Lessons from a one-legged traveller

By Yeoh Siew hoon

Learning to walk again has been a humbling but strengthening experience. Here are the lessons I took away from my spell as a one-legged transiter:

1. People are extraordinarily kind at heart.

I am amazed by how kind people basically are. My friends have been extraordinary beyond words. Strangers as well – from taxi drivers to doormen to waiters, all showed patience and consideration.

At the CAPA Aviation Awards at the Raffles City Convention Centre, at which I was the “limping MC”, one banqueting staff placed a side table next to where I was sitting and brought me water, coffee and dessert. Another patted me on the back at the end of the night and said, “Good job. You should go home and rest now.”

I think people don’t set out to be rude or unkind; life just makes them so.

2. Give a woman a crutch and she will use it.

It is amazing at how easy it is to get used to crutches (or anything else in life really) – and to grow over-dependent on them. I found myself reaching out for them, even when I really didn’t need them. It just gave me more confidence at the time. The trick is to know when to use crutches and when to throw them away. I am still struggling with crutch-dependence as I write this.

3. Physical handicaps are easier to heal than mental ones.

Everytime I struggled to walk, my friends would either urge me on, saying, “It’s all in the mind” or hold me back, saying, “Don’t push yourself.” All of us suffer from some form of mental handicap or the other – from little things like “I can’t drink because it gives me headaches” or “I don’t take milk, cream or cheese” to “I can’t take garlic” or “I am afraid of water“, we are all hampered in life by things that are “all in the mind”. With a physical wound, you can see it heal before your very eyes. With a mental one, well, it’s all in the mind. Harder to see, harder to heal.

4. Set little milestones each day.

The first 48 hours after the cast came off were the most difficult. My right leg did not look like it belonged to me. Worse, it did not feel like it belonged to me. I had no control over it at all. For a control freak like me, this is extremely scary. So each day, I would set little goals, things to look forward to. On the third day, I said, I will walk to the bathroom unaided. On the fourth day, to the living room. On the fifth day, to the pool. By the sixth day, I was taking my first walk with my dog. Rather, he was walking me.

5. No one can heal you but yourself.

On the sixth day, I had a sports medical massage. He told me I was doing well without a physiotherapist and that I should continue with whatever I was doing. “Sometimes we have injured athletes who come in and they just lie down and expect the physio to perform miracles,” he said. “They can guide you but they can’t do it for you.” What was I saying about crutches?

6. Time heals all wounds.

The biggest cliché of all time but how true. I have found that as impatient as I am, there is no rushing healing. So the best thing to do is just to let time work its magic. With a little effort on your part, of course.

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