Crippie Fights Old Man Winter

Nihao!

Happy Chinese New Year everybody! 

I dunno about you guys, but whenever winter rolls around it seems to make my crippledness worse. Whether it's walking insanely slow with my crutch while holding on to one of my parent's arms just to walk outside or barely being able to move my fingers because they are so stiff... winter sucks.

That being said, Crippie has gotten pretty good at fighting old man winter. My first problem is walking outside when it is snowy/icy. I have said problems because my right leg drags when I walk and because I cannot always see the irregularities on the ground, thus I am more prone to slipping or tripping. The solution to this (for my situation anyway) is...

1- Walk reallllllyyyyyyyy slowly and make sure that your feet are firmly planted on the ground before taking a step. When I was in college and walking to classes it would take me twice as long to walk there when the weather was bad.

2- SPIKES! When it gets icy I wear extra grips on my shoes and I use a cane with an ice pick on it. I obtained my ice pick by ordering it from my local drug store, but they can be found on the internet as well.

My second issue is that the cold weather hurts my joints, the main areas where this effects me are my knees and my hands.

1- HEAT! I have a giant basket of single use hand warmers. When it gets really cold I keep one in my pocket so I can warm my hands when they get stiff. When my legs get stiff and sore I use thermacare knee wraps. Heated blankets and throws are also great for when I'm home. 

2- I try to keep a pretty strict pain medication?NSAID regime. 

There ya have it folks, these little tips and tricks don't make the problems go away, but they definitely help minimize them and make them bearable. 

Now, I have a question for my readers. Do any of you have any internal metal hardware and do you think it reacts to cold weather? The reason I'm asking this is because I have several staples in my right knee. Whenever it gets realllllyyyy cold (think single digits and under) it hurts my leg to bend. I wonder if it is the staples in my leg contracting. Is this possible? 

Crippie's Tippie- Be super careful when winter weather strikes, Crippie doesn't want any of her awesome readers to get hurt.