! LD is so strange!

For years the wheelchair has been collecting dust in the attic....but I still have episodes of paralysis

Don't be afraid to use a nice cane! The post about a sporty model might even bring on some conversation, instead of people staring, trying to figure out why you have one! You might be able to tell them a bit about LD, and help others at the same time!

I think that you feel that you need validation from your doctor, to make you feel justified in using one. Go ahead and do so-then the doc can put it in your records, if you need the info at a later date.

PS-check into the sciatica thing-my chiropractor is great with this!

There still are times when it would be good to have around....but I usually use someones shoulder to lean on because I don't have my cane with me.

A power chair as been my best resource as my arms don't have the strength most of the time to use the cane for very long.

karen

So think positive and learn about the many aspects there are to this disease. It is not just one, but a multiple, all of which have to be dealt with.

Please read some of the info I have posted here over the last few years. Heavy metals play a major role as are viruses, parasites, and fungi. And check out what's left hanging out in your old wisdom teeth sites, even though the teeth are no longer there. Everyone I have met so far with a severe case of Lyme also had a "nest of infection" left hanging in the wisdom teeth areas that just never was cleaned out properly, or is still there with the teeth still present.

I know it is a handful to have to pay attention to. But that attention is your ticket back to health! My husband made it, I made it - plus a few others that I know.

Wishing you the best.