There’s no doubt that I walk with a limp – that’s pretty obvious after several leg operations – and no matter where I am, sooner or later someone always asks me; “Why are you limping?”

It’s the dreaded question. It seems that I’ll just be feeling confident about my walking skills and then someone will ask that question. My mind will complain and whine about it, saying; “But I thought I was doing better!” while my mouth answers the question tonelessly. Usually, I don’t answer truthfully. To answer truthfully, I would have to take up a lot of that person’s time, and how can I be sure if they’re actually interested in hearing the full story?

It’s happened in the most unusual of places. For instance, I’ve previously mentioned I volunteer for a place called Sunrise Youth Group, and all of the members have some kind of developmental problem. At one of the week long camps this year, one of my fellow volunteers made fun of the way I walked. I was a little thrown off at the “You walk like an old lady!” comments, seeing as we were at that camp to begin with. The guy saying them didn’t mean any harm, but like I said, ignorance is a barrier. Those comments hurt me, because I had thought I was doing so well. I had just had my leg surgery that May [I think...the details are a little fuzzy, they're always fuzzy!] and I thought I was doing pretty good, since it was August and all. So basically I had two and a bit of months to heal before ditching my crutches and going to the camp.

I’ve noticed that in the hallways at school, if someone is staring at me (which they do a lot, and I hate staring people, can’t they find anything more interesting to look at?) I notice I limp more because I’m trying so hard not to that I end up limping more. How does that make sense? I don’t know. Heck, for all I know, those people who stare at me could be playing there own private game of “Let’s see who can make Jessica limp more!”

I also limp more if I’m tired or in a hurry. Tired is obvious, everyone walks weird when their tired, but limping more because you’re in a hurry? I guess it’s because I haven’t really regained full use of all of my leg muscles yet. I would by now, had I gone to all my Physio Therapy appointments and done all the exercises.

A note to all you little MHE’ers out there: Physio Therapy is very important. Even if you really don’t want to, go to every appointment and do every exercise. That way you’ll get better faster. It’s been around six months since my last leg surgery, and I’m still having difficulties – all because I didn’t really do the exercises my Physio Therapist wanted me to do. So do those exercises and more, that way you get better quicker and you might just be able to do something about that limp. Mine is with me until I do those exercises and strenghten my leg though.