Carole’s Story – Active Ability Exercise Physiology
My name is Carole, I am 64 years old.
I live with diagnoses of schizophrenia, intellectual disability, type2 diabetes (resulting in charcot foot), fibromyalgia, sleep apnoea, arthritis, anxiety and depression. As a result of my current health conditions, I am on medication and need support to complete daily activities. I experience a lot of pain and discomfort and tend to spend a lot of time at home, as I find it difficult to leave my house.
I have been seeing an exercise physiologist with Active Ability since July 2021.
It has been a great experience as it has been tailored to my needs, interests and goals. For example, I love playing games as it reminds me of when I was younger, so we do a lot of game-based activities such as throwing and catching a ball, kicking a ball, darts, and more. This helped me start to enjoy exercise again, and engage in exercise independently with my support workers at home because I find it fun and interesting. Over time I have included more activities like boxing.
As my confidence started to grow and I received more support to leave my home, I was able to have more goals around community access, and this included going back to swimming. I used to love swimming and being in the water.
My exercise physiologist found a nearby pool and got in touch with them to make sure there was appropriate safety equipment, such as a ramp and water wheelchair, and we booked an appointment.
I absolutely loved getting back into the water! The water was warm and I found it so relaxing for my joints.
You could not wipe the smile off my face.
I have been able to go back to the pool a few times and have been building my confidence with walking in the water, which I find really difficult and painful to do on land. I can even do squats and jump in the water!
Being able to access the pool and move in the water has really helped me to improve my confidence when walking around my home. I have even started planning trips out with my support workers to visit friends I haven’t seen in years, go to the zoo, and explore the city.
We’ve really loved supporting Carole here at Active Ability and her progress has been amazing – if, like Carole, you also think exercise physiology could help, please get in touch!
