80 months

I'm still walking over 13 and a half years after I was first diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. That was when I had just turned 43. I set a goal of walking without the need of a scooter until I was 50. By the time I reached that goal, there were promising signs of treatments and cures, so I set a far-reaching goal of walking without need of a scooter until 100 months past 50 (58 and four months). Last Thursday I reached the 80-month mark.

Walking is getting pretty dicey at times, especially in crowds and uneven terrain. Last month I was unable to see a play I wanted to go to because the theatre was on the crest of a steep hill and the local bus would drop me off two blocks down the hill. I need sidewalk ramps at each corner but going uphill some of those ramps that I could do a year ago I cannot do now, even with a cane.

I will probably need a scooter within a year so, the way things are going, just for my own safety, but that might mean losing the ability to get rides in friends' cars or even visiting most of them. I feel like the "incredibly shrinking man" or at least in an incredibly shrinking world.

I have set a goal of walking at least a km at least 100 times this year, just to help push the envelope. Mostly, I have been walking to work, but there is one ramp in front of Harbour Centre where I work that is almost too difficult for me at the end of my walk. I bring my cane along each time now, just for that one ramp.

Sooner or later I'll either fall or I'll keep my ability to walk distances going for a year or so longer. I see no reason to get a scooter until it's absolutely necessary, in spite of the risk. Besides, they cost $6000 and aren't covered by my extended insurance. My condo has removed disability access and the City won't enforce an accessibility agreement the condo signed in 1994. Sometimes it's hard to 'trust the process'.

So far I have walked 1 km or more 11 times this year so I am still on target. One never knows. If I can keep up my ability a treatment or cure may come along in time. But for the moment it seems prospects are dimmer than they were six years ago because pharmaceuticals will not release cures. I try not to focus on that. Life for the moment is still good, and likely better than it will be in the future.