A sophisticated but dangerous “walker”

Evolution is everywhere around us and has existed since the beginning of time. 

Let’s take walkers as an example (I’m talking about the mobility aid that helps people maintain balance and stability while walking). This device began very humbly as a basic support for folks that had difficulty walking due to age-related mobility issues, such as arthritis, leg weakness, or balance problems, or even for convalescents after surgery of a broken bone in the foot or leg.

Just in case you were wondering, I don’t use the basic style of “walker”, but use the two pictured on the right of the illustration, namely a lawn mower and a snow blower, that could be interpreted as some modern, motorized walker versions. 

I still am pretty good with them and on my 77th birthday, just a few days ago, as I was removing snow from my driveway, I turned around my “motorized walker” on the main road, my foot slipped on the very sleek roadway and I fell on my right buttock. 

There was some initial pain that rapidly disappeared and after I was finished with my snow-clearing job, I joined my wife and daughter for our morning walk. Some 15 minutes later I felt an excruciating pain developing around the spot where I landed, to the point that I had to cut my outing short and go home to swallow some pain-killer. 

Later that afternoon, as I was still pondering what I had, I called the family clinic that was full with ski injured patients and asked me to call them again the next day. Tomorrow, you’ll learn the rest of this story...

(To be continued...)