Should I give up and go by taxi

Baloo

How often should I take a taxi. A sort of inflammatory Arthritis is in nearly every joint I have now except my spine. Toes, ankles, knees, hips. I shuffle to work and sometimes limp. If I shuffle its good exercise and I loosen up, but about once a month it might be the opposite, too painful in my ankles then I take a taxi. If I asked a physio wouldn't they say exercise one day and rest the next?

stickywicket

I honestly don't know. We do need exercise but careful exercise. To me, if you walk when you can and ride when you can't that seems about right.

frogmorton

I think @Baloo that you have got it about right. Walking as much as you can and taking a taxi when you can't manage to.

The physio once said to me if I was recovering (back to usual standard) overnight then I wasn't overdoing it.

Take care

Toni x

Baloo

Doctors opinion on this painful times yesterday is intermittent flares. "Probable Seronegative Inflammatory Arthritis. Intermittent flares." This seems to help deciding when the walking pain is too much and I should take a taxi, for example to protect the joints. I was also going to discuss with the doctor about fatigue. This did not happen, but so far it looks like, for myself, my fatigue is only worse when pain is worse. This fatigue because of pain is not something I was expecting to discover, but is suddenly a very obvious thing to avoid.

stickywicket

If you have an inflammatory arthritis, Baloo, then fatigue will definitely accompany flares. Remember inflammatory arthritis is systtemic ie it doesn't just affect joints but the whole system so, yes, definitely rest as appropriate.

Cath100

Hi @Baloo , thanks for your message

It may be that there is no right or wrong with this, it may be down to the individual and about knowing your own body and how you are feeling on the day. It is good to exercise if you have arthritis but equally, it is also important to pace yourself if you are struggling and ensure that you have enough energy to do the things that you need to do and that you find meaningful. If you need further support on this too perhaps you could speak to a physiotherapist

You might find our info here helpful about exercise

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/exercising-with-arthritis/

And also our information on managing fatigue

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/managing-symptoms/managing-fatigue/

If you need to talk it through further too, do call the helpline on 0800 5200 520.

Best wishes

Cath100

(Moderator)

Baloo

Still working like mad on should I go by taxi. I gained a lot from investigating how athletes track fatigue/freshness, after a couple of weeks tracking fatigue I can see how much the freshness crashes to nothing mid week, I wasn't quite expecting fatigue to do that. Mood varies so much. Such a huge range of mood from feeling productive to feeling nothing. Meanwhile I been getting blisters and leg ache, and a flare up on Monday and Friday like a cold ache, which all kind of tells me I better do something about the walking. Pretty much decided I must shorten the walk by catching a bus halfway, and get a taxi home at least once a week such as on a Friday to get a longer rest over the weekend. I can easily try that and see what happens.

Baloo

After various trial runs in taxis, I took my first taxi home in anger on Monday night from the tram stop, after resting up for the weekend too, and could cut the relief with a cake slice. 9k steps reduced to 6k day 1. Let's see how that goes. 9k was obviously too much.

Baloo

I took a taxi home from the tram stop all last week and can tell that I am less inflamed. I am fast coming to the conclusion that taking a taxi is a balancing act between obtaining enough exercise and preventing too much fatigue. I took a fatigue test 1st October (Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS)) and scored 44 out of 36.

Baloo

Determined I must go by taxi otherwise the flare up from walking will do me in. So where I am up to now is trying to obtain a taxi quotation if such a thing even exists. If deciding to go every day by taxi wasn't so simple, try obtaining a fixed taxi quotation for the same thing, to enable funding by access to work. Of the few taxi firms I have tried so far there seems to be a barrier. I can obtain a screen shot of a taxi fare when I book one, and then a kind of communications blackout. No response from taxi drivers, no response to emails, call line on answerphone. I have tried a web page and didn't like the astronomical prices I was seeing, at least four times what I pay for a hail and ride taxi. I obtained one "sorry we can't commit to this at the moment". Do taxi quotations even exist.

Baloo

A bit of research suggests there is a difference between taxis only licenced for hail and ride, and taxis only licensed for pre-booking but I can't say I ever noticed whats the difference, or how you find one to book it.

Sharon_K

Hi @Baloo

don't forget you may well be entitled to access to work support to pay for your taxis, just a thought

https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work

Best Wishes

Sharon

Baloo

Thank you @Sharon_K I emailed my prices tonight to Access to Work. Uber Taxis have explained why they cannot quote, they can only calculate the taxi fare based on traffic conditions at the time and charge it to an account. I sent a screen shot instead, and phoned up UBER to check what it means.

Baloo

Gosh. I do part of my journey by tram and now its dark nights they have become standing room only. I suddenly end up going to bed with an inflammation, and maybe thats why. Is insisting on having a seat going to be needed. I never even considered it. I guess I will soon know. It already looks that way, because taking a taxi to cut out the walking distance didn't entirely solve the inflammations, I still went to bed wrapped up in a dressing gown but recovered faster.

AnnR

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick question. I’m having my hip replacement on 12/12 ans we’ve booked to go out Christmas Day, will I be OK to go. I’ll be 12 days post op. For everyone who knows me, my shoulder replacement is doing great apart from a recent twinge which is being looked into. Thanks.

All the Best

Ann x

Baloo

@AnnR Maybe take it as it comes, and have a happy Christmas anyway. A bit of a philosophical answer, but who knows for certain how everything will turn out.

Baloo

Finally

I found out that standing on the tram when its busy was causing a killer flare up. I never knew it. I had to start living on another planet where I go hunting for a seat until I find one and then sit down in it. Problem solved. I also obtained a blue badge "please offer me a seat", but probably I will wear it inside my coat and flash it to cheer up anyone who looks a bit glum, like I was.

Baloo

I don't know how to put this. If I stand up on a tram for a week, nothing changes that I know of, but I get a flare up, and if I sit down for a week it goes away, and maybe my knees creak a bit more afterwards. I only know something went off because I feel a lot better again once its gone, and my gait changes back from a shuffle to a stride.

GalaxyA12

Taxi / Bus when Arthritis painfull comment.

I agree with other Posts let your body speak to you.

Usefull I have severe Nerve pain in 1 foot sporadically / often. Solution eg long cold bus stops I keep pacing up and down outside Bus stop and if no-one around do excercises No pain interspersed with Bus Stop purching customer seats works a Treat and a healthy nutritious IBS safe snack bar Works a Treat !

GalaxyA12

Baloo

@GalaxyA12 ones body is definitely speaking. It doesn't take long before my stride becomes a shuffle and I aught to think about what kind of nursing that requires. Then my right foot has something technically wrong with the foot that eases off once it moves around and becomes painful and causes a limp during a long walk, so at some point in the combined affect of shuffling and limping one has to stop and think about taking a taxi. I used to have a snack bar and a short walk for lunch so maybe I should give the snack bar idea another go.

Baloo

@GalaxyA12 on the other hand. After two weeks of making sure I find a seat on the tram, I came home on Friday and unexpected found I had my stride back. I sent a thank you to tfgm.com for their blue badge "please offer me a seat" and it remains to be seen if the improvement can be sustained with care. Probably not, but being as one is an optimist I am certainly going to try and make it happen.

Skinny Keef

i was in a similar situation with ‘should I use my chair or walk’?

the way I decided was if I’ve had enough of walking and I’m still 10 minutes away from home then I’m snookered, still gotta get home and when I say 10 minutes it was probably less than 1/3 mile but I am very slow now even with a stick.

so if I need to walk to the shops even though I live in the High Street I take my chair and then when I get back home I do a set of exercises to make up for the ‘not walk’ I’ve just had. Then if I get halfway through my exercises and my body has had enough i can stop and I’m not faced with still being 10 minutes from home.

I’ve only had my powerchair a couple of weeks but I’m already wondering how I managed without it and wish I’d ‘given in’ and bought it sooner.

Get the Taxi and make up for not walking in a safe environment where you can stop of you need to.

Mrsdunit

Hi, there are "no booking no ride" cars locally, usualy known as "Private hire"

They are cheaper, and will usually quote per trip. They still use a meter.

Suggest taking a fold up walking stick on the tram, unfold at the stop before getting on.

Good luck

Baloo

@Keef @Mrsdunit thank you I seem to be getting there with taxis, and some tram seats are still free, so I am feeling better. I don't have a folding stick yet but I have a medical stick I can suddenly take once its needed. I am now looking at how to book enough taxis to avoid my stride becoming too rough. I am finding that booking a taxi in advance to meet me off the tram is a better idea than booking when I arrived. Except one time my journey planner broke down so I wasn't sure exactly when I would turn up at the taxi pick up point (so I ended up with a 20mins wait on sore feet and my Mrs. told me to hobble round the supermarket for a bit)

Baloo

Phew. Finally three quotations for taxis apart from which one to choose and any hidden costs or snags.